During our Wednesday evening worship services at Wartburg we have a time for student testimonies. It's an opportunity for students to share what God has been up to in their lives, or talk about a particular cause or idea that is important to them. I am constantly amazed by the honesty and insight of the students who share their testimony, and from time to time I will share them on this blog as a window into the faith lives of young adults.
Samantha Heinen is a Sophomore at Wartburg who is majoring in Business. She is an All-Conference Golfer and is one of our worship curators (planners). She shared this testimony on Wednesday night at Eucharist and with her permission I'm sharing it with you. Her story testifies to the frustration and joy young adults experience in the Church. I hope you enjoy it.
Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic break! I know mine was especially brightened when I was working at the W one day and Pastor Brian came up asking if I wanted to do the first testimony of this semester. I responded like I imagine many before me have with a hesitant, “uuuhh-yeaaaaah.” So, I started thinking what could possibly be interesting enough about my life that you all would be willing to sit here and not fall asleep, and if I’m being honest, there wasn’t a lot. But after a while I thought maybe I could talk about my experience in Pittsburgh at the Presbyterian Church USA’s 220th General Assembly.
Now, many of you probably just had the same reaction I did when I first heard about it, “Uh, excuse me the general who? And what are the Presbyterians up to now?” Well the way the General Assembly was explained to me is that every Presbytery chooses participants. A presbytery is a district of churches, for example I attend church in Cedar Falls but our presbytery ranges from Story City to Mason City. Each of the 173 presbyteries in the United States choose two pastors and two elders called commissioners and one Young Adult Advisory Delegate or YAAD to go to Pittsburgh for about nine days.
Before you arrive, you are randomly sorted into committees where for two days at the Assembly you review and make changes to proposals that churches have submitted for all sorts of laws, amendments, and other Presbyterian things. After that everyone comes together in a big group called Plenary where the committees make their proposals. These committees get up close and personal with the issues so when they come to Plenary everyone else can argue the same issues before taking the large group vote. There is much more that goes into it but that’s sort of a brief overview. So, I was like yeah sure free trip to Pittsburgh and I get to learn how the church works, awesome! Let’s just say I had no idea what I got myself into.
What I did know was that there were two big issues said to be dividing the church, one was Civil Union and Marriage Issues and the other was Middle East Peacemaking. So, for instance, at the assembly I would always introduce myself, “Hi, I’m Samantha from the North Central Iowa Presbytery and I am on the Middle East Peacemaking Committee.” Which would usually have a response like, “Oooh… Good luck.”
So, after months of people telling me, we are so proud of you, you’re the future of the church, yada yada, I was finally going to Pittsburgh. I got there, met some friends, walked around this huge city, and let me tell you it was incredible! And the food, I swear they put French fries on everything there; sandwiches, salads, you name it! So, I thought, “yeah, this isn’t going to be so bad.” However the next day we had YAAD training… The leaders start off saying things like plenary, Robert’s Rules of Order, John Calvin, call the question, make an amendment to the amendment’s amendment. I’m just sitting there, blank face, “What?” while everyone else is going, oh yes, tell us more about the rule of crystallization. Don’t worry I wasn’t completely hopeless, the guy next to me was sleeping the whole time, so I was probably alright.
After about a day of that, one thing I did gather was that we had to elect a moderator who ran along with a vice moderator, sort of like the president and vice president of the General Assembly. Eventually the commissioners voted in majority for Neal Presa and Tara Spuhler McCabe. However, the next day, for the first time in 220 assemblies our vice moderator resigned. Prior to the vote Neal had mentioned that Tara had signed a marriage certificate for a lesbian couple even though the PCUSA constitution defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Because of this, certain commissioners took part in online bullying and threatened to walk out on the assembly.
This is where I had to stop. I couldn’t believe it. These were adults, role models, acting with such juvenile behavior. So quick to judge and throw a fit just because they didn’t get their way. But this made me think, this is the same perception that many people have of Christians. My own friends have told me that when they think about going to church all they see are the preachy people who can only fathom their own beliefs and push them on other people.
This was one of many unexpected events at the general assembly which ended up giving my pastor cause to say, “I am so sorry you had to be chosen for this GA.” She said that and all I could think was I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Through the General Assembly I felt the worst disappointment I have ever gone through in my life, but I was also filled with the most joy. I got to see a completely different world, experience amazing worship, and meet the most wonderful people. But what truly made this General Assembly the most meaningful for me was that even after seeing first hand all the awful things that were happening, the division in the church, and the politics of it all, there was still hope. You could feel it when all of the formality stopped and 1000 people came together to pray. In those moments it didn’t matter who you were, just that we were all there for one purpose, for God.
Through the process, people were hurt and felt the sting of disappointment, and even though it appeared like it was the worst GA ever, I believe it showed that every one of those people were passionate. They all cared so much that they were willing to take a week out of their busy lives to come to Pittsburgh and work all day even into the early morning to improve their church. Hope. That is what I found at the General Assembly. Throughout the week we heard about how the church is dying, however that’s not what I saw, I saw the life of the church in every one of the 170 Young Adult Advisory Delegates and I see it in everyone here today.
You know, they say we are the future of the church, but that’s not the whole story, we are the church and right now we have the power to make a difference and the ability to share the love and respect that this world so desperately needs.
In conclusion I would like to thank all of you. Thank you for coming to Eucharist and thank you for being my hope.
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