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The 223rd General Assembly is meeting, so what?

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If a vote takes place in a convention center and no one notices, was a vote cast? Several times in recent months I have visited churches to present a preview of coming attractions to the 223rd General Assembly. I dutifully present with my journalist hat firmly placed on my head, attempting to have a poker face and give the facts and only the facts. But inevitably the first question I am asked is: So what?  Usually the query comes in slightly more polite terms. Something like: How will this impact local congregations? Or: What difference will it make if the General Assembly makes a statement on X, Y or Z? Or, more pointedly: Where is Jesus in all of this? Occasionally, the blunt one in the room asks rhetorically: Who cares? Then my journalist hat must be set aside for other less “objective” accessories. I first go for my editor hat. According to our website analytics data, people do care. The headlines on these matters get clicks. The amount of time spent on the pages indicates … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Cultural contempt

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Repeatedly, in a multitude of settings, I hear complaints about people in leadership positions: the executive director, the principal, the president, the head of staff… you name it. From the neighborhood association to the city council and beyond, leaders are considered not simply mistaken or misdirected or misinformed, they are stupid, idiots, evil. Motives are not questioned, they are assumed malevolent. Decisions are not disagreed with, debated and discussed, they are maligned and the people who made them castigated. The benefit of the doubt doesn’t exist anymore. Public postings of perceived ineptitude have replaced personal conversations seeking understanding and resolution. And we wonder why the pool of people willing to occupy leadership roles is so shallow. When we operate out of a default mode of disdain, we get the leaders we deserve: the ones who don’t give a whit about what others think, the ones who seek power for self-aggrandizement and abuse the privileges their … [Read more...]

Presbyterians: We’re big on sin, come join us!

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As I have traveled to churches, presbyteries and conferences since the last General Assembly, I have shared news of the denomination, telling about the various groups meeting to discern our structure and vision. I have quipped that my suggestion to the 2020 Vision Team for a tagline for our denomination is: “Presbyterians: We’re big on sin, come join us!” That usually gets a laugh, and I mean it to be lighthearted. Yet I also believe it to be a rock-bottom truth for us. While not as aspirational as one of the Great Ends of the Church, it gets to the heart of a doctrine to which we hold fast. I understand that the word “sin” rings antiquated and judgmental. However, I’m bringing sin back, so to speak. We Presbyterians are big on sin. We understand that not one of us is righteous — no, not one. We understand that we do the very things we hate, even when we desperately try to do better. We understand that nothing we do is pure, untainted by selfishness, self-interest … sin. We … [Read more...]

Tagged With: GA223

Letter to a young pastor

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The first time I put on a clerical robe I felt as if I was wearing a costume. It was a classic Geneva-style gown adorned with gold cords and crosses, a gift from the congregation where I’d served as an intern. I felt small beneath its billowing sleeves and folds of fabric. I wondered if I looked like a child wearing her father’s suit jacket. Eventually, I gave up inspecting myself every time I put it on. Instead, Sunday after Sunday I just wore my liturgical garb like a uniform, never exactly feeling comfortable, but eventually feeling less foolish. That’s my hope for you: that you will never get too comfortable in the robe or role of pastor, but that week by week, visit by visit, service by service, you will feel less foolish and more a fool for Christ. The less foolish part just means less self-conscious and better able to be present to the people, the Word, the Spirit. I want that for you, the gift of being lost in wonder, love and praise. Those moments sneak up on you in this … [Read more...]

Gospel conversations

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According to Masha Gessen, a Russian-American journalist and staff writer for the New Yorker, “We’ve lost the ability to have political conversations.” She was being interviewed on the New Yorker radio hour, and when she said, “We’ve lost the ability to have political conversations,” the host stopped her and responded almost breathlessly, “Seems like all we have are political conversations.” Gessen explained: “No, we have conversations about politics. A political conversation is a conversation in which people with different views come to agreements about how they’re going to inhabit society together. We don’t see that happening in Congress. We don’t see that happening in the streets. We don’t see that happening at kitchen tables.” We have conversations about politics, not political conversations. Gessen’s insight stuck to me like a burr to my pant leg after a hike in the woods. It even hurt a little as I went about my day-to-day work, sticking me at unexpected moments. Why had this … [Read more...]

Lord, make me useless

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Lately my prayer has been to be useful: Make me useful, God. Where this plea originates during days overflowing with unending tasks and responsibilities, I do not know. Or maybe I do. I took a pastoral call for a friend recently. The phone rang: “Are you the pastor on call?” “Yes,” I said. “Then I guess you are it,” the voice on the other end replied. I felt this wave of gratitude, so glad to be “it.” Praying at the hospital bedside or presiding at a funeral come imbued with a sense of being needed, useful. I suspect physicians suturing a wound or teachers helping children learn to read or mechanics fixing an engine understand the satisfaction of unequivocal usefulness, a feeling elusive to those of us who trade in ideas and deep thoughts. But “make me useful” morphs quickly into “make me valuable, admired, affirmed.” Make me useful has “me” at the center. My silent prayers of confession become less an exhibition of a contrite heart and more a display of my need for … [Read more...]

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