Regarding Ruling Elders: Leadership RSVP

Most of us know the feeling. An invitation arrives in the mail; maybe it's for a wedding, ordination or a big church anniversary. This kind of gathering carries more than a date. It carries meaning. An important person or event is about to be honored, and occasionally that means something familiar is ending or something new is just beginning. 

Along with the excitement comes quiet but familiar questions and feelings of anxiety. Do I go or stay? Who will be there? How formal will it be? What should I wear? Receiving an invitation is great news, and yet it still asks something of you. 

Leadership can feel like that invitation. You don’t have all the details. You’re not sure what will be asked of you. But the invitation has arrived. 

While it’s great when you have a ready-made list of options for moving forward in ministry, how much would we enjoy having a spreadsheet that compares all the options and weighs the pros and cons? But here’s the truth: God does not often send spreadsheets. God sends invitations. 

And faithful leadership requires responding to God’s invitation with the spiritual posture of RSVP. 

RSVP comes from the French phrase "répondez s’il vous plaît," meaning “please respond.” An invitation creates a moment of agency where you get to choose your response. You may not have all the details, but your presence has been requested. This invitation asks for participation before certainty. So, what does it look like for ruling elders and sessions to RSVP to God’s invitation? It requires four things: 

R: Remember the story 

It is tempting to get stuck in nostalgia. Truthful remembering is not about going backward. It’s about telling the truth about how we got here. 

Every congregation carries both grace and grief in its history. Because ruling elders are stewards of memory, you can help the congregation remember its beautiful parts without turning them into idols. You can also help by naming the hard parts without turning them into shame. In the absence of truthful remembering, congregations tend to repeat patterns and remain stuck. 

S: Staying present in uncertainty 

The invitation to remain present is not a passive act. It is resisting the urge to rush toward solutions that calm anxiety but avoid real change. Faithful leadership asks us to remain present, with God’s help. Steady presence is an act of leadership in the face of the unknown. 

V: Value new connections and voices 

One of God’s greatest invitations is the invitation to look again. 

Looking again with new eyes invites us to see God’s hand moving. Listening with new ears helps us hear wisdom spoken through unfamiliar voices. What if God is expanding our mission by expanding our understanding of who counts as neighbor, partner and community? It can mean listening to neighbors who understand the needs around you better than you do. 

P: Pray and prepare 

Prayer comes last on purpose. It does not always give us God’s full agenda, but it gives us the courage to keep showing up. 

Prayer is alignment. It forms leaders who can act without needing certainty. And prayer pairs naturally with preparation: preparing hearts for change we cannot yet see and preparing minds for new relationships that will take us places we could not go on our own. 

The most powerful leadership move is often not an answer but a courageous RSVP. You don’t have to know the whole plan to say yes to God’s invitation. You are not responsible for fixing everything. You are responsible to respond faithfully, which may mean RSVPing like Isaiah, who said, “Here am I. Send me!” 

For reflection:

• Where in this season is God inviting our congregation to respond? 
• What parts of our heritage story do we need to remember more honestly, both the beautiful and the hard? 
• When anxiety rises in our system, do we tend to rush, retreat or stay present? What would “steady presence” look like for us? 
• Whose voices have we not valued yet, inside or outside the church, that might be part of God’s renewing work among us? 
• How might prayer form us into the kind of leaders who can prepare faithfully for what we cannot yet fully see?

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The Rev. Brady M. Radford is a minister member of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, where he serves as a spiritually integrated counselor and consultant. His work with clergy and their families integrates cultural and clinical expertise with theological insights. Brady's first ministry is his family: his wife, Celestine, their three children, and a Cavapoo puppy, Ranger.

Throughout 2026, monthly Regarding Ruling Elders articles will focus on some of the foundational aspects of ruling elder service and spiritual leadership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

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