A more expansive view: a blog about encounters with Presbyterians and seminaries

Graciously Recieved by Grace Presbytery

I have always been told about how big things in Texas are and once again I have experienced it.  The TEF Seminary Support Network received an overflowing welcome to Texas by members and staff of Grace Presbytery.  There were so, so many wonderful experiences and connections that happened around the edges of our annual gathering of the TEF Seminary Support Network last week.  One of the most memorable was the love, prayer and presence extended to us by leaders in Grace Presbytery, 180 congregations and over 45,000 members in northeast Texas. 

Pictured above is the font/fountain that greets visitors to the Grace Presbytery, at the Presbyterian Mission Center where one will find the offices of the Synod of the Sun, the Texas Presbyterian Foundation, and FaithHospice.  Around the base of the font is the commissioning words that emerge from baptism, "Sent by God into the world."  What a message of hope that reminds all who enter there of the call by God to be in ministry in the world. 

I was invited by Ashley Hood (pictured on the left with me and sporting her "Seminaries and Churches Together shirt!), Acting Associate General Presbyter of Grace Presbytery and the chair of their Committee on Preparation for Ministry, Betsy Winters, to meet with the COPM while I was in town.  They shared dinner with our Network and I shared lunch with them.  I felt like it was an extension of the communion table as we gathered both places.  Grace has over seventy inquirers and candidates, one of the most of any PC(USA) presbytery.... and they are looking for more! Grace's Eli Project seeks to identify high school and college age students who are discerning potential calls to church vocations.  They match them with mentors and provide events for all involved.  I could see there how a culture of call is being nurtured and created in wonderful ways. 

That same Spirit was recognizably present during a Prayer Breakfast organized by Lander Bethel, Pastor of Grand Avenue Presbyterian Church in Sherman, TX.  Over a dozen pastors gathered with Judy Fletcher, the Synod of the Sun Executive, Linda Valentine, the Executive Director of the GAC, Carol Adcock, the Chair-elect of the GAC, and TEF Seminary Support Network synod representatives.  Prayers of thanksgiving and praise, especially for the numerous churches that have given to the TEF almost every year since it began, nineteen years ago.  Eastminster Presbyterian Church of Dallas was honored for giving every single year of the fund!

Days like these remind me about the new life that we are all given in baptism.  They remind me that we are not alone in answering our call by God in our new life.  I give thanks that we are a connectional and connected church that is doing faithful and fruitful ministry in every corner of the globe and the NE corner of Texas!

Lee back home in Louisville

Seminary Support Network @ American Airlines Training Center

The Theological Education Fund Seminary Support Network is holding it's annual meeting in the American Airlines Training Center in Dallas, Texas. Over a hundred faithful Presbyterians from across the country have fought the airline cancellations and storms to be together because they care about PC(USA) Seminaries and strong theological education in the PC(USA). 

Pictured above are Nicholas Yoda and Sue Dallam, a current and former member of the Committee on Theological Education, led the group in a time of visioning and community building on Wednesday evening. 

Amy Pagliarella, a recent McMormick MDiv graduate, former business consultant, and current Director of Children's Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, IL is serving as a liturgist and worship leader.  Ted Wardlaw, President of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary preached for the opening worship service.

Tony Ruger, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Seminary, shared with us about the history of the TEF. 

More to come....

"My" Seminary, "Our" Seminary: Johnson C. Smith

The Rev. Paul T. Roberts, Pastor of Church of the Master Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA and chair of the Alumni Association for Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary opened the 141st Founder's Day Conference today at New Life Presbyterian Church in Atlanta with a story and a song.  Roberts welcomed the gathered group and celebrated the over 150% attendance growth from the previous year.  Roberts, a key organizer of the event shared how he received communications leading up to Founder's Day from alums saying how proud they were that  "Johnson C. Smith is my seminary."  This year's event is different: it is a time of sharing and equipping.  Three plenary workshops were held today and worship will be later this evening.  Each time different alumna and alumni are the leaders and more is to come tomorrow and Wednesday when the Founder's Day Convocation will take place.  There is a renewed sense of ownership of the seminary taking place that models something for all of us in the Presbyterian Church (USA). 

Certainly, Johnson C. Smith is the seminary of a large number of African-American PC(USA) pastors, probably the majority in the PC(USA).  But it is also a seminary of the PC(USA)... our seminary, too!  One we all can be proud to support.   Supporting the leaders on the Board of Trustees for the seminary, the Interim Dean, the Rev. Dr. Mark Lomax, and the Alumni Association with our prayers and our friendship in Christ are critical.

Dr. Lomax briefly addressed the assembled and shared a message from Jeremiah 32 where the prophet is asked by God to go and buy a field in Anathoth, in a perceivably foolish place to purchase land at a clearly difficult time.  Ownership, partnership, relationship, leadership, identity, and contextual ministry and praxis were all key concepts in the morning and afternoon presentations by alums the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, Pastor of Liberation Community Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN; the Rev. Warren LeSane, Associate Presbyter for Church Development for the Presbytery of Charlotte; and the Rev. Dr. SanDawna Ashley, Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church, New Castle, DE. 

There is more to come this evening with the Rev. Dr. Larry Hill, Pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church, Paw Creek, NC preaching.  Tuesday and Wednesday are also filled with workshops and celebrations.

Lee in Atlanta, GA.

Tipping Point

One of my favorite people and musicians in the world is David LaMotte.  In 1998 he came out with a really cool CD with "songs for kids and their grownups" called the S.S. Bathtub.  My family really loves it, especially "Drops Like Me," a song he wrote about how everyone matters and how one person can make a difference.   Drops like me is the story of a raindrop turning into a wave.  Rhetorically the song asks, "How much does one drop matter?  How much does one drop mean?" He answers, "A little bit of water can do a whole lot of washing clean!"

The last few weeks, you may have heard, have been quite wet in Louisville.  Flash floods last night meant that a small pond formed in my driveway and my youth soccer team had to cancel practice for the third time in five weeks.  Those raindrops add up and we are almost at a tipping point in Louisville.  Let's hope the banks of the Ohio River don't reach that point!

Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, was a tipping point for me.  I would not say that the book is as profound as it is practical.  This former reporter for the Washington Post and staff writer for The New Yorker talks about how epidemic change takes place as new trends and ideas spread like epidemics. In it he talks about how three types of persons are needed to create a tipping point for change: Mavens, Salespersons/ Persuaders, and Connectors.  The mavens know the details, the salespersons/ persuaders know how to tell the story, and the Connectors know so many people that they spread that story quickly.

I think Gladwell is right in his observations and loved reading the stories about when and where he has seen this happen.  Most interesting to me are the Connectors.  They seem to be the key to something spreading like wildfire. These are probably the people on social networking websites like Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Ning.com and others that have hundreds of "friends."  They are also people who know your name and often introduce you to others because they know them as well and something the two of you have in common.  I love Connectors!  They really make the world a fun and exciting place!

I am not 100% sure what makes water molecules bond to other water molecules, but my eight year old son tells me it happens at a sub-atomic level.  I believe him, and I am thankful for those connections!  In spite of the damage water can do, it can do so, so much good when it is connected! 

Next week I will be with the Seminary Support Network, a group of about 150 folk who are real Connectors in the PC (USA) on behalf of our Presbyterian seminaries and the Theological Education Fund.  I plan to blog regularly during that meeting.  For me, this Network is connectional church theology at work.  The multiple networks (hunger, college women, worldwide networks by country and region, health, and more!)in the PC(USA)are great reasons why we are a great church.  Thanks be to God!

"And the water gonna roll from the mountain to the stream
And the water gonna roll from the river to the sea
We will roll on together until everyone can see
That the mighty tidal wave is made of little bitty drops like me"

(Drops Like Me, Words and Music by David LaMotte, ©1998 Lower Dryad Music/ASCAP)

It reminds me of Amos 5:24 "...Let justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like and ever flowing stream."

Lee in Louisville.

P.S. David LaMotte will be featured at the Monday, June 23 group breakfast at this year's PC(USA) General Assembly!  Hope to see you there!

Lee Meme

Meme is a term coined by evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins.  A meme is modeled after and rhymes with gene and is influenced by the terms mimic and memory or the Greek term μίμημα (imitation, copy).

In the blogging world, memes are responses to the same list of questions by a group of bloggers that is passed on to others as a way of getting to know each other.   Some have said it is like a "chain letter for blogs, but without any horrible ramifications if you stop it."

I was tagged/ invited by Noelle Gulden who writes for Network Notes, a blog of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW).  Here are the rules I was given:

·         In 25 words or less answer the following five questions;

·         Tag five Presbyterian bloggers and send them a note to let them know they were tagged;

·         Be sure to link or send track backs.

So here we go. PresbyMEME 5:

1.    What is your earliest memory of being distinctly Presbyterian?

I grew up in five Presbyterian churches, at Presbyterian Camps, and a Presbyterian-related college (Maryville College, TN). I began to visit friend’s Baptist churches as a teenager.  Everything fell into place for me then and I began to see why education matters so much to Presbyterians. 

2.    On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend LESS energy and time?

Coveting the past.   The PC(USA) is not a static body of Christ.  I’m not saying we need to do away with our history, I think we should study it more.  I just don’t think we need to idolize it.

3.    On what issue/question should the PC(USA) spend MORE energy and time?

Nurturing strong leaders, in my mind, is critical to addressing the adaptive changes among us and ahead of us.  They will help us engage and embrace the future God is giving us.  There is wonderfully faithful ministry going on in the PC(USA) and new ministry opportunities unfolding everyday. 

4.    If you could have the PC(USA) focus on one passage of scripture for an entire year, what would it be?

I would have to say the Exodus story.  I love the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, the women in the reeds, Moses at the burning bush, the parting of the Sea of Reeds, manna in the wilderness, the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, the wilderness experience, the liberation that is accomplished, and the leadership and group struggles along the way.

5.    If the PC(USA) were an animal what would it be and why?

I’m not sure about what animal, but I do think of one of the largest living organisms on the earth, the Aspen tree.  Aspens grow in colonies, sending out trunks in multiple locations.  They survive and even flourish in high winds and forest fires. Trunks are constantly dying and new ones are always emerging.

Extra Credit: Jesus shows up at General Assembly this year, what does he say to the Presbyterian Church (USA)?

Thank you for your many gifts and ministries!  Do not be afraid to share those gifts and expand the reach of those ministries.  Keep hope alive!

Now for the hardest part, who to tag?  So many have already been tagged!  Carol Howard Merritt, Walk Jones, Shannon Nicole O’Donnell, Landon Whitsitt, and Greg Bolt.

Lee in Louisville