Psalm 81:1-3
Some say that change is inevitable. Some say our church is changing — we’re growing here and dying there, tired some days and revved the next. I, quite frankly, don’t like change and I don’t like to think that the church is changing. And it isn’t because I’m stubborn or bent on keeping things stagnant. But as a Presbyterian, I was taught that the church was not about change. Rather, it was about reform.
To reform is to make changes, yes, but to make them as a collective whole for the good of the collective whole. Change seems like something one person can do but reformation, transformation takes the works of many. I am hesitant to even say that I am against change at the risk of sounding too bound by church tradition but see, that’s just the point. I am bound to church tradition and therefore believe in a sense of reform and not of rapid change.
Some changes ignore the past or move so fast that they lose the more hesitant to the movement. This type of change is dangerous and that’s why I want us, a generation of churchgoers and leaders in our twenties and early-thirties, to be careful how we move forward and make sure we focus on learning our heritage and our past before we fall forward fast.
There is a great deal of excitement about the future of the church and I uphold that excitement — I’m there, too! But, it is imperative that we recognize the current state of our church and thus, recognize what our Reformed heritage tells us.
Our church is based on reformations made by a collection of voices and all these reformations were transitions of their own. Each new phase was marked by a significant and murky gray space that had to come before reform could take place. Similarly, our generation is betwixt and between being young and being adult; many of us see our church on the cusp of a new era. While balancing ourselves in between two states, it seems natural to urge forward, brazen and afresh in the Spirit. I think we need to approach with a bit more substance and sustenance — not slow down but simply think about what we’re packing on this journey towards the next chapter of our life and our life in the church.
Our church history is based on the constant meetings of the minds — the minds and voices of all people, lay and leaders alike, liberal and conservatives and in-betweens, men and women, different races and ethnicities and sexual orientations. Sure, we have had our fair share of disagreements about whose voices should be heard. In the end, I was always taught that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is literally the general assembly of all its members. The PC(USA) has not come as far because a few people made a decision. Rather we’ve gotten here by trial and error, by consensus and disagreements and committees and sessions and … by the people. That’s the good news of the PC(USA) — we are called to be alive and present to the voices of all. That is the Reformed good news.
In talking about making decisions within the church, Shirley Guthrie writes, “Reformed confessions come ‘from below’ — from the members of the church themselves” (Always Being Reformed pp. 18-19). We must make sure we are thinking of ourselves as members of that “below.” Our generation is not an isolated group and we mustn’t act as such. We are wholly part of those that came before us, those who saw the union of the denominational branches in 1958 and 1983, the ordination of women, and the election of lay leader moderators.
We also are wholly part and responsible to those that will come after us. If we, as a generation of young people, choose to ignore the great works of the older generations in our congregations, we are denying the works of the Spirit that were present to them at that time. In claiming that we are a generation ready to make change we are set apart.
I don’t want to be apart from every generation of the church. It’s already hard enough to be age 26 and a potential pastor — I need the support of all generations if I am to make this journey worthwhile; I want to be a part of the church and not apart because I try to change the church on my own.
When I told my grandparents that I was ready to go to Divinity School and ready to be a pastor, my grandfather laughed, responding, “Oh, you’re just going to be a rabble-rouser.” My grandmother shook her finger and said, “And that’s just what we need!” I think what we actually need is to be rousers of our own kind, of the Presbyterian kind. We need to be “reform-rousers.” It is time that instead of relying on ideas of change that we rely on the tradition of reform. We know it, it is a part of us, and it is how our generation can live out our leadership in a way that is authentic to both ourselves and to our denomination.
We must embrace the work of the past and move forward in a careful and prayerful way, mindful that we are but a fraction of the whole (an important fraction but still — a fraction). It takes the whole to make something happen. Let us go forward with our sisters and brothers of the Church, bound by our Reformed tradition that therefore frees all of us to make things anew.
Taylor Lewis Guthrie is currently a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. She loves being able to help lead Morning Prayer (even without caffeine) in her current role as the Director of Church School & Seminarians at The Memorial Church. In this capacity, she is also a valued colleague of Peter Gomes, Memorial Church’s pastor, and a wonderful ministry team.
