Since we're on the subject of worship, let's talk about that for a minute. When you were visiting churches across the country these past two years, were you especially excited or inspired by any new creative forms or worship?
Hope and despair run rampant in my worship experience with this denomination. We built a denomination where you can move from city to city, state to state, and find a Presbyterian Church exactly the same as the one you left. People say we're not a "one size fits all" church sometimes, but when it gets right down to it, we are. Even in the worship services of the more creative people, I could still write their order of worship. That has to change. You can still have the flow of a reformed structure of worship but it doesn't have to look exactly the same everywhere.
I was excited by a church in Chicago called Wicker Park Grace, led by the Rev. Nanette Sawyer. They do an improvisational worship service. The worship leaders and the pastor do this improv dance back and forth and yet if you look for it, you will see all the elements of a reformed liturgy. Whether we have the capacity to do this on a large scale, I don't know.
As you look ahead at the future of this denomination, where do see the biggest areas of growth and change?
The biggest challenge, and place we need to shift and change, is in our theological education. As Presbyterians, we're always going to have this idea that folks are set aside for ministry, so how we train people for pastoral ministry in a variety of manifestations is going to be crucial to the future of our denomination. We're going to need to figure out how to train pastors to be tentmakers, to be bi-vocational, and to see ministry not as a last resort but as a calling. We need to broaden our understanding of pastoral ministry. Our seminaries have to re-engage with the church so they better understand what is needed. For the most part, we're still training people for a church that exists now, but not for a church that is yet to become. I think seminaries need to take the lead on training folks to help transform the church in the future.
The other piece that is going to be major is institutional structure, from church sessions to middle governing bodies. Because again, if I believe in the connectional church, we have to have the structures there that support that and manifest a healthy presence. So in a denominational future, how we structure middle governing bodies is going to be huge. That's the game changer for the PCUSA -- re-thinking our synods and presbyteries to model ministry in a connectional way.
As far as ministry components, I predict a resurgence in justice ministries again, as so many young folks are looking at issues like trafficking, gender, invisible children, environmental issues, etc. Folks are realizing that we need to come alongside some of these movements and be influencers. The last thing I'd say is that we just hired a new director of our Washington office who is going to reinvigorate our prophetic presence in DC. I think that piece is going to be really important.
What would a vibrant mainline church of the future look like?
It is one where you walk in and you feel that there is life. You feel that there is theological integrity and you feel like people in that space have been part of its birth. There is this sense that there is something greater happening and that it is because of this that people have gathered. In a reformed understanding where we believe God is unfolding some reality, it's a place that knows its role in that and is journeying along that way.
One last question for you: What does the future of former Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow look like? What's emerging for you now?
People keep asking me if I'm going to slow down now that I'm no longer Moderator. My meter always runs on high -- I don't know what slow looks like. I'm looking forward to coming back to Mission Bay Community Church where I serve as Pastor. I'm ¾-time now at the church, trying to model that it's not just good for me, but it's good for the church to bring in some new folks and younger staff. I'm also teaching a class on social media at McCormick Seminary in the fall. Like everyone, I‘m working on a book. It's called Embracing the Gray, and it's not about social media or technology or church leadership but about my particular life and some of the craziness that's happened, and finding the calm of Christ in a world of chaos. I have three daughters and a wife, so I'll be home a bit more. But I'm still going to be out there traveling and being part of some larger national conversations on church and emergent stuff. I really loved being Moderator, but I'm thrilled to be done and am looking forward to what's next.
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