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Essay / Thoughts on Connectional Church Leaders
In January 2010, I had the privilege of taking a course at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, KY, titled “Leaders in a Connectional Church.” The course aimed to show how the leaders of the Presbyterian Church connected with the presbyteries and congregations that make up its body by working intensively with the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) and researching how the current structure is nee. My assignment was within the Offices of the Director General and Communications, which I was excited to be a part of, given my background in radio and broadcasting. However, to my surprise, GAMC had only begun to expand into multimedia in the past five years, and most of the groundwork was still under heavy construction. But, despite this surprise, I was happy to find that the general atmosphere (in fact, everyone I spoke with) was in favor of change for the positive sake, and not just change. There has been a real recognition and understanding that what the Church has been doing will not work in the future, which fits very well with times of change in the past. This article will examine some of these periods of change in relation to the current atmosphere and present a case for increased broadcast presence at the GAMC level, clearly defined job titles and descriptions, and restructuring and reorganization as part of the reform changes in the next cycle of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (PC(USA)). The process of the last major reformation of the Presbyterian Church was the period in which the Church underwent "incorporation", borrowing structure, language and objectives from the rapidly growing corporate culture from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. ...... middle of article ...... Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993). Jerry Van Marter, “GAC communications and fund development staff reorganized,” in Presbyterian News Service [accessed January 31, 2010] Presbyterian Church (USA), “PC(USA) Structure Chart,” on Pcusa.org [accessed January 31, 2010]Jack Haberer, “Rediscovering the Reformed, Being Reformed Church,” in Presbyterians Being Reformed, ed. Robert H Bullock Jr. (Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2006), 41. Richard Jackson Harris, A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication, 4th ed. (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2004), 9-11.Ad Council, “About the Ad Council,” on adcouncil.org [accessed January 31, 2010]Ed Shane, Selling Electronic Media (Boston, MA: Focal Press, 1999), 348.