Presbytery leader leaving
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The Rev. James Mead has submitted his resignation as pastor to Pittsburgh Presbytery, where for eight years he has worked to ease local tensions even as national ones grew larger.
The Rev. James Mead
At least two large congregations in the presbytery are on the verge of leaving the denomination, but Dr. Mead, 60, cited pressing family concerns as his reason for returning to the West Coast.
"We really think this is a calling to be near to our families," he said, citing his wife, Carolyn, and their concern for their aging parents and a grown son with a family crisis.
"For a while it's been the case that the family has taken a back seat to another calling in order for me to be here," he said.
He submitted his resignation to a special meeting of the presbytery council yesterday. If approved at the June presbytery meeting, it will be effective July 27. The Rev. Doug Portz, associate pastor to presbytery, will serve as acting pastor to presbytery until an interim can be called in the fall, said the Rev. Stuart Broberg, chairman of the council.
Dr. Mead said his departure had nothing to do with the congregations that want to leave.
"I'm not burned out," he said. "This is the most demanding, stressful call I've ever had. But it's also the most rewarding one and the one I will cherish most in my lifetime."
He has accepted a call as an interim associate at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor, Wash., where the senior pastor is a close friend, to help develop a strategy for mission and growth. It is close to Tacoma, where he was pastor of University Place Presbyterian Church prior to coming to Pittsburgh in 1998.
The presbytery was then bitterly divided between a conservative majority and an active liberal minority, and was noted for ugly infighting. The previous executive presbyter -- Dr. Mead later changed the title to pastor to presbytery -- resigned while under fire from several factions, and Dr. Mead was chosen after a three-year search. He is an evangelical who had earned a reputation as a reconciler during a term as vice moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
During his tenure, meetings became far less contentious and more prayerful. The presbytery has about 43,000 members in 153 Allegheny County congregations.
"I'm saddened. Jim is the best thing that has happened in Pittsburgh Presbytery during the 14 years I've been there," said the Rev. Dave Carver, pastor of First United Presbyterian Church of Crafton Heights.
"He has engendered a spirit of trust and has allowed us to focus on the mission of Christ in a way that we had not been able to do in my experience. He helped us remember that the things that bring us together are a lot more important than the things that want to split us up. He is decent and humble and gracious and he brings out the best in people."
Dr. Mead said he believed he was leaving the presbytery in good shape, with excellent leaders and plans in place to handle difficult challenges ahead. At his insistence, months ago the presbytery set up task forces for responding to congregations that want to leave the denomination.
"We have become -- not always, but in general -- a good place where meetings are Christ-centered and where people will ordinarily behave like people who know Jesus. They will honor the gifts and call of those that the Lord calls to this presbytery, despite the fact that we vote differently" on church issues, he said.
He is especially proud of a profile that the presbytery developed in consultation with Development Dimensions International for identifying pastors who can help a struggling congregation become a thriving one. It is now in use by other presbyteries.
"We think we have made a contribution to the whole denomination, to a church that I dearly love," he said. "There are good leaders in this presbytery and I have every reason to believe that the Holy Spirit will keep on doing what the Spirit has been doing here."
That thought was echoed by the Rev. Bebb Wheeler Stone, pastor of Mount Washington Presbyterian Church, a member of the presbytery council and a standard-bearer for the more liberal wing of the presbytery.
"It's really, really clear that he has family reasons for returning to the Seattle area," she said. "There is such a depth of talent right now in this presbytery that it serves as a profound anchor when the ship changes course suddenly, in a way that was unexpected except to the Holy Spirit and to Jim and his family."
The task forces that are working with churches that may secede are in place "and none of those are dependent on Jim's presence," Dr. Stone said.
Dr. Mead has been criticized by some fellow evangelicals because he was more mediator than ally in church disputes. But his response to the churches that want to leave has won their praise. Nancy Cochran, a former moderator of the presbytery and an elder at Memorial Park Presbyterian Church, McCandless, which is slated to vote on secession, said his departure is a blow.
"Jim has been very fair. He has been very prayerful and very sincere, very impartial. He's been a good spiritual leader. This is a huge loss," she said.
First Published May 9, 2007 11:06 pm
