219th General Assembly

According to the news service, while at the General Assembly a couple weeks ago, when the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Gradye Parsons, was visible on the monitor, it looked like a statue of John Calvin was watching over him. When he was asked about it, he quoted the thought of Calvin: We each have our own calling assigned to us “as a sort of sentry post, so that [we] might not wander heedlessly through life” (Institutes, III. 10.09). The many commissioners and staff, committees which gave reports, people who came in support of one viewpoint or another to General Assembly in Minneapolis all were responding to God’s calling to serve the church in this way.
I liked Gradye’s comment because one of my jobs as a volunteer with the Committee on Local Arrangements was guarding a committee room so they could take their lunch break. It was at pole #9 (the columns that hold up the Convention Center). My post was literally a post. But it is a good metaphor that we each have our unique task and calling in the church. God’s wisdom is to include us in what God is doing.
I enjoyed being up at GA for a couple days although my role in it was slight. I ran into at least 30 people I knew, could hear some of the discussions, and stopped by the exhibit hall (the Presbyterian idea of swag, by the way, is bookmarks with the Great Ends of the Church on them). Normally I don’t pay a lot of attention to General Assembly. This GA is far more real to me because I was a part of it, however small. Joy comes from participation.
In many churches, one of the reactions people have to anxiety is to become less active in the life of the church. That is almost a natural reaction to uncertainty. When they do that they forget two things. The first is that we have been given a part in what God is doing in the world. The church is God’s project, God’s great adventure, and God places men and women in roles to share it with them. Sometimes we see the idea of calling as a task or responsibility, and it is that, but it is also much more. The second is that once a person finds that place and is part of it, only then will they experience the joy of being a part. It is easy to be a bystander and critic. It is harder to fulfill one’s calling. But there is no question which is more satisfying.