Let the parties begin! – presbymergent San Francisco
(for more infomation on presbymergent parties, check out the events page)
Meeting in an ‘old’ presbymergent church with silvery walls, “The Spiritual Ecology Project: A day of conversation about the emerging church and God’s mission in our world” was a great day. It began with a classic Emergent Gathering breakfast, whole-wheat crepes and fresh fruit, and merged to clusters of conversations. Interacting with various groups, my estimate is that around 10% of those at this Emergent event were Presbyterians. Pastors, seminary students, non-ordained staff, and a few Elders, made for a diverse group of presbymergents.
Following Bruce Reyes-Chow’s guiding, we went as a presbymergent group to a nearby restaurant to break bread together (though not on our knees ;). With our faces to the rising sun, we lunched on a patio while introducing ourselves, questioning and talking about presbymergent futures. A favorite quote for me was a pastor who said, “I give my time to doing what is fun.”
Most of our time together was sharing reflections on Emergent and PC(USA). As Bruce and I explained more about presbymergent, a question I particularly appreciated was, “What is presbymergent’s agenda?” He wanted to know if presbymergent had ambitions to ‘change the church.’ His question is very logical, yet I realized in that moment, ‘agenda’ was not a category I had operated out of in volunteering for presbymergent. What does motivate me to coordinate presbymergent parties? My answer seemed a bit odd at first, “I want to make more friends.” Yet it’s true. What I understand my work with presbymergent to be about is contributing to a network of friends, of finding and connecting those seeking to be a part of reformed missional communities located in postmodern contexts. With that ‘agenda,’ all in all, this party was a success.
A capital-f Friend, also joined in this lunch. Her observations as an outsider to a presbyterian discussion are on her blog. (If anyone else blogged about our lunch conversation, let me know and I’ll add a link here in this post.)
The strangest “the world is really small” moment of the whole day came when a man, who had spent the morning standing behind a video camera, sat down and introduced himself. “Hi, my name is Caven.” My brain made some quick connections – his name, his dark curly hair – and I responded, “Caven, were you a volunteer with MPPC youth ministry years ago?” Then we both had shocked expressions on our faces. It had been about fifteen years since we had seen one another. No longer an emerging teenager, it was a joy to thank Caven for his positive contribution to my path of being a presbymergent pastor. (thank you to youth ministries volunteers!) What brought Caven to this event is a documentary he’s working on to tell a presbymergent story of the merger between First Presbyterian Church of Santa Cruz and Vintage Faith. It should be finished later this year, and more information about the documentary will be forthcoming when it’s closer to completion.
