I am excited...

No, unfortunately those were not my words. Instead, I sat among the delegates (350 of them) who make up the Presbytery. We had a meeting last Saturday. We voted on the mundane ammendments proposed by the last General Assembly. Exciting, ministry building decisions and changes like changing the name of the General Assembly Council (GAC) to the General Assembly Mission Council. Wow! That's radical stuff.

The average age of our delgates was easily 65. About six of the delegates felt that it was necessary to speak. They were about the only ones to speak....multiple times on issues that will do little to break open the walls of our church and allow new life to take seed.

Ever since my arrival in the church in the 60's our denomination has lost approximately 2 million members and we busy ourselves changing the time of our meetings and the names of our committees. We constantly re-arrange never changing the reality of decline.

Towards the end of the meeting one young candidate for ministry offered his two minutes worth of Spiritual journey and in those two minutes shared his excitement. "I am excited about our denominiation. I am excited about this Presbytery. I am excited for the church."

Oh how I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, "For God's sake someone needs to be excited!" I am thankful that God continues to send a few young excited folks into our midst. I only pray the same church that has squelched my excitement does not yank away his dreams and visions too quickly.

I long to be excited again for our denomination, presbytery and church. I'll hold out a bit longer. God spoke through that young man and I heard. I'll trust that God will endure our current stale mate of bickering and loss of imagination.