Meet Patrick Harley

As part of a connected denomination, pastors and ruling elders share responsibilities of carrying out the mission of the presbytery.  Our presbytery, composed of sixty-seven congregations in northeast Tennessee, possesses certain functions that congregations alone cannot carry out.  One of these is the preparation for ministry of women and men who have responded to God's call to enter ordained ministry to serve as teaching elders in the Church.

The Committee on Preparation for Ministry walks with these students through their seminary experience, and seek to evaluate their progress and provide mutual discernment for where God is calling them to serve.  I can attest from going through the experience in recent memory, it can feel somewhat tedious and laborious, filling out pages and pages of paperwork, organizing meetings, and traveling to presbytery events, but the work we carry out really is necessary if we believe in a system of mutual support and accountability.

Those seeking to become ordained in ministry must go through a series of steps with the presbytery that takes roughly three years, in addition to completing the Master's of Divinity Degree (which first requires a bacculaurete degree) and passing five denominational Ordination Exams.

Through the experience, the inquirer (the term for someone in discernment ) and later candidate (the stage to which the person moves if she or he indeed feels led to ordained service) is given a liason to accompany them through the journey.

I had a wonderful liason on my presbytery in East Tennessee, when I was in the ordination process.  The Rev. Dave Webster would contact me each quarter with updates on the process and would elicit information from me about my spiritual growth.  When I was beginning to seek a call, he shared with me from his own experience and asked important questions that helped me to listen more carefully to the Holy Spirit at work.

Because of this experience, I wanted to serve on the CPM so that I might have the chance to provide this care for a future candidate for ministry. 

At our last CPM meeting, I was named as the liason for Patrick Harley.  Patrick is from Greeneville, Tennessee where he was raised at the First Presbyterian Church.  He is a graduate of Auburn University where he majored in Philosophy and Religious Studies, was active in campus ministry, and served as the youth leader at FPC Auburn.  He has served as staff and as a member of planning teams for the Montreat Conference Center and just completed a year with the Young Adult Volunteer program of the PC(USA) in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He met with our committee only days after returning to the States, and it was a joy to hear about what God has been doing in his life over the past several years, from the early rumblings of call to ministry as a teenager, to the willingness to step into a foreign context to listen more carefully to God's call.

Patrick and I had a chance to meet for lunch last week before he heads to Decatur, Georgia to begin his studies at Columbia Theological Seminary.  I have appreciated his honesty, his openness, his attentiveness to the Spirit, and I ask the prayers of our church for Patrick as he continues to strive to deepen his walk with the Lord and respond to the call of Jesus in his life.

From our limited time together I feel very clear that the PC(USA) needs thoughtful, compassionate, and energized leadership that Patrick already exudes.  I look forward to walking with him in this journey and hope we might find ways for him to get to know some more members of our congregation as well.

I think it is helpful to see a face behind the money and time we dedicate to our Presbyterian identity.  Indirectly, our church has supported Patrick through our funds that help to maintain the Holston Presbytery Camp and Retreat Center, through denominational gifts that strengthen the Young Adult Volunteer Program and help to put on Youth and College Conferences at Montreat.  I am grateful that this congregation allows me to serve on a presbytery committee and take time to visit with future leaders in the church.  Let us remember that the Church and Mission of Jesus is far greater than our congregation that gathers each week, and let us continue to look and listen to those God puts in our lives to deepen our knowledge of what it means to be the body of Christ.

Being Present

One of the challenges I found as a theatre performance major in college was the necessity of being "in the moment" when performing in a scene on stage.  This sense of immediate presence is what separates good acting from bad acting, for when performers are "in the moment," the action seems spontaeneous and unplanned to the audience instead of scripted and blocked out (which it obviously is!). 

As a performer, it is easy to become distracted by the audience's response to the play, to be thinking about what is coming next in the show, or in a long run simply to let your mind wander to other concerns, just going through the motions to complete the performance.

I found the challenge of remaining "in the moment" not only a struggle on stage but even in preparation for a show.  With other classes and extracurricular responsibilities, it was often easy to delay scene rehearsal or preparation.  Or even when I would carve out time to rehearse, if I had not cleared off all the other things on my "to do" list first, I would find my mind wandering to those concerns instead of the task at hand.

I think this notion of "being in the moment," of being fully "present," is not only an essential element of good acting but is also an essential element of effective ministry.  We can all think of a time (whether in church or not), when someone took time to really listen to us, to make us feel like we were his or her only concern in the world.  Often we are aware that the person who took that time was busy and could have tried to move us on out the door, but it was the sense of presence, that patient listening, that meant something to us.  It made us feel important; it gave us value.  There was something sacred in the encounter.

I think it isn't mere politeness that requires us to extend this ministry of presence; I think it is theological.  In the incarnation (the fancy word for God becoming human in Jesus) we see God's commitment to being present with us.  We see it in Jesus' willingness to stop his plans to help those who called on him.  We see it in his conversations with outsiders whom others chose to ignore.  The Gospel According to Luke tells us that even on the cross, in extreme agony, Jesus took the time to listen to the thief who wished to repent of his sins.

Admittedly, I struggle to be fully present in ministry with others as I struggled to be "in the moment" in a theatre scene.  Plans and responsibilities often cloud my ability to be present with others, and it is an area in which I hope to grow.  I think the problem of distraction is exacerbated by my smart phone, where at any lull in life I can check e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter, or catch up on the news or send one more text message.  It gets to the point where I wonder if we are losing our ability to really engage each other or if our attention spans operate in only five minute increments.

Growing in presence begins, I believe, in prayer, in a centering on God's word that focuses the mind and heart on God and not on the chores and duties of the day.  It involves trust, that God's will is going to be done whether or not I have it scheduled into my calendar or not!  It involves accountability, holding each other to be true community, which means being together in openness and honesty.  It may even involve turning off the gadget for a while to be in an embodied relationship with another person.

I would encourage you, then, to take a moment today, and center yourself on God, be present with the Lord.  Then find some time with someone you care about to give yourself over to being fully present with him or her.  We may just see Jesus in the middle of it all!

August Eldertorial: Beth Folsom

The following post is the Eldertorial featured in our church newsletter, the Amen Almanac, for July. Each month, one of our Elders (those called by God and the congregation to guide our spiritual life together) writes a reflection on ways they see God at work in the world.

Carson Newman Outreach

As a new school year begins for many of our teachers and students, we are looking at some new programming to reach out to Carson Newman students.  This opportunity was identified partly through information gathered from the “Congregational Check-up”.  I am excited to have the chance to serve on a new Campus Ministry Team tasked to look at outreach to the Carson Newman community.

Between the outreach committee, the session, and conversations with some of our young adults from Carson Newman, several “new ideas” have been identified:

Holy Hot Dogs!  On move in day, August 17, we will be serving hot dogs and popcorn on the lawn to incoming students.  As we have done in previous years, we will also help the students move into their dorms.  We will need lots of hands on this big day!

Post worship study – after worship, Rev. Whaley will lead a session for college students with lunch included.  We would like a few “young at heart” participants in this class to facilitate discussion, but not so many as to outnumber the young adults!  We will also need volunteers to arrange lunches.

Finals study – same as above, except we will provide coffee, drinks, & snacks and stay open on finals week from 9pm – 2am.  Night owls needed (December 6-12)!!

Once a month, an activity will be offered to encourage our college students to get to know each other better, and us.  A trip to Dixie Stampede and a Saturday hike in the mountains are the planned events for the Fall Semester.

Why bother, you may ask.  We have tried to attract students in the past and it did not work.  Through our studies, we have learned that over 50% of adults under 25 have no religious affiliation.  Most young adults are reluctant to participate in “traditional church”.  We were told a story about a couple of students who came to our church by accident one Sunday; they felt trapped because so many people went to greet them after the service!  Good intentions, just overdone. 

The idea is not to appeal to the CN body at large, but rather a select number of students who may be seeking FPC as part of their faith journey.  Last year, we were blessed with having Abby Bruce and Grace Carpenter worship with us and sing in the choir, and they helped us to identify how a church like our could more effectively reach out to students. 

When students come to Sunday worship, if you are sitting in front, behind, or beside them, by all means say good morning and ask them if they are interested in the post worship college study group & lunch, learn where they are from, and let them know that we are glad they have come to worship with them.  Be careful, however, not to overwhelm them so that they are chatting in the sanctuary until dinner time!

If you would like to serve in any of the capacities noted above, please let Janie Gates, Ted Folsom, Linda Noonkesser, Darren Watson, Rev. Whaley, or me know.  A variety of help, talents, and time commitments are needed.   Jesus says that it is more blessed to give than to receive.  We never really know how blessed our lives can be unless we reach out to the world around us with the love of God.

The Olympics and the End of the World

Did you watch the opening cermonies of the Olympics this year in London?  While certainly not the lavish affair of Beijing 2008, I thought the organizers did a nice job representing their country in spectacle on July 27th.  Did you also notice, though, the relgious symbolism in the presentation?  It was not overt, but there was a kind of undercurrent of Christian eschatalogical hope woven into the story the actors, musicians, dancers, and technicians told.

The story began in pastoral England, with children's choirs of the four countries of the United Kingdom singing portions of their national anthems.  Did you notice the words?  From "Jerusalem,"

And did those feet in ancient time
walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy lamb of God
on England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
shine forth upon those clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
among those dark satanic mills?

There is here an allusion to that theological idea of Jerusalem, that home where God dwells in perfect unity with humankind, where justice and mercy and love create a culture of God's ultimate Shalom.  What a statement to make to open one of the few non-violent gatherings of humankind in our world today!

The medley continues with children singing "Danny Boy" and the "Flower of Scotland" before the Welsh children finished off the tour with "Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer," a hymn we sing in worship in our congregation.  And the chorus of this hymn?

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven
Feed me till I want no more.
Feed me till I want no more.

You hear that, with people of different nationalities, in a variety of dress, and you cannot help but remember the invitation to our Lord's table, "In the kingdom of God people will come from north and south and east and west to sit at table."  Was this moment, hanging in the humid London night air, a foretaste of that gathering?  Maybe?

And if the opening wasn't enough for you, when we came to the parade of nations, we watched as each country entered the arena with their nation's flag, walked it around the track, and then up a manmade hill where they stuck it in the ground, so that all the flags of all the nations were gathered together in one place.  And what stood at the top of the hill?  A tree.

A tree of life perhaps?  "On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves are for the healing of the nations.  Nothing accursed will be found there any more.  But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."

A tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.  I believe this theatrical presentation to open two weeks of competition between people of different countries, was pointing us to a unity we cannot understand fully yet, but a unity that we as followers of Jesus Christ must cling to, a hill where we will sit with brothers and sisters from across the globe and across the ages, beneath a tree of healing.  May it be so.