The PC(USA)’s Mid Council Ministries director talks about what she heard at the recent leaders’ gathering
After a presentation by the Rev. Sarah Moore-Nokes, mid council leaders offer up a moving prayer for the work ahead
LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Sarah Moore-Nokes clearly spent a good part of the Mid Council Leaders Gathering listening. On Wednesday just before closing worship, she reported to mid council leaders what she heard, and what they can expect out of Mid Council Ministries, which she leads for the Interim Unified Agency.
The gathering, held Monday through Wednesday online and at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, is an opportunity for presbytery and synod leaders to learn from one another and from subject-matter experts. It’s also a time for catching up and for receiving support for work that is often difficult.
Moore-Nokes began her talk by identifying a few challenges for her and her colleagues, including onboarding people moving to a new ministry area, building trust, continuing to address culture “across the whole IUA,” and learning how to embody the new structure announced last week, “which will take some time.”
All that while constructing a proposed 2027-28 budget in the next few weeks to submit it in time for consideration by the 227th General Assembly (2026).
“We will do all that with an eye to how all this works in service to mid councils,” Moore-Nokes said. The task includes determining what a thriving mid council looks like, she said. A former presbytery leader herself, Moore-Nokes is determined not to “do the things and deliver them whether you need them or want them,” she said. “We will have to learn how to dance a little in the middle, and it’s going to take some time.”
“We are hoping we can learn the landscape of mid councils,” she said. “It’ll require us to ask better questions and to stay curious a little longer.”
Mid council leaders have shared with Moore-Nokes what a thriving mid council looks like in their context:
- Thriving mid councils can be responsive but not directive
- They provide a free flow of information and resources
- They are responsive to churches and church leaders
- They thrive when their congregations thrive
- They have strong relationships with congregations and their leaders and good, flexible, up-to-date policies
- They’ve given up the idea that “big programs and initiatives will make a difference,” Moore-Nokes said, preferring to connect with small changes “to see how they make a difference in the world.”
- They’ve demonstrated a sense of purpose and a high level of trust among presbytery leaders
- Their structure is built on “the kind of relationships they have,” she said.
Some specifics on what Moore-Nokes said she’s heard from the gathered leaders include:
- That the Matthew 25 movement “has become shorthand for how congregations identify themselves,” and has “opened up conversations about structural racism and poverty” that would not have happened without the movement.
- That “you want clear channels of communication and clarity about who to call.”
- Mid council leaders also want to know where to find resources and who they should call when questions arise.
“We covet your prayers and your partnership,” Moore-Nokes told the leaders. “I hope you will tell your mid council partners what’s happening — the hopeful parts and the parts you are unsure about, the answers you got and didn’t get, and the challenges ahead for all of us.”
Moore-Nokes said that as a coach, “I often talk about the spectrum of curiosity to certainty.” Both can be lousy places to spend too much time, she said, and that’s why “we will have to dance in the middle. As we learn things, I hope we will lean into the certainty side, then go over a little to the curiosity side, then go back to the certainty side to get some things done.”
“You asked us to pray for you,” one mid council leader said once Moore-Nokes had finished her talk. “Why can’t we do that right now?”
In an extraordinary moment, mid council leaders laid hands on national staff members while the leaders prayed. “This denomination was meant to be the connectional church,” said one. “As we have come together for these last few days, it has become clear to us our national leaders have taken this call seriously.”
“The work that’s in front of them is daunting and exciting. [God] is not done with the work of our church, nor with the work of the gospel in our communities. We want to lift up our national workers, many of whom are taking on roles with no job descriptions yet. We are praying for your extra dose of Holy Spirit to be poured out in extraordinary measure.”
“Surround them with your love and with our prayers,” said another leader. “Infuse them with energy, intelligence, imagination and love.”
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