NEXT conference acknowledges dead zones and
the resurrection power of Christ to create hotspots
By Carmen Fowler LaBerge, The Layman, February 27, 2012
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DALLAS, Texas – NEXT, “a leadership conference for Presbyterians” meeting in Dallas has been described as an alternative to The Fellowship of Presbyterians (FOP) for those who have hope for a renewed Presbyterian Church (USA). The difference might be that whereas FOP-oriented people are largely unhappy about the denomination’s change in ordination standards, the NEXT attendees are “over” it.
NEXT attendees are “over” the debates about sexuality, or, even if they are not all of like mind on the removal of the fidelity and chastity standards for church leaders, they are not leaving the PCUSA. They are interested in moving forward and getting on with the mission of the church in the context of the PCUSA.
During the opening worship service in the very traditional yet intimate sanctuary of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, it was acknowledged at the communion table that:
- “We come from East and West and North and South.”
- “We come from churches large and small.”
- “We come from places of conviction and places of uncertainty.”
- “We come from red states and blue states.”
During one prayer litany, the losses in the PCUSA were acknowledged:
- for the loss of being connected
- for the lack of discipleship
- for churches without children
- for aging building and congregations
- the loss of confidence
- the loss of trusting that Jesus is around
- the loss of jobs
- the loss of appreciation for the constitution
- for pastors without hope
- for churches that have closed
- for a loss of hope
- for the loss of called leaders serving other denominations that welcome them
- the loss of Sabbath
- the loss of the loss of energy and enthusiasm
But, so too, acknowledged was the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.
The 600 conference participants are pre-dominantly white but the leadership is youthful. Reggie Weaver, a young African-American and pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, offered the sermon “When dead zones become hotspots,” based on Luke 24:13-35.
Calling to mind a national wireless advertising campaign featuring “dead zones,” Weaver adeptly invited the congregation to consider times when they have entered a dead zone. He described it as a place or time “where you feel an annoying frustration that it takes so long to make a real connection … A place where you cry out in the silence, ‘can you hear me?'” Continuing, Weaver sought to plow deeper, provoking memories of places and times when a failure to communicate leads people to ask, “Should I try again or give up to the futility of this lost connection?”
He then made the connection to the text, saying, “The disciples had been in a dead zone for three days. … They had lost connection to their friend, brother, teacher.” He described what Cleopas and the nameless disciple were doing as they walked in the dead zone, discussing the realities of their loss, even their loss of hope “back and forth as something we don’t want to cling to and yet something we don’t want to claim.” Jesus keeps them talking by asking, “what things?”
Weaver assessed that “Jesus realized that the dead zone was not only a place of grief but a place where hope had turned into betrayal and now seemed to be dominated by what they used to think, what they used to hope for.” And then he asked those gathered, “How often have we talked about hope in the past tense?”
Making the turn from the dead zone people are in to the dead zones in people, Weaver said, “The dead zone isn’t just a place we walk into; sometimes it gets inside us.” Returning to the text, he noted that “Earlier that day, some had told them that Jesus was alive. The women had told them,” but, Weaver acknowledged, “when the dead zone is inside you, even an empty tomb is not sufficient.”
Not leaving his listeners in despair, Weaver continued, “Thank God Jesus didn’t wait three more days to reveal Himself, saying to them, ‘O how foolish you are – how slow of heart.’ To which the preacher quipped, “Clear evidence that you don’t have to be a master of pastoral care to be the Messiah.” Jesus will “shock us. He’ll make us angry – anything to get our blood going,” Weaver said, “because that’s how a dead zone becomes a hotspot.”
Continuing with an analogy that the technologically astute next-gen can appreciate, Weaver noted the difference between a dead zone and a hotspot in terms of wireless connectivity. “A hotspot is where the signal is strong – and shared,” Weaver said. Then he observed of the disciples who encountered the risen Lord Jesus on the road to Emmaus, “and it happened on the inside first; ‘where not our hearts burning within us?'”
After offering a compelling illustration from his own ministry context in inner-city Chicago, Weaver asked the congregation, “Do we have two people here that have seen Jesus? Do we have two people, right here, right now, who can give a testimony about places where they have seen the new creation?”
Weaver concluded with a word of encouragement, “Don’t be afraid of the dead zone. Even though the PCUSA looks like it’s in a dead zone, I believe it can live again,” confirming that he “believes in the resurrection of the dead and the life ever-lasting.”
Worship continued with an interactive experience of responding by turning to your neighbor and, with an eye to resurrection hope, discussing the losses people have experienced or are experiencing in the current dead zone of the PCUSA.
The NEXT conference is meeting February 27-28 at First Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas. Many participants in NEXT are posting on Twitter at hashtag#nextchurch. NEXT convened its first conversation at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Ind., in February 2011.