Thank you and some parting thoughts

My term as moderator of the Presbytery of the Cascades ended last Saturday at the conclusion of the presbytery's meeting in Bend. Ric Neese, the pastor of Chapel-By-The-Sea in Lincoln City (Nelscott for those of my age), was elected as the new moderator; I now go on to serve a year as chair of the Presbytery council. I want to thank the presbytery for giving me the opportunity to serve as moderator, which among other things included the opportunity to post my thoughts on this blog. Although I did not stimulate the conversation that I had hoped to produce, a number of people have told me that they found my comments interesting and helpful; it also gave me a chance that lay people seldom have, to do a little preaching on my own. In this, my final posting, I want to make a couple of points that come out of the recent presbytery meeting.

The most extensive floor discussion at the presbytery concerned Common Table, a new church development in Bend that is taking a different tack from what most of us are used to seeing. Together with two other main line churches in that city, it will operate a restaurant with the hope of attracting people in the 18 to 35 age group, a group that seems to be missing in many of our churches. The focus will be on engaging people in conversation, beginning with where they are and helping them see how the Christian message is relevant to their situations. I would suggest that that is only part of what we need to do to bring this age group back to the church. Many people of that age are deeply interested in issues of justice and equity, and we need to show them how those things are not simply part of the Christian message but are at the heart of it. As I've indicated in previous posts, the Kingdom of God is about the transformation of societies and political structures, not simply individual issues, important as they are. I think that the major competition for this age group for my own church is not the conservative churches that cause us such concern but, rather, the vibrant and socially active Unitarian church a few blocks down the street. We need to show younger adults that our churches can be both fully Christian and just as socially involved as that church.

Probably the saddest part of the recent meeting was the decision of Circuit Rider Books to suspend operations. For many years that organization has provided a good mix of reading material, both for our denomination and other main line denominations. With its death it will become a little more difficult to browse through a good selection of thoughtful and scholarly books. There are, however, on-line alternatives available; I recommend two. First, the Presbyterian Marketplace:

http://store.pcusa.org/#panel-6

Secondly, a related resource of educational materials:

http://www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com

With that I say goodbye, and thanks again for the past year as your moderator.