MODERATOR

SUMMARY OF WORK

Greetings to you in the name of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ!

This year as your 45th GA moderator has been the vocational privilege of a lifetime, as well as one filled with the many joys and challenges in our denomination.

In the Fall, I was able to attend a few presbytery meetings and greet many friends old and new. Given that I’m a teaching elder and rooted in my local church, traveling to other presbyteries is a rare treat, and I always get to learn more about how different presbyteries do things differently, taking a few best practices with me as I return home. Thank you for the hospitality that many of you have shown me.

As a National Leadership Team participant, I led a few task forces to research a few items. One task force, made up of NLT members and OGA staffers, was designed to aid our Executive Director of BRI Carolee Richendollar, as we brainstormed different potential solutions to bring benefits costs down or increase enrollment in the plan. Another task force, made up of EPC teaching and ruling elders with a counseling background, was designed to aid the Task Force on the Book of Discipline as we researched the topic of abuse, and offered a potential definition pending GA approval from an NLT recommendation.

In October, I traveled with Stated Clerk Dean Weaver and Chief Financial Officer Pat Coelho to the Pacific Northwest at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church where we met with several church leaders in the Pacific Northwest presbytery to discuss and agree to ideas on how we can improve our financial reporting in the EPC. The fruit of that meeting was our joint statement found here.

In November, I got to jump in on some Zoom sessions with your presbytery stated clerks. These stated clerks have immense and diverse responsibilities, as well as a deep love for the EPC. In many ways, they are the ‘engine’ of what gets done at a regional level in our denomination, and I am impressed by the scope of what they do.

In January, I had the great privilege to co-lead our annual presbytery moderators training and meeting at the OGA in Orlando. Meeting with your presbytery moderators was truly one of the highlights of my year, as I continue to learn so much about the entire EPC when I participate more in ‘wide-angle lens’ meetings like that. Plus, given my own detailed study of Robert’s Rules to become your GA moderator, it was nice to get to share some more of that arcane knowledge. I have learned that I enjoy ‘how the presbyterian sausage gets made,’ as a beloved colleague quipped to me last year.

While I listened to your presbytery moderators, one of the convictions I developed is that being a presbytery moderator is one of the more challenging jobs in the EPC: they are on the receiving end of much conflict and floor debates, while there is little remuneration or honor attached to it. So, if you think of it in the next year, thank your presbytery moderator personally. And even if you disagree with various rulings they’ve made regarding certain points of order, you should still add them to your prayer list.

In addition to that, my year was filled with routine NLT meetings, some meetings with various national committees, and regular meetings with your GA stated clerk Dean Weaver for mutual support and encouragement.

Now, the last thing I say here may be the most important. I have heard many GA moderators before me talk about a ‘theme’ that they wanted for their moderator year. Some moderators spent additional time personally mentoring other pastors. Other moderators spent their time spurring the NLT to take evangelism more seriously in the EPC. There have been many wonderful themes: right moderators for the right time in the EPC.

By mid-Fall of 2025, I think God had revealed to me what He wanted my ‘theme’ to be: prayer. For instance, in every meeting where people talked about strategy, the Lord led me to be the guy saying, ‘Can we pray about that?’ Or, similarly, I’d be the guy saying, ‘Let’s add that to our prayer list.’ To really emphasize this even further, by December I had identified one person in all 16 presbyteries who would join me in my prayers for the EPC. From that moment, I sent a prayer list with specific EPC prayer requests every other week to that prayer group. Many of us fasted from meals while we prayed, as we leaned earnestly into our vows for the peace and purity of the EPC.

And so, may the Lord do with us as He wills. It has been a privilege to be your moderator. Thank you, with all sincerity.

Grace and peace,
Dave Strunk

Respectfully Submitted,

Dave Strunk, Moderator
45th General Assembly

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