Synod Week Article #6 -

 Fathers and Brothers –

I bid you grace and peace from Bavaria, Germany. Unfortunately, my call to serve as a chaplain in the United States Army precludes me from attending Synod this year. As a minister of Catawba Presbytery, I do wish I could relish the joy of your presence in person. However, Lord willing and time zones permitting, I will observe Synod from afar via live web-cast.  

 

My inability to attend Synod this year prompts me to write this letter. I am thankful for the opportunity to present this meager contribution to the discussion regarding the state of our church’s retirement plan. In one sense, I write as a person disinterested in the plan. As an Army chaplain, I do not contribute towards, nor do I expect to benefit from the pension plan. That said, I am very concerned with the problem and deeply vested in its resolution as it threatens the church that I, by God’s providence and grace, have grown to love. With that in mind, I humbly ask your patience and your ears.

 

Please, as Paul encouraged the Philippians, “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:2-14). Fathers and Brothers, it is my earnest prayer that you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will exhibit the humility of Christ as you passionately discuss and pursue solutions to our troubled retirement plan. In that humility, I offer the following observations for consideration:

 

1. First, let us pray early and often that the mind of Christ might richly dwell within us, that the Holy Spirit might equip us with all necessary humility and wisdom, and that the Father might grace us with a deep, affectionate love for one another.

 

2. Second, to state the obvious, the precarious position of the pension plan is a problem for the whole ARP Church. To date the proposed actions have not embraced the entirety of our church. Currently serving and future ministers are asked to take a reduced pension payout. Current and future church members are asked to pay a higher percentage into the plan. Current agencies and boards are asked to contribute from current reserves and budgets. The already beleaguered DMF is asked to assist in paying down our retirement fund liability. May I be so bold as to ask why ministers benefiting from the “years of plenty” are not asked to take a retroactive cut to the generous benefit rate of 1990-2010? 

 

3. Third, as the unfunded actuarial liability is a grave problem for the whole ARP Church, would it not be prudent for the Moderator to develop a unified message and clarified talking points regarding the retirement plan? Such an effort would empower agencies and boards, presbyteries and churches, minsters and elders to address the church as a whole regarding the precarious nature of the pension and by extension the very church.

 

4. Fourth, and finally, let us, the elders of the church approach the people of the church regarding the peril in which we find ourselves. We must do this in a spirit of unity empowered with a unified message and talking points from the Moderator. We must approach our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ bathed in prayer, clothed in humility, and with a posture of repentance.

 

In closing, we have put the ARP Church in a precarious position. We, by God’s grace, must be the ones to lead the church out of the situation. Let us begin and proceed “in full accord and of one mind,” in the humility of Christ, and looking to the interests of others. 

 

 

​​​​​​For God’s glory and the good of his Church,

 

 

​​​​​​​​Drew Arrington

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