From enduring to embracing

Bruce Reyes-Chow takes largest APCE gathering ever on a journey through ‘pulsing pain’ to a ‘reimagined future’

by Paul Seebeck | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow encourages worship leaders to think of themselves as DJs now — and curators of space. Reyes-Chow, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, California, presented the plenary Thursday for the online national event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Reyes-Chow)

LOUISVILLE — As the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) kicked off its 2021 annual event, which is online for the first time ever, Thom Cunningham, a member of APCE’s annual ministry team, broke the news.

“Did you realize there are over 1,000 attendees at this year’s conference?” he said. “And almost one-third of them are attending the annual event for the first time. It’s the largest APCE conference ever.”

And after receiving video greetings from APCE’s denominational partners, including the Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Elona Street-Stewart — who thanked those who planned the event for “empowering Christian formation” — the “Anything but Ordinary Time” event was underway.

In his opening plenary, the Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow acknowledged these “anything but ordinary times” as he took participants through a fast-paced presentation entitled the “Generous and Expanded Table: Reimagining the Beloved Community.”

Reyes-Chow, Moderator of the 218th General Assembly (2008) and pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, California, told those gathered he was going to talk first about what we’ve been through before addressing where the church might be headed next.

“There’s this sense of just pulsing pain that I think we all experienced,” he said, “whether we want to acknowledge it or not.”

Referring to that pain as “a low-grade fever,” Reyes-Chow spoke about all that is “swirling about our spirits”: the pandemic. Racial reckoning. Political upheaval and personal loss.

While his grandmother and another family member died of complications from COVID-19, he realized on the communal journey that others were losing loved one too. Some losses didn’t have anything to do with the pandemic, yet it impacted the way we could gather to grieve, he said.

The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow said it’s been helpful and important for him to deeply embrace this time of chaos as the real new normal. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Reyes-Chow)

On the journey from enduring to embracing the pastoral leadership journey during the pandemic, Reyes Chow remembers experiencing two initial stages: “I got this,” and then “Dear God, this is not going to be over in a month.”

“I don’t know how many Zoom small groups I started,” he said.

It became clear to him that while he was trying not to be anxious or panic, he was overwhelmed. Realizing this wasn’t sustainable, he promised himself he’d do better, but then found himself repeating the cycle all over again.

To move out of this pattern, Reyes-Chow has started to deeply embrace this time we are living in, with all of the chaos as the real new normal. Claiming that this is just how it’s going to be for a long time is really important, he said.

At First Presbyterian Church and other congregations, Reyes-Chow has experienced the ability to see and connect with people who’d never set foot in the church. Because of this, he has gained a deeper appreciation for the expansive nature of the Body of Christ.

The Rev. Bruce Reyes Chow at First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, California, before the pandemic hit. (Photo courtesy of Bruce Reyes-Chow)

“We’ve stood behind physical, wooden tables and spoken metaphorically about it. We now have the opportunity to act, live and love as if we believe it to be true,” he said. “The reality is, we can claim and understand that this table has now been blown open — and wide.  Those who simply have a link to click can step up and sit at the table with us.”

Reyes-Chow believes how congregations meet for committee meetings and other small gatherings will be changed forever. But, he said, the desire for worship to return to “what is was before” is strong.

He encouraged those thinking about this new way of being church — around the generous and expanded table — to push back against this as they consider one of these five options for worship in the future:

• In person: what most churches did before the pandemic, meeting at a geographic location.
• Remote only: worship on Zoom, a remote interactive and in-the-moment online worship experience.
• Two services: completely separate in-person and Zoom worship, each able to focus on and leverage its own unique setting.
• Streaming: sanctuary centered where remote participants watch others worship. Some online interaction.
• Hybrid: in-person or remote, a service where people have essentially the same worship experience.

Reyes-Chow said the following questions are helpful for leaders to ask in their post-pandemic discernment about how they worship — once worshiping online isn’t the only option for them:

• What is the congregational desire?
• What are the opportunities and gains and obstacles and losses?
• What is the congregational/staff capacity?
• What are technological/resource needs?
• Most importantly, what is the most faithful decision for the future of the community?

As these conversations occur, Reyes-Chow encouraged APCE conference attendees to reimagine their worship space, rather than to just replicate what was done before the pandemic — and to consider how they talk about the space in which they gather.

“Do you infer that digital space is not as ‘real’ as the physical one?” he asked. “Or is it simply another place where you happen to gather in community?”

In his presentation, Reyes-Chow was clear about his commitment to resist the desire and inertia to make the physical location the ideal experience. Because First Presbyterian Church now has more worshipers than it did before the pandemic, he sees that engagement and participation go up when geographic boundaries are eliminated.

“We have the opportunity to embrace accessibility and connection like never before,” he said.

To learn more about the Reyes-Chow’s “Expanded and Generous Table” conversation and to help address the question “Is hybrid worship in your future?” which includes a leadership survey, click here.  

 He’s also started a public group conversation, Zoom Faith on Facebook.

 Slides of his APCE presentation are here.