Soli Deo Gloria

Went to worship at Saint Andrews United Presbyterian Church, my home church where I was baptized, raised in faith, confirmed, and ordained. I was a little anxious coming back, as I haven't been back for four or five years, and I figured I'd have to remember a lot of folks I grew up with but haven't seen forever. Otherwise, I was looking forward to it, and especially to hear Pastor Merry preach. I think the only time I've heard her was at Bill's memorial service.

Well, no worries on either account. There were only a few of the old timers there that knew me, both a relief and a sadness. As Dad said, most of them are gone now -- to their reward, that is. Also, Merry wasn't preaching. For one thing, she has had a couple unexpected eye surgeries and isn't supposed to be reading a lot. For another, it was the morning for the youth mission trip group to lead worship and report on their experience. Oh well.

As it turned out, the youth did a really fine job leading worship! The theme for their work week was "More or Less," with specifics each day, like More Courage - Less Fear, More Love  - Less Ego, More Jesus - Less Me. The girls who spoke about their experiences (they were all girls -- the one boy on the trip wasn't there for worship) did so with enthusiasm, confidence, and apparent faith. It was very encouraging. Unfortunately, the music for the service was an epic failure. They planned three worship choruses, the music for which was on a CD that decided not to play on the church sound system at worship time. With no accompanying music and songs that were unknown to most present, there was not much singing at all. Too bad. A couple of the songs were ones Meredith and I know from LOGOS Conference. She wrote me a note early in the service that we should sing with "obnoxious enthusiasm," but when it came to it our enthusiasm was consumed by the larger silence. Nevertheless, may God be praised in heaven and earth! Amen.

After the service, I was surprised that there really were so very few people I recognized in a fairly small crowd at that. I don't know if that was the usual size worshiping congregation or if they were away for the summer or if they were avoiding the youth-led service (NEVER understood why people do that), but in a town the size of Leesburg with five or six Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations and a few other Presbyterian flavors thrown in, I was sad. When I was a kid it was hard to find a seat in that church. Of course, the split in 197X put an end to that, but still I found myself wondering if Presbyterians really are done, if our era is past. Regardless of that larger pattern in society, as long as a congregation can put the kind of light-of-Christ experience into a group of teenagers that was demonstrated in this worship service, there is still hope.

Lord Jesus, use your faithful people, whatever their denomination, to work your will in the world. Amen.