What have they done for us?...

No one has been brave enough to say this to me (the politeness-to-strangers rule), but to their pastors, the moderators of their session meetings, the challenge is posed... "Give to presbytery?  What have they done for us?!!"

So, since no one has asked me that officially, I will give an unsolicited answer.

You are asking the wrong question.

Presbytery is not "they."  Presbytery is our group of churches, connected in covenant community through our polity(government).  The way we structure our lives together is not an accident.  It reflects who God is and who we are in relationship with God and with each other.  Our structure reflects several important things:

• First, we live in covenant community.
• God established God's covenant with Israel "to be their God and they be God's people" so that together they might "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord."  We are limited in resources and vision when we go it alone.  Together we are stronger, more creative and able to answer God's call in larger, more effective ways. (Think about the work of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance teams for an example.) (G.3.0101b)
• Second, we are called to God's church--specifically, for us, the PC(USA)
• Presbyterians believe that God calls each of us to a church, we don't just join.  We believe God calls people into membership who bring gifts that the church needs.  The Church, then, "is the body of Christ, both in its corporate life and in the lives of its individual members, and is called to give shape and substance to the truth that sin is forgiven, reconciliation is accomplished, and the dividing walls of hostility are torn down." Our call and our salvation is not just an individual call, it is a corporate call. (G-3.0200)
• Third, "those people" are us.
• The radical [fundamental] principles of Presbyterian church government and discipline are that we are one Church of Jesus Christ.  In our tradition larger parts (or their representations) govern smaller parts and a representation of the whole governs and determines in regard to every part...and an appeal may be carried from the lower to the higher bodies until "they be finally decided by the collected wisdom and united voice of the whole Church."  At a practical level, churches bring suggested rules, representatives from churches serve as the Presbytery, representative elders from churches serve at Synod and General Assembly.  "Those people" are us--regular people seeking to discern God's will and act accordingly.  "We" make the decisions, and when "we" decide poorly and God shows us a better way, "we" correct ourselves. (G-1.0400)

So the question should be "What have we done for Presbytery?"  Because--we. are. presbytery.

But the even better question is "What are we doing for God?"

That, ultimately, is the foundation of our call and our gifting...to share the new reality revealed in Jesus Christ that we have seen and heard...and to live this new life, even at the risk of losing our own lives.

So in our most recent corporate understanding, we hear our call from God as a call to reach out to others in this part of North Carolina with God's new reality, to equip each other as disciples, and to be sent by God to serve others.  In our most recent corporate understanding, we have staff and organization to try and accomplish our vision.  In our most recent corporate understanding, we are listening for what God has to say about all this.

We may be hearing God move us to a different staff configuration, a different vision, a different call.  But we are not doing any of this for ourselves.  The churches of Salem Presbytery are called to serve God individually and together.  So, we need to ask the better question:

What are we doing for God?