A couple of quick comments on the Presbyterian Coalition Gathering X in Houston this last week.  I am mostly dependent on the coverage from the LaymanOnline and some info from the Outlook.  I have not seen any coverage in other blogs or the Presbyterian News Service.  Since you can get the news from them if you are interested in more details, I want to add a couple pieces of analysis and commentary.

The Outlook placed the attendance at 125 and in one article on the Layman a speaker lamented the small attendance.  This leads me to wonder about the state of the “conservative” organizations in the PC(USA).  Is this decline at the Coalition Gathering just part of the life-cycle of the organization, due to interested individuals and churches getting spread out over more organizations, and/or a shift in momentum (and strategy?) to something like the New Wineskins group.  This may be echoed in the comments of the co-moderator of the Coalition, Jerry Andrews, as quoted by the Layman: “American
evangelicals are the most contentious group on the face of the Earth. If we didn’t argue
all the time, we probably wouldn’t be evangelical.” Yes, I took that out of context, but I do think there is something to this characterization and this argumentative nature makes evangelicals a bit restless and prone to “move onto the next thing.”

I enjoyed the Layman’s article about the presentation by the Rev. Tom Taylor, deputy executive director
for mission in the General Assembly Council.  I have been keeping track of Tom and his time in Louisville because I consider his tenure there a bellweather for the possibility of change within the institutional leadership.  His appearance at the Gathering I consider a positive step in and of itself.  But the Layman got it right when they observe that Rev. Taylor has not been on the job for a full year yet and has not had an opportunity to be part of the budgeting process.  That is where the rubber will meet the road and we will see if he and other fresh evangelicals can have an influence or if they will be tilting at windmills.  (Where the heck am I getting all these clichés this morning?)

I found it interesting that the Outlook story did not cover Tom Taylor’s remarks or presence.  I found it more interesting and even disturbing that a major staff member from the GAC speaks at the Coalition Gathering and there is no Presbyterian News Service coverage of that or anything related to the Gathering.  However, they did just release a story about the November Covenant Network Conference. I won’t say that it is necessarily institutional bias, there could be many reasons for the missing coverage, but it sure could be viewed as such.  As I keep telling my fellow members of a synod task force:  Yes, doing this or that may be extra work, but if we want to be viewed as having done a credible and balanced job we need to do a little bit more to be sure all sides feel they have been properly heard.