Transparent faith

We want the work of the Session to be transparent.

Really?

To be any more transparent we would have to publish word for word transcripts of each meeting.

I have been a member of the Presbyterian Church my whole life. For the past 25 years I have worked on staff in seven churches. Each and every one of these churches have voiced a desire for more information from the session. And yet, I have never served with a session that has desired their decisions to remain a secret.

The reality is that there are times when the workload for Sessions is overwhelming and all there is time to do is the work. Yet even in these instances every Session I have worked with has provided the basics of information. All decisions are made public.

This is what has happened lately in the church I serve. The session has been responsible for completing plans for a new building, finalizing the details of a loan, build the 2009 budget, determine how best to staff the church and create a new position, and deal with a butt load of complaints, some of which were reported to the Presbytery. All this has been done during Advent, and Christmas!

The first opportunity they had, the session told their story.....and that was last week at the congregational meeting.

We want information!!!! I guess this is why the meeting lasted 3 hours.

I am proud that the session I work with has been transparent. I wonder if members of the congregation have the courage to be as transparent as their elected leaders. We will see.