By Maureen Wright

At my commissioning as your Transitional General Presbyter during the August 17 Presbytery meeting, Moderator of Presbytery David Lee chose the scripture Joshua 1: 6-9. This passage offers a charge to both me and the Presbytery for our time together.

The NRSV Student Bible (Zondervan, 1994) describes the book of Joshua as a “good news book.” It focuses on Joshua’s leadership and God’s involvement with God’s people. The context of Chapter 1 is Joshua taking over for Moses. Verse 6 begins with the Lord’s words to Joshua, “Be strong and courageous.” Joshua will be the one to lead the Israelites into the land God promised to their ancestors. Verse 7 repeats God’s command to be strong and courageous; Joshua is to focus on the law given by God to Moses to be successful. In verse 8, Joshua is told to meditate on the book of the law so that he may act in accordance with it. Verse 9 emphasizes God’s charge to be strong and courageous, “for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” This is a powerful passage.

If you have been reading my newsletter articles since I began as the Transitional General Presbyter, you know that I have focused on God’s call to Abram in Genesis. The sermon that I am using when I preach this fall is based on the narrative of the Israelites in the wilderness from Exodus. I have chosen these narratives because I believe that these passages speak to the Presbytery – to the work which is ours to do together in order to live out what God is calling us to be and do. For the next 13 to 21 months, the Presbytery will move from where it has been and what we know to the unknown. Our work is to leave behind our old ways of doing and being the church, to reflect on the deeper questions of our identity, purpose, and future – in other words, we are to discern who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do now.

In 2020, my continuing education plan for the year was to travel to the West Coast to participate in a transitional ministry training. The pandemic interrupted this plan. In January through June of this year, I was able to engage in this training online. It is offered by Transitional Ministry Workshops. Here is the definition of transitional ministry that undergirded our studies throughout the training.

Transitional Ministry is the recognition that ministry has changed. Not changing but has changed. The old ways of doing and leading church are ineffective, stale, and though they often lead to conversations about change; they too often result in pastors trying to tweak and tinker around the edges, rather than to be curious and ask the deeper questions about the Presbytery’s identity and its community.

Transitional Ministry is a process for reframing ministry and pastoral leadership (regardless of role or title) to get at the deeper questions about a Presbytery’s identity, purpose, and future.

I am committed to the transition work that the Presbytery needs to do in order to be a strong, resilient community of God’s people supporting the churches of the Presbytery for the next three to five years. One way to join in the transition work is to follow A Season of Discernment called for by the Leadership Team. It is led by Emily Swanson of Holy Cow! Consulting to discern and develop a plan for the Presbytery. I encourage everyone to take time to complete the Landscape Survey by October 2 and to make attending a tabletop discussion a priority.

Joshua 1: 6-9 speaks to this transition work. God’s repetition of the words be strong and courageous challenges us in this work together. Transition work is difficult. To move beyond tweaking around the edges to curiosity and deep questions about our identity and community is a bold and just a bit (or maybe more) scary. During some of the early work done by the Leadership Team as they moved toward A Season of Discernment, I was asked what concerned me. My answer was that the Presbytery would not be bold enough. Discerning and following the will of God calls for us to meditate on God’s word, to be focused on God – never straying left or right, so that our kingdom/kindom work is successful – all to God’s glory. Joshua 1:9 declares that God is with us on this journey. Claim the powerful message of Joshua 1: 6-9 and join in this bold work that we may move to accepting and living out what God is calling us to be and do.