LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sharing practical skills and big dreams, roughly 1,500 Presbyterians gathered in Louisville Aug 1-3 for Big Tent 2013 — a chance to cultivate ideas and inspiration to try out back home.
During opening worship, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) commissioned 24 mission co-workers who will serve on four continents. And Big Tent ended with a street party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the reunification of the PC(USA) and the 25th anniversary of the denomination’s moving its national offices to Louisville.
“Same-same but different” was the title of Atlanta minister Pam Driesell’s sermon during closing worship — a reference to a phrase she often heard on a recent visit to Cambodia, where her son is serving in the Peace Corps. That idea — of common ministry with many variations, of common humanity despite so many differences — permeated Big Tent.
Some participants practiced nuts-and-bolts strategy for community activism. About 40 Presbyterians marched outside a nearby Wendy’s to push the restaurant chain to support better pay and working conditions for migrant workers picking tomatoes in Florida. Others sat in conference rooms and debated whether seminaries are meeting the real needs of the church.
Robert Lupton, a community organizer and founder of FCS Urban Ministries in Atlanta, shared some of what he’s learned from 40 years of successes and failures. Among those on-the-ground teachings: Don’t do for others what they can do for themselves; seek ways to empower people by hiring, lending and investing.
Lupton is the author of “Toxic Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Reverse It).” He spoke about the dangers of well-meaning Presbyterians arriving with arms full of gifts and donations, determined to fix things rather than build relationships.
“Everyone in this community has something of value to contribute,” Lupton said. “Instead of viewing folks as poor folks, we had to start viewing them as gifted people with potential and capacity waiting to be developed.”
Big Tent is an effort to bring Presbyterians together in the off-years between the PC(USA)’s biennial General Assemblies. It’s structured as 10 national partner conferences meeting concurrently, with more than 160 workshops to choose from; some shared worship and plenary events; and no voting on denominational policy. As a result, Big Tent has a much different feel than General Assembly — less rushed and more congenial. As much as anything, it’s a marketplace of ideas.
Some Presbyterians, for example, spoke of the idea of “third places” — informal gathering places, away from home and work, that foster community interaction. How can churches start, or be, such places?
How can Presbyterians be creative in evangelism — in teaching children and teenagers the faith, and in reaching out in authentic and flexible ways to those who might either be deeply skeptical about or alienated by churches and organized religion?
What about race and racism? During one workshop, some contended that Presbyterians haven’t talked nearly enough about the Trayvon Martin killing and the implications of George Zimmerman’s acquittal of charges filed against him after Martin’s death
Workshop participants discussed how Presbyterians can learn and do more about such pressing issues as violence against women and children, human trafficking, environmental degradation and microlending.
Christine Hong, the PC(USA)’s associate for interfaith relations, led a workshop on millennials and spirituality. These digital natives, Hong said, “like to live in the tension” — feeling comfortable with questions and gray areas and seeing permutations of morality and spiritual meaning in many aspects of life, such as how and where they purchase food. Born from the early 1980s to early 2000s, they’re a huge group, numbering more than 80 million in the United States. And they’re not all alike: For example, young adults with immigrant parents often have a much different experience.
Hint to congregations that want to connect with young people: It’s not enough to just change the music.
Gradye Parsons, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, spoke of the need for teaching elders to share power and leadership with ruling elders. One place to begin, he said, is Sundays. “I don’t care if you have a gazillion members in the church and have a huge staff,” he said. “I still think you ought to have a ruling elder helping lead worship in every service.”
And Christians need to learn to pray in multicultural contexts, said Claudio Carvalhaes, an associate professor of liturgy and worship at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He said praying with strangers can involve vulnerability and can be an entry point into their lives; that praying multiculturally involves vulnerability and give-and-take; that it matters where and with whom you pray; and that “church will only happen if we feel we need each other.”
As if to demonstrate Carvalhaes’ point, some Big Tent participants used Twitter to organize gatherings on the town after the official sessions for each day. A pastor from Wisconsin, Stephanie Anthony, tweeted that her conversation “with the off-duty server was the most intense pastoral care I’ve been a part of in years.”
Frank Yamada, the president of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, urged Christians to put aside distractions and worry and instead focus on doing God’s work. How different the world would be, he said, if instead of seeing only their differences, people would look at one another and think, “You have value in the eyes of God.”
