Yesterday was an incredibly long day at General Assembly, so I apologize for my blog post coming in a bit late, but still wanted to talk about all that happened yesterday in “The Room Where it Happens.” I will make sure to be more timely with my blog about today!
To frame this blog, I want to make two things clear about my personal background. First, I am Hamilton trash, and played Rev. Holly Ulmer a song from Hamilton while we were driving to a NCP meeting this past winter. Second, I would just like say that I am working to make my own major in Narrative Methods at UMD. As a result, I care deeply about how we tell stories.
Our church is a safe space for all people. This is the story that we, as the PCUSA, want to tell people. But we do little to equip people to act in this manner. Jesus Christ is Lord of the conscious. That is the very definition of reformed theology. We all are equal in the eyes of God and capable of making decisions. With that in mind, we do little beyond making statements. We need to act like we are all equal, and don’t ever call someone #justanelder. Both TEs and REs are crucial to the success of our denomination. We, as sisters and brothers in Christ, are all in the room where it happens. Including young people in this church. But our invitation seems less important than the invitation of others in our congregation. What kind of narrative are we telling?
I want to close with something a little more light-hearted sounding, but still deeply serious to me and to our denomination and Jesus’ Bride, the Church. “With great power comes great responsibility.” Yesterday I heard about a Super-Bible-heroes curriculum that reminds me how important our work is. We are #allministers and What To Fix, PCUSA (or my preferred attention-grabber, #wtfPCUSA) is that we need to empower and equip our ruling and teaching elders to know this. As a YAAD, I struggled yesterday with the environment of my peers and the environment of all GA as my peers in Christ. God the Mother and Father Call us to treat each other well and allow ourselves to be opened to the way of the Holy Spirit. I look forward to committee work and beyond. This can be the counter-narrative at General Assembly.
Peace and Blessings,
Courtney Steininger
L3 Intern