Pastor And More Presbyterian Minister Divides Time Between Millwood Flock And Leadership Role For U.S. Denomination
The Rev. D. William McIvor needs a laptop computer as well as a Bible to do his job these days.
In addition to his pastoral duties at the Millwood Community Presbyterian Church, McIvor is serving as chairman of the General Assembly Council for the entire Presbyterian denomination in the United States.
The two jobs keep the 47-year-old McIvor on-line as often as in the pulpit.
“I take my laptop on the road, just so I can keep up,” he said this week from his office at the sandstone-colored church between Euclid and Dalton streets in Millwood. “I don’t have a lot of free time.”
That’s understandable.
Taking care of his 600-member flock in Millwood is a full-time job in itself.
His added responsibilities as General Assembly chairman leave him little time for his Tom Clancy novels, his running, even his family.
He and his wife, Merrie McIvor, a teacher at West Valley High School, recently had to cancel a trip to Spain.
The two were taking the vacation to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
It didn’t happen.
“With this, there was just too much to do,” McIvor said.
As national chairman, he’s in charge of overseeing a $110 million mission budget and a 500-person professional staff that runs the affairs of the 2.8 million-person denomination.
The General Assembly also works to serve the needs of the 11,500 Presbyterian churches nationwide by supervising the denomination’s evangelical and other ministry programs.
The council also sets the rules by which Presbyterians associate with other denominations and religions, a complicated but necessary function for a church with missions in 80 countries, he said.
“Wherever you have two people together, you have politics,” McIvor said.
The position will keep McIvor on the road for 80 days during his one-year term, which started in July when he was elected by the 71 member general assembly council.
Sounds like a job for a CEO rather someone with a Ph.D. in theology.
But McIvor, a quiet, thoughtful man not given to extreme views or hasty judgments, insists that it isn’t.
“It’s not so much that I need to know everything,” said McIvor, who’s been pastor at Millwood since 1986. “I just need to bring some wisdom and some perspective from the local churches to the job.”
The Seattle native and graduate of Spokane’s Whitworth College comes across as a moderate on things political and religious.
At a time when some politicians are calling for cuts in social service programs and calling on churches to pick up the slack, McIvor advocates cooperation.
Churches have a responsibility to the poor, he said, but so do governments.
“I don’t see the church pulling back,” McIvor said. “But I don’t see the church as a substitute for what the government should do.”
At the same time, he maintains that the separation of church and state is important.
Governments should not push religion, but neither should they inhibit it, he said.
“It’s important to honor both viewpoints,” he said, “while keeping those spheres relatively separate.”
The ultimate goal of any church, he added, should be “providing a sense of real community” in a society where many people have lost their sense of belonging.
McIvor said becoming a national leader of his denomination was never his goal, although making the church his life’s work was.
“Church is something that’s always been a big part of my life, from the earliest on,” said McIvor, whose mother encouraged him in his religious convictions from the time he was a boy.
It’s clear that the chairmanship is something he’s proud of, but eager to shed.
The responsibilities are taking away from his top priority: his own church.
“My main job is pastor here,” McIvor said. “To tell the truth, I’ll be glad when this is over.”
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