Our church, Westminster Presbyterian in Lakewood, NY, hosted Phyllis Tickle this past weekend. And we had another surprise and a wonderful guest, Karen Sloan joining us for the weekend. What energy!!! What inspiration!!!

I have decided to write this post in response to last weekend to share some reflections as well as to encourage anyone in the Presbymergent community that it is possible for traditional congregations to transform themselves into the hope of the Great Emergence. Many of the emergent churches out there are new plants which have the potential to try amazing things! Then there are those of us who are in declining Presbyterian churches wondering if there is any hope at all!!! Well, yes, and yes, and yes.

Over the past several months I have read the posts on Presbymergent, visited blogs of many folks, websites of Presbymergent churches and been left with more questions rather than affirmations. When I compared our church with many of the other like-minded churches, we did not fit in! So the question of “who we are” as a congregation has haunted me until this weekend. Well, we do not fit in! And that is a good thing. (As Martha Stewart would say!) What makes us emergent is not that we all look and talk alike, but how we are transforming in, through and with Christ to co-create with the Spirit in this Great Emergence. So I boldly declare that our small community is emergent. And it is fantastic!!!!

Our church is located in a 90% white, quite provincial, community with many folks who are either at or below the poverty level. Westminster had been declining for over 25 years (like many mainline churches) when my husband James and I arrived as co-pastors in 2000. In the past seven and a half years, we have tried many programs to grow the church. Folks who were first crazy about us became the most resistant. We gained a few here and there but we lost many to age and death.

In the midst of all the activities and programs, James and I focused on helping those who were willing to truly learn and grow as disciples of Jesus. We focused on connecting the head to the heart. There was a core group of 30 folks who responded as we prayed, deeply delved into the Scripture, practiced the spiritual disciplines, made retreats…. (Some in the congregation actually accused us of teaching new age and witchcraft…)

Three years ago, we went to a spirituality conference with Phyllis Tickle at Montreat. There were five of us. Everything changed after that conference. We came back convinced that God was leading us in this new direction, and the Spirit would show us how to seek and pray. This was the moment when we truly turned to God, praying on our knees (literally!!!), asking God to show us what we needed to do. We knew we wanted to be a community where we can taste and smell the Kingdom of God. We knew we want to be bold in our Christian discipleship. We knew Jesus is the center.

As we sought more of God, we saw more clearly what needed to be done. So we sold our building in 2007, and moved to a rental facility where we worship, fellowship, nurture, challenge and are growing as a community. There were only 30 of us when we moved. The rest left! Now we have about 50 in our community. God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” You bet! God’s breath has entered our congregation and now we have come to life.

The majority in our congregation is over 40 years old, and we have several who are above 80! We have many children, as well as young adults, single moms and dads, and those with no kids. There are those who are Postmodern, and those who cannot spell Postmodern. There are Republicans, Democrats, independents, veterans, some who have graduate degrees, and some with only high school diplomas! Some are on Facebook, some have blogs, some don’t even have computers.

Some only go to the early emergent/contemporary/… service and some only go to the traditional Reformed service. Some alternate in between and some go to both every Sunday.

We use the Discipleship Project as our congregational formation tool. Everyone participates. (If you don’t know what it is, please do check it out, it works: www.thediscipleshipproject.com.) We have a Christian formation center, Wellspring, where we teach and nurture the spiritual disciplines. We host High Teas (Tea with a Purpose) as a part of our hospitality ministry. We hold Bible studies at a local coffee shop, have outreach with the local artists through the Arts Council of Jamestown, host concerts for local bands…, and we have just established a ministry for families in crisis, Faithful Hands. [Thanks to the efforts of Tara, our Worship and Outreach Director...]

I have wanted to share this community life with you beacuse this is who we are. We are not trying to do programs, but desire to be available in our life and work to the presence of God in and through us. We believe there are three standards for us as an emergent congregation which centers us: Christ, prayer, and community. And the Scripture holds all these three strands together. We will face many challenges in the near future (financial being one of them) but we go ahead, knowing that God will not abandon us, and we continue to seek us as we follow Christ in a world living in fear and chaos.

So friends, let us have hope, because God is indeed doing a new thing. Can we percieve it? May you experience the wonder of God in this holy season of Advent.