R.E.S.C.U.E. me
The Mid Council Leaders Gathering closes with worship featuring a word from a PC(USA) Co-Moderator
LOUISVILLE — The Rev. CeCe Armstrong’s “Leading the R.E.S.C.U.E.” was the closing message of this year’s Mid Council Leaders Gathering as part of Wednesday’s worship service, a fitting sending for leaders in the PC(USA) heading back home to continue their ministry in the communities they serve.
Armstrong, who together with the Rev. Tony Larson is Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly (2024), used Psalm 71:1-6 to preach on a ministry of R.E.S.C.U.E., for “receive,” “expose,” “send,” “challenge,” “utilize” and “enlist.”
Armstrong called Psalm 71 a “senior citizen’s prayer,” noting that “through stress and longing, the author trusted God and affirmed trust in God” throughout youth and into adulthood. “The poet praises God because God’s answer was certain to come,” Armstrong said. That “total commitment to God echoes how we get to this point in life with the positive outlook of joy in the Lord.”
“We can trust God for our future, but sometimes that’s hard,” she said. “You’ve just got to have faith, friends.”
Like the psalmist, when we’ve been rescued by God, “there’s a need to tell others of God’s grace and mercy,” according to Armstrong. “I know you’re in charge of a lot of stuff,” she told mid council leaders, “but can you steal away for a while each day and study God’s Word?”
We trust in God, and on that topic, Armstrong wondered if any in worship had bothered to check their chair for sturdiness before plopping into it. “You trusted it would hold together,” she said, “and we need to have that same trust in God.”
“We trust God, even if the rescue is from our own selves.”
Now that more of us are living into our 80s and 90s, “we tend to believe the longer we serve, the more effective we are, and that’s not true,” she said. “Find your replacement, and train them as you go. Be the one who gets to sit back and watch the fruit of your labor. … Smell your roses while you can sniff.”
As mid council leaders, “we might have the arrogant thought we are responsible for rescuing those under our care,” that “we will save the people, the church and the denomination.”
“You can’t save nobody!” she said. “Jesus did that already.”
“Since God is a God of rescues,” she said, “let’s look at God’s R.E.S.C.U.E. plan.”
For “receive,” we are to “receive those who seek Christ,” she said, because “just as you did this for the least of these, you did it to me.”
For “expose,” Armstrong urged worshipers to “expose the wonders and mysteries of our triune God.” “I pray we will proclaim a relevant and righteous gospel. Stretch to expose the triune God everywhere. Find out who you serve, then meet them where they are.”
For “send,” she called on leaders to send people with hope. “Fall in love with these people over and over again, no matter how many times they break your heart. If you don’t love them, they can’t get what God has.” She defined supplication as “the way to never tire of the work. That’s why I tell people, ‘I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it.’”
Our many “challenges” are all the more reason to depend on God. “Know your labor is not in vain,” Armstrong told the leaders. “Don’t seek to be more successful; seek to be more faithful to the God who called you to this work.”
We must “utilize” every gift God has given us, Armstrong said. “God wants to work through us collectively, so listen to God, who still speaks in the silences.” The work “is not about you, no matter how much it expands or contracts,” she said. Leaders’ gifts “are the answer to prayers that have been prayed.”
We must “enlist” others “to assist on this journey,” she said. “God will send the help that will be the hands and feet of Christ.” It’s the “generosity of our siblings in the faith that helps make this work possible.” But “don’t expect scar-free ministry, for our risen Savior did not obtain that.” Rather, “walk with the understanding that God has you and has had you all the time.”
The service included a time for mid council leaders to remember their baptisms. They came forward to one of two bowls of water as Armstrong and Larson helped them remember.
In addition to the Co-Moderators, The Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Taylor of the Presbytery of Baltimore, Ruling Elder Carla Campbell of Pittsburgh Presbytery, and PC(USA) national staffers Phillip Morgan and the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell assisted with Wednesday’s service.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
