Dr. Allison Seed's Message
Friends in Christ,
Many of you know that I am about to finish seven years of service as a
member of the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church
(USA). After two years as chair of the National Ministries Division
Committee, I was elected and then re-elected to serve as chair of the
Council. During my time on the Council we have called a new executive
director, conducted two different campaigns to fund world mission and
national church extension, developed a mission work plan to have the
church budget and other resources be consistent with our mission
priorities, planned three gatherings of GAC folks and middle governing
body executives, and completely restructured our mission staff in the
Louisville national headquarters. We have also refined the size and
mission of the Council itself, moving from a membership of 70 to 38,
which will be fully accomplished after General Assembly meets in June in
San Jose, California.
I have been blessed by this experience beyond measure. To have had the
opportunity to be a significant part of the leadership of our church, to
have met so many faithful and fascinating people, to have traveled to the
Middle East and met with leaders of all faiths, and to have learned more
about the amazing mission with which we are all involved through our
prayers, our actions, and our gifts is something I will never forget. This
is not to say there haven’t been moments of exhaustion and frustration
and wondering how I will ever manage to put together a sermon and
Sunday service after days of meeting from 7 am to 9 at night–there have
been, believe me–but the excitement and enthusiasm of being part of the
big picture of the church has made it worth it all.
Grateful am I, too, for the support and encouragement of the Trinity
congregation. Without your support I could not have served in any
significant way. Your prayers and care have sustained me!
As chair these past two years, I have made it a personal motif to wear
high heeled shoes while in my official capacity as chair. Why? Because
they have been a concrete, constant reminder to me to “stay on my
toes,” that I have had responsibility and to take that seriously, yet
playfully. As you might imagine, over the course of the meetings of the
GAC I have developed a reputation for this, and people sometimes look
at my feet before they look at my face. Carol Adcock, an elder from
Fort Worth, the in-coming chair of the Council, made good use of this in
her farewell gag gift to me, putting together a life cycle of high heels for
me, from high heeled baby shoes to beach thongs with heels to a bottle
of Barefoot brand wine for when I finally kick back!!
As we approach the Day of Pentecost, I am drawn to Jesus’ words to his
disciples right before his ascension into heaven. He told then to stick
together and to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, in other words, to
“stay on their toes.” alert for what God in God’s wisdom was about to
do in their lives. I think that is a message for all of us, whether we are
called to service in the church in some capacity or whether our call is as
a disciple in the pew. We need to be on our toes, alert and ready, for
God to put his Spirit within us to use us in Christ’s service.
You don’t have to wear high heels to be ready–and I am sure that most
of our women and all of our men are very glad to hear that ! We do,
however, have to be spiritually grooming ourselves, by our prayer life,
by how we prioritize our time, by how we relate to one another, by how
we let God’s word speak to us. We have to recognize that our readiness
will not always be easy, and like beauty, may involve some pain, but the
results of our preparation as disciples are lifelong and eternal.
It’s almost time to hunt out my summer sandals.....and some of them
don’t have high heels!
Together in Christ’s service,
Allison K. Seed
Many of you know that I am about to finish seven years of service as a
member of the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church
(USA). After two years as chair of the National Ministries Division
Committee, I was elected and then re-elected to serve as chair of the
Council. During my time on the Council we have called a new executive
director, conducted two different campaigns to fund world mission and
national church extension, developed a mission work plan to have the
church budget and other resources be consistent with our mission
priorities, planned three gatherings of GAC folks and middle governing
body executives, and completely restructured our mission staff in the
Louisville national headquarters. We have also refined the size and
mission of the Council itself, moving from a membership of 70 to 38,
which will be fully accomplished after General Assembly meets in June in
San Jose, California.
I have been blessed by this experience beyond measure. To have had the
opportunity to be a significant part of the leadership of our church, to
have met so many faithful and fascinating people, to have traveled to the
Middle East and met with leaders of all faiths, and to have learned more
about the amazing mission with which we are all involved through our
prayers, our actions, and our gifts is something I will never forget. This
is not to say there haven’t been moments of exhaustion and frustration
and wondering how I will ever manage to put together a sermon and
Sunday service after days of meeting from 7 am to 9 at night–there have
been, believe me–but the excitement and enthusiasm of being part of the
big picture of the church has made it worth it all.
Grateful am I, too, for the support and encouragement of the Trinity
congregation. Without your support I could not have served in any
significant way. Your prayers and care have sustained me!
As chair these past two years, I have made it a personal motif to wear
high heeled shoes while in my official capacity as chair. Why? Because
they have been a concrete, constant reminder to me to “stay on my
toes,” that I have had responsibility and to take that seriously, yet
playfully. As you might imagine, over the course of the meetings of the
GAC I have developed a reputation for this, and people sometimes look
at my feet before they look at my face. Carol Adcock, an elder from
Fort Worth, the in-coming chair of the Council, made good use of this in
her farewell gag gift to me, putting together a life cycle of high heels for
me, from high heeled baby shoes to beach thongs with heels to a bottle
of Barefoot brand wine for when I finally kick back!!
As we approach the Day of Pentecost, I am drawn to Jesus’ words to his
disciples right before his ascension into heaven. He told then to stick
together and to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, in other words, to
“stay on their toes.” alert for what God in God’s wisdom was about to
do in their lives. I think that is a message for all of us, whether we are
called to service in the church in some capacity or whether our call is as
a disciple in the pew. We need to be on our toes, alert and ready, for
God to put his Spirit within us to use us in Christ’s service.
You don’t have to wear high heels to be ready–and I am sure that most
of our women and all of our men are very glad to hear that ! We do,
however, have to be spiritually grooming ourselves, by our prayer life,
by how we prioritize our time, by how we relate to one another, by how
we let God’s word speak to us. We have to recognize that our readiness
will not always be easy, and like beauty, may involve some pain, but the
results of our preparation as disciples are lifelong and eternal.
It’s almost time to hunt out my summer sandals.....and some of them
don’t have high heels!
Together in Christ’s service,
Allison K. Seed
| Trinity Presbyterian Church 1400 Sheley Road Independence, MO 64052 |
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