Every two years, presbyteries from across the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) send commissioners to a national gathering called the General Assembly. This year it happened in late June/early July in Salt Lake City. I’ve attended many GA gatherings, but I recognized a distinctly different vibe in the 2024 assembly. That vibe came out of the unique leadership style of our newly elected co-moderators, Rev. Cecilia “CeCe” Armstrong and Rev. Tony Larson.
On the surface, there was nothing unusual about this 
assembly – there were the expected disagreements on things like investing in fossil fuel companies, articulating more clearly the inclusion of our LGBT+ siblings, and the Board of Pensions’ changes to the structure of our benefits plan. As usual, there were passionate debates on the assembly floor going back and forth, sometimes for hours at a time, challenging the limits of Roberts Rules and everyone’s patience.
What made this year’s assembly different, though, was the way the co-moderators ran the meeting. After especially close votes (and there were several) CeCe and Tony would gently discourage the clapping and cheering by the “winners” and groaning and jeering by the “losers,” by reminding our commissioners that we’re all God’s children working together to perceive God’s will in these important issues.
They periodically took the time to stop and pray for the good will and wise discernment of everyone present, reminding us that while the PC(USA) encompasses a wide variety of people with diverse gifts and interests, we are all called to maintain a sense of unity through Christ-like attitudes and actions. In a world that increasingly embraces arrogance, short-temperedness, and even violence, CeCe and Tony encouraged the General Assembly to embrace humility, patience, and gentleness.
It was almost as if our co-moderators had read Ephesians 4! Because the author of this letter was essentially doing the same thing, trying to pull together believers with very different backgrounds and ideas, insisting that God expects all God’s people to work hard at uniting around what’s most important, and was their shared faith as followers of Jesus Christ.
This letter speaks to the community of Christ’s followers in Ephesus, a large city in Asia Minor with great diversity among its population and religious groups. In the early chapters, Paul claimed that God had joined together the believers in Ephesus into God’s own holy dwelling place and called them to live lives reflecting this new “temple” of the Lord they had become.
Today’s passage in chapter 4 describes how that holy community of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, is called to live in unity because, after all, they share “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.” The letter summons Christ’s followers to the hard, countercultural work of being peacemakers rather than aggressors, of being unifiers rather than dividers, to “bear with one another in love” and “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Let’s consider what that unity of purpose might look like in the church today.
Author and team management guru Patrick Lencioni is quoted as saying, “If you could get all the people in [an] organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” I love his image of everyone using oars in a unified effort to move a boat forward, but I don’t think the part about dominating the competition was quite what Paul was going for.
Paul would probably prefer Don Mattingly’s picture of the unity of a baseball team. After all, Donnie Baseball, knows a thing or two about teams working together. He describes it this way: “Good teams I[‘ve] played on… just the tone that they play with, the energy they play with, how they go about it. When you get it going the right way, you get everyone going in the same direction […] it’s a powerful thing.”
Just imagine the church harnessing that powerful thing that gets everyone going in the same direction. Of course, our term for that tone, that energy, that powerful thing that Mattingly is talking about is the Holy Spirit.
I have to say, your friends and colleagues around Lehigh Presbytery are truly inspired by the tone and energy and spirit First Pres Bethlehem has put into discerning your new missional direction. The proposed space sharing of the south building not only addresses your own property and financial concerns but allows you to serve the community through the work of a valuable non-profit partner.
Then, once that is established, you also have a vision to address the region’s need for affordable housing by partnering with a developer to build homes on this big beautiful campus. Presbyterian churches with similar concerns and priorities are watching with great interest.
Under JC and Lindsey’s strong leadership, you’ve done some amazing work so far. And as you continue planning for this missional journey, it will be important to ensure a couple of things, right? (1) that everyone in the congregation is actually in the boat, and (2) that you’re all rowing in the same direction. That doesn’t mean everyone has to completely agree on every decision that will be made, but that you’ve thoughtfully and deliberately decided to move forward together, united in mission in the unity of the Spirit.
The thing we have to remember is that unity is not the same as uniformity. Uniformity is when everyone follows the exact same standards. Think of the military as an example. Not only do soldiers share the same objective, but they intentionally look the same: hair, uniforms, weapons, even the way they walk and talk. In some cases, uniformity is desirable, maybe even necessary. But when it comes to most healthy organizations, unity is much better. Unfortunately, we tend to confuse the two, especially when things don’t go exactly how we want them to go, or when someone thinks or acts differently than we act or think. That’s when our minds automatically assume there has to be winners and losers.
First Presbyterian Church does not have uniformity—you enjoy a great diversity of age, gender, socioeconomic levels, and even theological leanings. You don’t dress the same or drive the same cars. You are blessed with many different gifts and skills. And that’s all good! The question is whether, even with that diversity, you’re all able to row in the same direction.
Because here’s the thing: This congregation is entering an important time of transition between installed senior pastors, and regardless of what else is going on in a church, a transition like this causes anxiety. People become impatient with the process. This is taking too long! When can we call our new pastor? Add that on top of existing property and financial concerns and the proposed mission projects, and your boat could quickly be overwhelmed. That’s why it will be especially important to have a strong transitional senior pastor, someone from outside this system, to help you discern the way forward and to make sure you’re all in one boat, united in the one Spirit, rowing as one body.
Speaking of calling new pastors, I’ve worked with a lot of pastor nominating committees (or PNCs) over the years, and sometimes it can get a little tense when they get down to the last couple of candidates. I always tell them that it’s okay to disagree, but you must find a way to come to a consensus. Because at the end of the day, whether that final candidate was your personal favorite or not, you have to present that person as the choice of the entire committee and be united in your support for that candidate. If even one member goes out of the room saying, “I didn’t really want that person,” that pastor’s ministry is doomed from the start.
The same goes with your campus vision projects. Internally, it’s important to speak the truth in love, ask hard questions, and disagree as mature Christian adults. Paul says this “promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” But, once you vote whether or not to move forward, you can’t present yourselves “out there” in the community as winners or losers, with cheering or groaning. At that point it will be critical to present a united front, to say, “as a congregation, this is what we hear God calling us to do. We are united in this decision.”
You see, Christians can experience unity as the body of Christ, but only if they are willing to work for it, and yes, it is hard work. True unity never comes easily, but it is always worth the effort.
On the second day of the General Assembly, Rev. Jihyun (Jee Hoon) Oh was elected to serve as the new Stated Clerk of our denomination—the first woman of color to hold that office. Here’s what she said after the election: “I am so hopeful for the church. I think we’re really on some sort of cusp. I don’t know what that cusp is, but there’s just so much potential, so much energy, so many resources. As we keep asking questions and as we discern where God is calling us to take the next steps, I think there’s an exciting possibility for us to be impactful and joyful living witnesses to Christ’s love and justice in this time and place.”
You know, she could have been talking about First Pres Bethlehem, because this congregation also has so much potential, so much energy, so many resources, and is also on a cusp. I pray for that excitement and joy Jihyun speaks of for this church family in the months and years ahead. For I know that when you get it going the right way, when you get everyone going in the same direction, it will be a powerful thing indeed.
Thanks be to God. Amen.