Features: August 2006

The Great Cloud of Witnesses by Frances Taylor Gench

Remarks to the 217th GA re: APCU by Gerald Gibson

Reflections from a Not-So-Rare Breed by Rachael Whaley

Presbyterians Being Reformed: Orienting Perspectives by Robert Bullock, Jr., Clifton Kirkpatrick, and Anna Case-Winters

Threats to the Dream by William McAtee

Four Presbyterian Characteristics: My Reflections by William Chapman

Pastoral Letter by Samuel Kobia

Past Issues

OGA Main Page

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As a young person active in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I am often told I am a rare breed. “There just aren’t any young people interested in the church anymore,” is a common concession given by many Presbyterian leaders.

I am a rising junior at Maryville College, majoring in English, and am currently interning in the Office of the General Assembly (OGA) at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. When this opportunity came up this past spring, I knew I had to take advantage of it so that I could learn more about the denomination I had been a part of from a very young age.

This summer internship began as a time of vocational discernment, but it has become a spiritual journey.

“There just aren’t any young people interested in the church anymore”? Groups like Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Baptist Collegiate Ministries would disagree. Young people are returning to these organizations in droves, enticed by free pizza, games, and spiritual opportunities tailored specifically for them.

According to USA Today, volunteer organizations, including the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps*VISTA, and Teach for America are experiencing record surges in applications, up to two times their normal numbers.

Clearly, young people are interested in faith and service. So why are some Presbyterians so sure no young people are left in the PC(USA)?

The world seems to operate at a rapid pace these days, and the chaotic lives of young people are always going at breakneck speed. It is my experience that youth involvement in the church is strong, even if we are moving faster than before.

I had the opportunity to serve as an OGA staff person at the 217th General Assembly in Birmingham in June. For every comment I heard about the disillusionment of youth, I saw at least one example to disprove it. In fact, there were hundreds of living examples at the assembly, as there always are, in the form of youth advisory delegates. The YADs were energetic, fervent, and took their duties very seriously—except when they were leading plenary in an energizer.

My time in Birmingham is something of a blur. I wrote articles for the daily newspaper, wore a purple “Les” apron (which meant I helped provide general technical support for commissioners who were using Les, the name of the new electronic system used for the assembly), produced a video project, and helped staff a booth in the exhibit hall. All of those activities were challenging, enriching, and rewarding. But what I really learned at the General Assembly did not stem from my work. I learned about faith, Presbyterians, and God in spite of my work.

I have learned that faith is strengthened when we are not looking. I hardly had time for a single spare thought in my head in Birmingham, but just when I felt what seemed the peak of my frustration, I would see something that renewed my spirit.

I remember taking my first steps into the plenary hall and feeling stunned by what I saw. The sound of hundreds of Presbyterian voices singing a familiar hymn drew me in, and I was simply mesmerized by my feelings of our common faith.

I saw old and new friends in fellowship, committees form communities despite theological differences, a kind word of encouragement between strangers, and prayer that seemed to rejuvenate even the surliest of commissioners.

Perhaps I simply have not been around long enough to be disappointed in the church, or maybe we all need to remember Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 12:27-28: “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues.”

I realized I had never fully understood the metaphor of the body of Christ until this General Assembly experience. Many people joke about the bureaucracy of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and our frequent desire to form committees. In light of Paul’s words, it appears the PC(USA) is merely a living example of the specialization of the body of Christ.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the co-moderators of the youth advisory delegate caucus for the GA News. I felt humbled in the face of their vibrant enthusiasm, and their words captured my experience: Being an intern “has made me fall more in love with the body of Christ.”

My short time as an intern at the Presbyterian Center will soon end as quickly as it began, and I am left to attempt to decipher the significance of my experiences. My current career aspirations are to attend seminary and become ordained as a Minister of the Word and Sacrament. I do not know where God will take me in life, but I do know this experience will be with me wherever I go.