They listened to inspiring, scholarly, speakers offering the informed thinking they expect from co-sponsor, The Presbyterian Outlook, and the ethnic diversity represented by co-sponsor, the Cross-Cultural Alliance of Ministries. They thought outside the box, focusing on the question, “What is the church you dream of?”
As the time together drew to a close, participants asked. “What’s next?”
In the final hours of the conference – Friday night the 4th of July (after the Normal Rockwell-style, small-town parade; and prior to the holiday fireworks) Rhashelle Hunter called upon the participants to discover who they are, by remembering who God is.
Drawing upon Moses’ initial divine encounter on the mountain of God, Hunter, a member of the planning team for the event and currently director of racial ethnic and women’s ministries for the General Assembly Mission Council, urged the conferees to encounter afresh the holy. “Have you experienced the holy? The majesty, the mystery of God? I experience it here at Montreat. … There may be places in the earth that are holy ground for you.”
Of course any place can be holy ground. “We have to be reminded that we are on the mountain of God. Holy ground. We know we are ministers of the word and sacrament, elders and deacons ordained by God in the church of Jesus Christ, Christian educators and faithful members. But we forget the awe of it all: the honor, the privilege, the mystery, the holiness of the place where we stand.”
The timing is holy, too. “We stand before God at a pivotal time in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It is a time of great possibility, a time of transformation, a time of re-formation of regeneration, of renewal,” she said. Reflecting on comments offered at the beginning of the conference, she said, “My friend, Merri Bass of Montreat Conference Center said, ‘Where we were is no more. And the church to which we’ve been called doesn’t exist yet.’”
As it was in Moses’ case, so too, we harbor doubts about our own ability and calling. “Some of us don’t know who we are. … God says, ‘You don’t have to know who you are, as long as you know who I am. … I am the God of your ancestors and fore-parents. …I am who I am.’” She reflected, “God promises to be with us. God will not leave us out on our own. God does not leave us to fend for ourselves. God will not abandon us. God said to Moses, I will be with you.”
The stirring and uplifting speaking was followed by an hour or more of contemplative prayer and whisper-toned singing in the Taizé style. Candle lights filled the room with low lighting. Participants sat on the floor or knelt or went to prayer stations. Some wept. Most sang. Eventually they all made their way out the doors, receiving a one-on-one word of benediction by recently elected General Assembly Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow or one of the worship leaders.
Some headed to Black Mountain to see the evening’s fireworks. For many the worship provided enough stirrings for any fireworks display to feel anti-climactic.
The conference culminated with a Saturday morning worship service, with Scott Black-Johnston preaching. Pastor of Trinity Church in Atlanta, Black-Johnson had recently announced his acceptance of the call to serve as pastor of Fifth Avenue Church in New York City.
Given the assignment to pull together the various threads of the conference, he drew upon I Sam. 7, when Samuel subdued the Philistines and then set up the Ebenezer stone, saying, “‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’”
“So where is the Presbyterian Church headed?” he began. “In the last few days, members of this conference have been challenged to consider what it might look like for the church to be unbound. Now I’ve got to tell you that every time I told friends what I was doing this week, preaching at the Church Unbound (conference), their response invariably was, ‘Unbound from what?’”
With a smile he rejoined, “I wasn’t sure, simply because there was so much to choose from!”
· “Unbound from the ceaseless conflict about human sexuality.
· “Unbound from a Book of Order that gets thicker and thicker with every General Assembly.
· “Unbound from the losers’ bracket in American Christianity.
· “Unbound from stodginess.
· “And in many ways I wonder if we need to be unbound from anxiety, from the conviction so very Presbyterian, that God is depending on us to get it all right.”
He then reflected on the impact made by the young, curiously counter-culture, winsome modern prophet who had keynoted the conference. “In recent days we’ve also been considering amongst other things the words of a man who is engaging in remarkable acts of Christian service, Christ-like service. There were many nodding heads in this room, my own included, as Shane Claiborne spoke. The guy is humble, caring, evangelical in a winsome say. He may be the St. Francis of our time, who knows?
“I do want to say that I think there is an important and maybe unique role for Presbyterians and Presbyterian institutions at this moment in God’s unfolding Providence.”
Citing the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey recently published by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Black-Johnson said simply, “Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly ignorant of religion.” And, with that, the lack of understanding and self-reflection leads to all kinds of idolatry.
Returning to the Scripture text read earlier, he said that the Ebenezer stone (literally, “stone of help”) – the reminder of what God has done – reminds him that the Presbyterian Church is ready to meet the challenge that [the ignorance] presents. “I believe that at a time when the religious landscape is characterized by churn, by spiritual mobility, and is simultaneously plagued by widespread religious illiteracy [it is ] a moment tailor made for us. … Education has always been a hallmark of Reformed tradition and, in particular, it’s been a strength of American Presbyterians since the founding of this country. We have the best collection, I believe, of denominational seminaries in the country. And we have a passion in our core for education.”
But the work before is demanding. “The test for us this moment, as it is in every age,” he warned, “will be to see if we can toss aside our idols as we go forward. Are we willing to abandon a stance that would lead us to claim with comfortable satisfaction that our denomination is an elite, sophisticated body, and not still a church that needs to roll up its sleeves and plunge our children and our youth and ourselves into education programs that will give us again a foundation in the basic Christian story? Are we willing to welcome others, heck, to invite others to come to church, not for the latest contemporary Christian fad, but for a deep engagement with faith?
