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July 18, 2019
The Discernment
Team is continuing to work diligently through-out the
summer, as we
strive to complete our report by the end of September.
Our report will
summarize the current state of Hilltop Church as well as
our aspirations
for the future. This report will then be used by the
Pastoral
Nominating Committee as it undertakes its own process to
find a new
pastor for our church.
We thought that
it would be helpful if we provided a status report on
the Discernment
Team's progress and if we shared some background
on Presbyterian
governance and processes.
Presbyterian
church government emphasizes that the leadership of the
church is
shared between those called to be ministers and church
members called
to be elders within the congregation. The Presbyterian
Church
(U.S.A.) is governed by its Constitution, the Book
of Order
and The
Book of Confessions.
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Session:
Governing body in each church made up of the minister (as
moderator) and 18 Elders (church members) elected by the congregation
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Presbytery:
governing board composed of several churches (we are part
of Newton Presbytery)
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Synods:
“mid-counsel” body made up of several Presbyteries (we are in Synod of the Northeast)
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General
Assembly: overall governing body
made up of all Synods, representing
the entire denomination
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The
Book of Order: a book that
contains church government policies to guide every aspect of Presbyterian church life
Every ten
years, Presbytery requires a congregation to re-evaluate
itself to
assess/identify its future direction. Presbytery has defined a
very specific
and deliberate process that a church uses to understand
its past, and,
most importantly, its vision for the future. The congregation
essentially characterizes itself to identify its attributes, beliefs
and personality.
There are four
steps in this process which are to be followed sequentially. Here is the summary
of those steps:
1. Create
an event timeline of the church for the congregation to populate
– Completed
2.
Demographic study - Completed
3. Hold
“focus groups” with members to gain insight on where we would like our
church to be – Late July and
August
4. A
final report summarizing all information to the Session and to you –
Late September
Here is a
summary of the next steps that we will be following to meet our September
deadline:
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Focus
group meetings with church members through late July and August
(membership will be flexible as will dates/times
o Member
participation is critical
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The
Discernment Committee will analyze and summarize our needs and
vision in a final report (September)
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This
final report will be presented to Session and the congregation
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Pastoral Nominating Committee
(PNC) will be appointed
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PNC
will use the report to write a job description and identify a panel of
candidates
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PNC
will determine the best suited candidate for our church
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Entire
Pastoral process estimated to take 12 - 18 months from its initiation
If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact any of us on the Discernment Committee.
We all look
forward to seeing you at one of our focus group meetings.
In Christ –
Your Discernment
Committee
Jeffrey Betz,
Per Ralamb, Elisabeth MacDonald, Fiona Stewart, Ashley Antonello
and Loren Darzano
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