‘Now go change the world, y’all’

At the Moderators’ Conference, the Co-Moderators of the 226^th General Assembly hold a workshop for their fellow teaching elders

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

The Co-Moderators of the 226th General Assembly, the Rev. CeCe Armstrong and the Rev. Tony Larson, held a workshop for teaching elders during last week’s Moderators’ Conference. (Photo by Rich Copley)

LOUISVILLE — “We collect experiences, and we want to know good news and challenges you are dealing with,” said the Rev. Tony Larson, who along with the Rev. CeCe Armstrong is Co-Moderator of the 226^th General Assembly (2024). Larson was speaking to a room full of teaching elders during a Saturday workshop at the Moderators’ Conference, held last week at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended in person and online by about 130 moderators of mid councils in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

“What are the questions you might have?” Larson asked. “We are ambassadors for the church.”

“We use the term ‘safe space’ generically,” Armstrong said. “We want to make sure your sharing is comfortable for you.”

One workshop participant wanted to discuss what he called “economic justice post-Covid.”

“Connectedness is a concept we want to embrace and emphasize, but churches are closing, and congregations are not able to connect with the new world,” this pastor said. “There’s no budget for new migrant families, even to get us into technology [to allow for online worship].”

“I see my church dying and I can’t do anything about it,” the pastor said. “I want to be a good [mid council] moderator and a good pastor too.”

It might be helpful to start a conversation with the executive of your mid council, Larson said. “It never hurts to ask the questions about what our congregations need and what we can do,” he said. At the church Larson serves, Trinity Presbyterian Church of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, “our website looks like the product of 15 years ago. It has current information, but it took [a review of other church websites] to decide the most dominant piece shouldn’t be the calendar. We want to make sure those looking for us might be able to find us, and to make sure people know we are a safe place, and people will find welcome here.”

At St. James Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where Armstrong is the associate pastor, “we have a tie to a small church in Alabama without a pastor.” The Alabama church upgraded its Zoom capabilities and now worships virtually using the St. James livestream each week. “I don’t even know the terminology you’d use for this kind of connectionalism,” Armstrong said, adding she’s eager to visit this church to watch St. James’ worship from their vantage point. “I think that makes the connectional church more real,” she said.

“I have yet to meet a Presbyterian leader who accepted the call because they wanted to close churches,” Larson said. “I have talked to people in congregations who feel like they want to hold the presbytery at some length, because they think if they invite the presbytery in, that’s what they’ll do — close them.”

As Co-Moderator, Larson asks mid council leaders if he can guest preach for a congregation “who may have experienced hardship or is in a funk.” Larson emphasizes that each church is valuable. His message includes this: “How can we find the resources you need to do the thing that God is calling you to do?”

One mid council leader attending the workshop said she has “the best job in the world. I get to go out and connect with teaching elders. I visited almost 30 churches this year.” One church has eight in-person worship attendees each week with another 20 faithfully listening to the worship service using their telephone.

“Find the church in your presbytery that is doing amazing technology work and talk with them,” this pastor advised. “Call a church where you like their website.” One church she knows shares its recorded sermons that other smaller churches can use for online pulpit supply. “Find the life in that tiny church that says they have nothing to offer, and yet they’re feeding everyone in their community,” she suggested.

One mid council leader asked about “the impact of fear, of sustaining the budget,” the fear churches have they can’t “find the pastor who will fix all things” and the fear of some pastors “who are too exhausted to try new things.”

“Fear is a real thing,” Larson said, and yet in the Bible, “every time God shows up, the answer is, ‘Don’t be afraid.’”

“The church I serve is 40% smaller post-Covid, and yet I believe God continues to be with us and equips us,” Larson said.

“We overlook the storyline of why God says that,” Armstrong said. Who receives the good news of Jesus’ birth? “The shepherds, who probably smelled like the sheep,” she said. Before that, “Mary questions the angel: How is this going to happen? The first response is, ‘Do not fear.’ She said, ‘OK, but how is this going to work?’ She said, ‘Let me go see Elizabeth for myself.’”

The Rev. CeCe Armstrong answers a question during last week’s Moderators’ Conference, held at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“We have to see things for ourselves,” Armstrong said. While working as a mathematics teacher, Armstrong first heard the call to the ministry. “I got a mandate: Preach the Word, and don’t hurt people,” she said. “We teaching elders live in a fishbowl, and we may feel like we’re performing. Our only responsibility is to be the fish. When it comes to fear, a lot of times we need to just jump in and go without permission and get forgiveness when necessary.”

To Larson, teaching elders “are resources for your whole community.” He finds himself ministering at the local dog park, at a pizzeria and at a taphouse. “I just show up with a collar on. I have had more deep conversations about God in those settings than I have had with parishioners. I’ve also been the recipient of stories about how the church has wounded people,” he said. At the pizzeria, Larson serves as the unofficial chaplain. “I help them understand community in a different kind of way,” he says, which in turn has brought vitality to Trinity because “we have some new members and we learn more about the people who live in our community.”

“I encourage pastors and ruling elders and people in the pew: You are the theologian your neighbor needs you to be,” he said.

“If I spend too much time dwelling on the past, I build and feed depression thinking of what was,” Armstrong mused. “If I spend too much time on the future, I build anxiety about what’s to come. We still live in the present. Transformation is happening within the denomination and outside the denomination, too.”

When the workshop was complete, Armstrong offered a prayer that included these words: “God, you know our needs before we express them. You know what ails us and what makes us well. Cover those not knowing what tomorrow will bring but trusting that you hold tomorrow.”

“Now go change the world, y’all,” Armstrong told her fellow moderators.