Hey moderators! Make mistakes, like Moses did

The Rev. Tony Larson, co-moderator of the 226^th General Assembly, preaches Friday in front of his fellow moderators

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Tony Larson, co-moderator of the 226th General Assembly, preaches Friday in the Chapel at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, as part of the annual  Moderators’ Conference. (Photo by Rich Copley)

LOUISVILLE — Presbytery and synod moderators and moderators-elect from around the country are at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky and online Friday and Saturday for the annual Moderators’ Conference, which commenced with thoughtful and winsome worship led by the co-moderators of the 226^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Tony Larson and the Rev. CeCe Armstrong.

About 80 mid-council moderators are participating in person, with about 50 more attending online.

Moderators from around the country joined to sing a hymn in the Chapel of the Presbyterian Center. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Larson helpfully titled his worship meditation “How to Be a Moderator.” As it turns out, last year at this time, he sat in the same chairs where the moderators were seated on Friday, in the Chapel of the Presbyterian Center, after having agreed to serve as moderator of the Presbytery of New Harmony. But it turned out God had other plans, so Larson and Armstrong discerned a call to stand together for co-moderators this summer. Commissioners to the 226^th General Assembly elected them as co-moderators on July 1.

Larson, the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, used Exodus 3:1-15, the account of Moses and the burning bush, as his preaching text.

“Congratulations,” he told his fellow moderators. “You have gone and gotten yourselves nominated or installed as moderator or vice moderator for your presbytery or synod.” After pausing a beat, he asked, “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to yourselves?”

When Presbyterians have offered him congratulations since his and Armstrong’s election, Larson tells them, “That’s one word for it.” He engaged the Exodus text shortly after their election, “and I realized I made the Moses mistakes,” Larson said. Moses “was loved and trusted by his father-in-law. What does Moses do? He doesn’t stay on that path toward success. He sees a flame — a bush burning and not consumed — and he says, ‘I must go see what that’s all about.’”

“I made the Moses mistake. I turned aside,” Larson said. Moses accepts his assignment because he knows the suffering of his people, then gets himself “involved in other people’s problems.” Then to compound his mistakes, “he keeps asking questions in chapter 4 and he drags other people in with him, like Aaron,” Larson said.

The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Executive Director and Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, helped lead worship on Friday. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“Here’s how you do it,” Larson told his fellow moderators. “When God calls you off the set agenda, off the planned path, turn aside — for the love of God and God’s people — and follow. Please ask questions. Ask people, what is the good news in this congregation? Where might God be asking you to turn aside and ask the question?”

Larson was recently visiting Richard Williams, the interim general presbyter of the Presbytery of South Louisiana. Williams believes Presbyterians “should be doing at least one thing that makes no sense,” Larson said, “something they’ve never done before, something that looks like it won’t be sustainable and might be risky — just to see what God will do with it.”

“Please get involved in other people’s problems,” Larson said. “Allow yourself to be moved out of the comfort of your buildings and your routines. Get involved with the least of these in your communities and encourage your congregations and presbyteries to do the same. Christ has promised he’s already there, and they find him and us when we go there.”

“Bring other people with you. Don’t try to do it alone,” Larson said. He called it “the single greatest honor, a joy and a privilege, to serve together with CeCe.”

The Rev. CeCe Armstrong, co-moderator of the 226th General Assembly, anoints a forehead with oil. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“In your presbyteries and your synods, you have people to take that journey of servant leadership with you,” he said.

“That’s all the advice I can give you about how to be a moderator,” he said. “May God bless you and your [mid councils] as you embark on this service. Thanks be to God! Amen.”

He and Armstrong then used oil to anoint each of the moderators who came forward.

“Merciful God, we know there is nothing magical about oil,” Armstrong prayed, “but it’s a reminder of your presence in our lives.” The oil soon disappears from the forehead, “but it’s true your Spirit does the same thing” when the Spirit is at work in people’s lives, according to Armstrong.

The Rev. Dr. David Gambrell was among the music leaders during opening worship. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“Use us to do your will in your way for your people,” Armstrong prayed. “May we ever be mindful to ask every possible question. As we join in the problems of others, may this oil remind us that you sent us there — and where you send us, you will provide for us.”

Phillip Morgan and the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell accompanied moderators on several spirited hymns, including “Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness,” “Glory to God, Whose Goodness Shines on Me,” “Would I Have Answered When You Called?” and “I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me.”

The Moderators’ Conference continues Friday with talks and workshops. It concludes on Saturday. Look for further reporting from Presbyterian News Service.