The Meeting Closed With Prayer At 11:00 pm

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
November 4, 2007

The Meeting Closed With Prayer At 11:00 pm
Haggai 1:1-15
Luke 6:37-38

We all know what the Property Ministry Team does, don’t we?
And if we don’t know for sure, we can probably figure it out.
Same thing for our other Ministry Teams:
Christian Education, Finance,
Personnel, Mission,
Communications, Fellowship,
Worship & Music, Stewardship,
and the Early Learning Center –
their names tell us what the focus of each Team is,
so even if we don’t know exactly what they do,
an educated guess would probably be right.
The one Ministry Team that might give us pause
is the one charged with reaching out to visitors and new members,
our Evangelism and Assimilation Team;
We Presbyterians are never quite sure what to do
with the “e” word.

Our Ministry Teams oversee dozens and dozens of tasks.
They make sure we’ve got curriculum for Sunday School,
salt for icy sidewalks in January,
candles for Christmas Eve services,
a budget that’s balanced and bills that are paid,
a website and a newsletter,
Coffee Hour on Sunday.

But standing behind those teams
is another organization, another group,
one that has that odd name,
the group whose very name seems to encourage
eyes to glaze over:
The Session.

The Session, the governing body of our church,
the group of men and women elected from our congregation
to work with me to lead our church.

The Session:
the very name is confusing.
Why don’t we call it “the governing council”
or something that helps us understand what this group does?
Is the word “Session” a biblical term,
from some Hebrew or Greek word?
No, the answer is more prosaic:
the word “session” simply refers to a legislative group -
a group that comes together to discuss,
deliberate, debate and decide.
The word itself comes from a Latin root that means, “to sit”.

We confuse matters further with the term we use
for those women and men we elect each year
to serve a term on the Session.
We call them, “elders”.
Now, in this era of nip/tuck plastic surgery,
anything to look a few years younger,
who really wants to be referred to as an “elder”?
Why would we use such a term?

Here the answer is biblical.
The term is one that goes back more than 3,000 years,
to the days when Moses
led the children of Israel through the wilderness,
and God called 70 men to help him govern
the often- unhappy group.
(Numbers 11:16ff)
The Hebrew word did refer to age:
one who was older in years
was assumed to have something more than just
knowledge and intelligence,
the person was also assumed to have wisdom.

The term “elder” was used in the early years of the church
to refer to those called to positions of leadership.
Peter referred to himself as “elder” (1 Peter 5:1)
It was a position not of prominence,
but of responsibility,
of service in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Greek term for “Elder” is “presbuteros”;
The word “Presbyterian” is Greek for “council of elders”.
The word for our denomination does not speak to our theology,
but simply how we govern ourselves.

Our Book of Order tells us,
“As there were in Old Testament times
elders for the government of the people,
so the New Testament Church provided persons
with particular gifts to share in governing and ministry.
Elders are chosen by the people.
Together with ministers of Word and Sacrament,
they exercise leadership, government, and discipline
and have responsibilities for the life of a particular church,
as well as the church at large….” (G-6.0300ff)

So we elect Elders to sit on the session and govern.
It is all very democratic,
as you will see shortly when we elect new Deacons and Elders,
but it is more than that.
It is all very faithful, very biblical,
and very spiritual as we elect women and men
whom God has called to serve.

The candidates whose names will be offered
by the nominating committee don’t run for office
the way politicians do in each election cycle.
No: we charge our Nominating Committee
with the very serious task of discernment,
discernment through prayer,
and the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
to help us reach out to those whom God has called.

Our Nominating Committee has worked hard these past few months,
praying, talking,and listening to one another,
and in the process listening to God.
They have reached out to quite a few folks within our congregation.
and they will present a full slate for election to Deacons,
but they will not present a full slate for Session.
We had a surprising number of folks say no
to God’s call to serve.

We talked a little about this at our last Session meeting.
This isn’t the first time we’ve struggled to find Elders,
and in talking with my colleagues,
we are not at all alone
in our struggle to find Elders to serve.

Part of the problem may simply be numerical.
Our Session has 21 members, each serving a 3-year term,
which means we need at least 7 candidates each year.
More and more churches have found that they can govern
just as effectively with Sessions of 18, 15,
or even the very appropriate 12.

Our Session voted last week to reduce the size of our Session
to 15 over the next 3 years by changing the class size from 7 to 5
beginning with the current class.
That will make the Session and the Board of Deacons
15 members each,
giving us 30 ordained officers to lead us.

I think another part of the reason we struggle
is that there is a misunderstanding
of what the Session does, what Elders do.
Session meetings are often thought of
as interminable, contentious,
argumentative, even combative.
That’s true at some churches;
Read through the minutes of some Session meetings,
and the first line says
“the meeting opened with prayer at 7:00 pm”,
and the last line reads,
“the meeting closed with prayer at 11:00 pm”.
Who would want to be part of a monthly meeting
that goes on for four hours?

Our session has just 8 regularly schedule meetings a year.
Our meetings begin with a delicious dinner
prepared by Audrey Little,
and then we try to get to work at 7:00 or so.
We usually take a break for dessert
about mid-way through our work
so we typically don’t finish up till 9:30,
which seems like a long time,
but our usual meeting time is around two hours,
about the same as our Board of Deacons.
We are an active church, with a lot going on.
Spending 16 to 20 hours a year, even 24,
on governance doesn’t seem excessive.
Yes, we have other meetings and gatherings:
a few short meetings to receive new members and Confirmands,
a joint dinner and meeting with our Deacons,
and the weekend Retreat in January.
Next weekend we’ll have lunch following worship
with our guest preacher, Ed White.

This is all time well spent,
time for us to grow individually and collectively
as we lead the church.
No, the job isn’t easy.
We have to make difficult decisions.
Our first lesson reminds us how even something
as seemingly simple as building upkeep and care
requires us to be attentive to God’s word and will.

The Book of Order teaches us that
Elders are not simply “to reflect the will of the people,
but rather to seek together to find and represent
the will of Christ.” (4.0301d)
The will of Christ because Jesus is the Head of the Church
and we are the body.

Our Session is charged,
“to lead the congregation
continually to discover
what God is doing in the world
and to plan for change , renewal and reformation
under the word of God.” (10.0102j)

This is exciting work,
demanding work,
inspiring work,
spiritual work.
It takes time, commitment, and faithfulness.

As you come to the Lord’s Table in a few minutes,
I encourage you to lift up a prayer for our Elders:
their names are in your bulletin.
Lift up a prayer for all those about to be called to serve.
Pray for our Elders and our Deacons,
for that it what they are doing for all us
in everything they do:
their service is prayer,
lifted up to the glory of God,
as they lead us,
all of us together following
the head of our church,
our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN