Before the sun set on Thanksgiving Day, stores across our country opened their doors to shoppers seeking an early start on Black Friday specials. This “busiest shopping day of the year” is etched deeply into our culture and our economy. In the past decade, another retail phenomenon has developed in the days following Thanksgiving. The technological revolution and savvy marketers have given us Cyber Monday, which is filled with promotions aimed at online shoppers.
Like thousands of Presbyterian congregations across the country, the church I serve in Albuquerque, La Mesa Presbyterian Church, knows the reality of food insecurity in the community surrounding the church and among our members. Recent studies indicate that 70,000 New Mexicans seek food every week and some 27 percent of children in the state suffer as a result of food insecurity. Our neighborhood is a lower-income area, so every child at the adjacent elementary school qualifies for a free breakfast and lunch daily, from the federally funded National School Lunch Program.
This year Presbyterians celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. The theses, which criticized the sale of indulgences by church officials, are considered the opening salvo in the Protestant Reformation — a movement that emphasized individual relationships with God and salvation through faith alone.
In 2008, Dorene Seidl, a beloved, longtime member of Briargate Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, was killed by her husband when she was attempting to leave their relationship of over 40 years.
That’s when domestic violence visited our church. It was heartbreakingly real.
Like millions of people around the world, Presbyterian elder Bill Campbell was moved by the heartbreaking image of a drowned Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach in 2015. Three-year-old Aylan Kurdi was among thousands of Syrians who drowned while trying to escape the violence gripping their country.
In 1996, the year after I graduated from seminary, presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ordained 408 new ministers of Word and Sacrament. Many of them continue to serve and lead in the PC(USA) two decades later in critical ways. In 2016, the PC(USA) ordained about half (47 percent) of the number we did in 1996, with only 214 ordained. While we have fewer congregations in 2016 than 1996, it is only 17 percent less, not 47 percent! The need for qualified ministers of Word and Sacrament will increase as Baby Boomer generation pastors continue to retire over the next decade or so. The median age of a Presbyterian minister in 2017 is over 60 years old. The PC(USA) pastorate mirrors the demographics of about 20 mainline denominations in the U.S.
As I speak with church leaders, I notice that there is frustration and anxiety around the rapid change in our culture. Since some people are no longer showing up in our churches, I hear the need expressed for evangelism training. Even though I believe training is important, I don’t believe evangelism training will solve the problems the church faces in the winds of change.
Presbyterians join with Christians all around the globe today to pray for all of God’s creation. Instituted by the World Council of Churches in 2015, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is observed on Sept. 1. On this day, Christians worldwide are encouraged to set aside time to pray for all of God’s people and for all of creation.
Today, several congregations close to Stony Point Conference Center, many from the Hudson River Presbytery, will host the 2017-18 YAV class for Commissioning Sunday. This day acts as a reminder to both the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) and our church that we “do not go alone” in God’s mission.
This is what happens when we follow Jesus’ example. We “tap” those who are younger but demonstrate willingness or speak a prophetic truth (like the young people in this photo). We end up standing on some steps, readying ourselves to step out and feeling shaped by those who are below us and above us on the age spectrum.
