A Mobile Presbytery?

At the Presbytery's January General Council retreat, the Council took very seriously the responsibility of looking at the whole operation of the Presbytery and how Transylvania needs to be more responsive to the needs of every congregation. What can each committee and each staff person do to provide direct service to the sessions of our churches? Especially in these difficult economic times how can the Presbytery be an active partner in ministry supporting the work of our 91 churches? The Council appointed a Task Group to investigate this possibility.

We have had several people ask about other presbyteries - are there others who have moved to mobile or virtual office? We sent out an email across the denomination asking that question and have had several insightful responses. There are at least three other presbyteries that are currently operating without a single physical office. Homestead Presbytery in Eastern Nebraska has moved to what they call a "Decentralized" model. The following excerpt was sent to us by Lowell Knauss, their former Interim Presbyter:

Q. What is  meant by Decentralization?

A. Decentralization means there will be no one "Office" where staff must be considered "at work." In reality there will be many offices; one to act as central receiving, home offices, and church work points around the Presbytery. In a real sense every church in the Presbytery is an office. Staff members will spend a large portion of their time in the field working in the churches of Presbytery. When not in the field, the staff member will maintain a home office. A central receiving office will be established for the receipt of mail etc.


We heard from Gayle Collins, the Stated Clerk of Glacier Presbytery about their experience with a "virtual" presbytery. She gave some details about working with the geographical challenges of their region and the benefits of their new model, and then concluded by saying:


"I'm sure there is more I could tell you, but Glacier has been functioning on a "logical" basis rather than a printed "model". Much of what Glacier is doing is using common sense based on the geographical layout and positioning of the churches. Our communication team will be looking into web-based meetings and using a church from each cluster as a focal point (espcially for presbytery meetings held in the winter months)."


We have also heard from several presbyteries that are considering the same kind of move and are most interested in following our exploration into the question of how to be a Presbytery in this changing world.


Listening to feedback from Presbytery members and committees it seems advisable to maintain what Homestead calls "a central recieving office" likely in one of our churches, where a workstation, copier and a limited amount of file storage and supplies can be kept. That "office" would not have regular office hours, but might be available for one-on-one consultations or very small meetings.


As with the other of these weekly Think Pieces, we invite your comments in our on-going conversation about the office.