220th General Assembly- Day 1

I don’t like to travel. Which, for those who know me, might sound surprising. In just the past four years I’ve been to Israel, Haiti (3 times), France, and England, not to mention trips around the country for different church/learning opportunities. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed those trips, it’s just that I don’t like leaving. It was a little easier this morning, even if it meant being up at 5 a.m. The house was empty. My family had gone to visit more family down on the Gulf coast. The dog had been deposited at the “Pet Spa”. The truth is that I like my life, my house, where I live. So maybe it isn’t that I don’t like travel, it’s just the leaving that I have trouble with.

Today I traveled to Pittsburgh to serve my stint as commissioner to the 220^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The pre-assembly material I received recommended that commissioners arrive on Friday. That didn’t work for me. We were doing VBS this week and I had to be there for the last day.  The actual business of the assembly didn’t begin until Saturday afternoon, so I figured I could swing that (hope there isn't much business next Sat. a.m., cause I'm leaving early too. Yep, that's me- arrive late, leave early). It helped that the Office of the General Assembly allowed me to book a flight out of SUX. For those of you who live in a metro area with access to an airport that flies multiple carriers- good for you. For the most part if you want a reasonably priced airfare around my parts, you have to drive the hour-and-a-half south to the bustling metropolis of Omaha. But this morning I caught the 6:30 flight out of Sioux City (SUX). My friend and colleague, Paul, volunteered to pick me up at the ungodly early hour of 5 a.m. to shuttle me to the Sioux Gateway Airport. And while the Siouxland area boasts a population in excess of 100K people, it’s small enough that you can go to the airport to catch a Saturday morning flight and run into neighbors from down the street. Go figure.

The flights to Pittsburgh were uneventful except for the fact that the sinus congestion I’ve been fighting the past few days wrecked havoc with my head. Descending into Chicago, it felt like someone was prying open my forehead with a crow bar. By the time I made it to the ‘burgh the congestion had moved from my nose to my left ear, which at this writing is still blocked. First order of business once I checked in at the convention center was to find a Rite-Aid, hand over my driver’s license and secure some Sudafed. There was quite a bit of traffic coming into downtown Pittsburgh from the airport.  We were told that Kenny Chesney was in concert tonight. Guess that explains the prevalence of young women in jean short/skirts, white tank tops and straw cowboy hats (half w/ cowboy boots, half w/ flip flops. No, seriously, it’s like they all called each other before coming to the concert.

The Presbyterians were considerably more subdued in their wardrobe. I caught the second half of opening worship and found my seminary buddy, Chris. Worship was nice, big local choir, extensive hand bell choir, liturgical dancers for communion. Is it tacky to comment on how stale the communion bread was. "Hey! Give me that cup, again, I made need a swig of that to wash this down." Then it was on to the first business meeting. We got to test out our voting devices by answering some demographic questions. Over 60% of the commissioners are over 56-years-old. That puts me in a considerable minority. But it’s good company, the other commissioner from our Presbytery is also in the 36-45 category.

We were shown a video introducing the denomination’s 1001 worshipping communities initiative. Sounds good, right? The hope is to establish 1001 new worshipping communities over the next ten years. I think that’s a step in the right direction. Except the tag is about 'making people feel special'. EXCUSE ME???? I was under the impression that worship was about- well, not to belabor the obvious but, GOD. Worship isn’t about how I feel, it’s about God. The point is to invite people into worshiping the living God. So why are we indulging in all this navel gazing, free-to-be-you-and-me blather? Ugh. It’s stuff like this that blatantly and obviously gets it so utterly wrong that I find discouraging.

Dinner was nice, and free. I like free. Speaking of which- I got a coffee mug from Presbyterian Publishing. Oh, and the dessert was good too.

Then on to the evening session where we selected a moderator. It took awhile. The four nominees had 5 minutes each to address the assembly. Then there was an hour of questions from the floor. Let me just say, "Folks, this is not the time to make a statement for your cause! Ask a freaking question, already." The one guy who really connected with a lot of the missional language that I’ve been using in the church I serve, shot himself in the foot on the question about gay marriage. I guess there was no way around it, although I didn’t hear the other nominees take a position. He did. He said he believed that marriage was between a man and a woman- and I think that got him pigeon-holed as a “conservative”. Much of the tone being struck by all four of the nominees was away from partisan affinity groups, so that admission may have cost him. My inclination was toward the woman who seemed to have the most experience and understanding of where the church finds itself at this moment. But after four votes, the Assembly landed on the pastor from NJ, Rev. Neal Presa. Presbyterians are an interesting bunch. They’re mostly older and white. But they aspire to be younger and multicultural. Often they seem inclined to select a moderator who doesn’t necessarily reflect who they are, but who they’d like to be. I have no judgment about that, just the observation. And while I thought it was a nice touch to include his young sons in the installation. My first impression of the new moderator is that he comes across as kind of slick.Not fond of pastors who appear to be trying to sell me something. Just sayin'.

It was a long day and it is time to call it a night. Tomorrow is worship and the beginning of committee business. Until then, goodnight, true believers.