vicemodblog

Have a blessed Christmas!

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As we come down to the last day of shopping for gifts, the beginning of the College Bowl week, the start of holiday vacations and time with family, I hope that you will have the opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the birth of Jesus the Savior into the world. I have included a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar entitled "Christmas Carol" for your reading pleasure. Have a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Carol
Paul Laurence Dunbar

Ring out, ye bells! 
All Nature swells 
With gladness of the wondrous story, 
The world was lorn, 
But Christ is born 
To change our sadness into glory. 

Sing, earthlings, sing! 
To-night a King 
Hath come from heaven's high throne to bless us. 
The outstretched hand 
O'er all the land 
Is raised in pity to caress us. 

Come at His call; 
Be joyful all; 
Away with mourning and with sadness! 
The heavenly choir 
With holy fire 
Their voices raise in songs of gladness. 

The darkness breaks 
And Dawn awakes, 
Her cheeks suffused with youthful blushes. 
The rocks and stones 
In holy tones 
Are singing sweeter than the thrushes. 

Then why should we 
In silence be, 
When Nature lends her voice to praises; 
When heaven and earth 
Proclaim the truth 
Of Him for whom that lone star blazes? 

No, be not still, 
But with a will 
Strike all your harps and set them ringing; 
On hill and heath 
Let every breath 
Throw all its power into singing! 

Paul Laurence Dunbar

African-American Poet

June 27, 1872 - February 9, 1906

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Confessing when the Empire trembles

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 As we eagerly anticipate the birth of the Christ-child, we are aware that through this miraculous event the world will witness peace and justice through the life and ministry of Jesus. In that same vein, we who are Christians are called to pray and work for peace and justice for all God's people. With that in mind I want to invite you to participate in a special event that will be held at Stony Point Conference Center next month. The event is entitled "Confessing When the Empire Trembles: Belhar and Accra Confessions in Conversation", which will be happen January 15-17, 2010. The Belhar and Accra Confessions are recent documents that were written by the church in response to racial, economic, and social injustices. This conference will explore the root causes that led to the formation of these confessions and discuss what is the role and response of U.S., Canadian, and Caribbean Christians to the confessions and situations at hand. There are some really good speakers including Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the PCUSA; Heidi Hadsell of Hartford Seminary; and Rebecca Todd Peters of Elon University. I definitely believe that this event may be worth your while especially because of the Churchwide study of the Belhar Confession for possible inclusion in the PCUSA Book of Confessions. It is also appropriate that this event will be held on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday as we remember one of God's servants who taught Americans the example of God's justice and peace in this land. 

Hope you will spread the word and attend!

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Reflections on a Birthday and giving back

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As you read this you will find that today (Thursday, December 17) is my birthday. I will be 46 years old. I have exhausted every Young Adult definition as I am now outside Robert Wuthnow's 21 - 45 year old range. I am an full-fledged member of adulthood now (although I am still young(er) since the average age of a Presbyterian is now 60). I don't have any grand plans - gym appointment with Chris, my personal trainer; do some work at the church in preparation for Sunday services; go out and at least buy a birthday card for my wife; go to my private Spanish lesson so I will be at least halfway fluent for my trip to Latin American next month; and come home and spend time with the family. My wife's birthday is Saturday (our birthdays are two days apart) and we will celebrate on Friday by going out to lunch before we attend our son's second grade class' end-of-the-semester holiday celebration. So I get to spend another year older, wiser and a little bit richer if nothing else. Over the last 46 years I have learned a few things:

*No matter how hard I work out, I will not attain the physique I had when I was in my 20's again. Won't catch the 30 year-old one either.

*You need to write stuff down. Can't keep it all in your head.

*You can't do everything like you used to do. You have to slow down and take your time.

I have also come to the realization that in terms of life expectancy that I am no longer in the A.M. of life. There is a great probability that I am closer to the sunset than the sunrise. Although I believe to have many good days left, I am definitely in the P.M. of life. Unless I live to be 92 and beyond (the average life expectancy in America is 78 years), I'm probably past 12 noon. More like between 1-3 p.m. 

A few months ago I received an email from my friend, Rev. Dr. Karen Brown, Executive Director of the Family Life Center at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, MD. In the midst of the message she said:

"I guess you will be reaching the big 50 soon like me (5 more years) and I find myself beginning to reflect on my life and the impact I have had on others."

That struck a cord with me and since then I have begun to look over my life and find ways in which I can help others. When I was younger, people saw the gifts in me and I went from pillar to post having exposure to new things and meeting many people. At this stage of life I find myself being sought out for advice and counsel. It is no longer about getting. It's now about giving back. One of the reasons that I am serving as Vice-Moderator today is that I am honoring all those who helped to support and nurture me way back when. People like Mrs Mineola Perry, Mrs. Dorothy Mock, Mrs. Bettie Carter, Mr. Ike Edwards, Mr. Earl McLendon, Mrs. Betty Jefferson. Mrs. Nancy Scott, Rev. Isaiah Jones and others who saw something in me that I did not know myself as a small kid at Vermont Avenue Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, CA. Both Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow and I are serving as ambassadors of the PCUSA because of those saints both dead and alive from our respective communities who have helped to grow, prune and nurture us. 

However it doesn't stop there. We both find ourselves giving back because we want to see others have the same if not greater opportunities than we had. We want to give back to the youth and young adults the opportunity to serve and become leaders in the church. We give encouragement to those who are called to do a "new thing" in ministry, whether it is through different ways of being a community of faith or being empowered to lead in their own context. We give back by helping others to understand that we live in a different cultural, social and technological world. We give back by learning that although people have differences of opinion, we are still bonded by the Holy Spirit and can remain one church. That is what we believe and live out.

It's about giving back now. Thanks for listening.

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Conversation with the Vice-Mod on Skype!

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Taking a page from the esteemed Moderator, Bruce Reyes Chow, I would like to offer you a great opportunity to have a conversation with me on using Skype. For those of you who are not familiar with Skype, it is a program that allows you to use the internet to make phone and videocalls, to chat and to send texts and files. I have used the Skype videocall feature where I have spoken live to people that I have met and it is a great feature! All you need is a webcam (if you do not have an internal camera on your computer) and you can sign up for free. And you can make videocalls for free. How great is that! 

If you are interested in having a videocall or to chat with me, do the following:

*send me a message via email at revbawade@gmail.com, Facebook or Twitter indicating day and time you would like to have a conversation.

*When we agree on at date and time, have 3-4 leading questions to ask me. You can ask things related to my being Vice-Moderator or general life questions. Some examples . . . 

Why/How did you decide to become Vice-Moderator?

How does your church handle you being out of town?

What do you do on your free time?

What is the story with Bruce and Nicole Kidman's first movie "Flirting"?

Favorite youth conference - Montreat Youth or Triennium?

Why did you become a minister?

. . . and the like. You can ask anything your heart desires. 

*After our conversation I ask that you post an unedited version of our conversation on your blog, website or Facebook page with a link back to this post.

That's pretty much it. I hope to have conversations with a wide spectrum of people ranging from Presbyterian Welcome to Presbyterians for Renewal, ultra-conservative to off-the-chart liberal, traditional to emergent, Christians to agnostic/atheist, all races and nationalities, etc. Whatever you call yourself or live out, I would like to talk with you.

Look forward to having a videocall/chat with you! Oh yeah, by the way - if you don't have Skype and would like to do so, you can sign up here. 

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A plug for the young, up-and-coming preachers!

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On occasion I like to inform (read: shameless plug) you of various events that are happening in different places especially pertaining to young people. While I was in Transylvania Presbytery I ran into Mary Seeger Weese, who is the pastor of the Midway (KY) Presbyterian Church and was previously a colleague of mine here in New Hope Presbytery when she was the Associate Pastor at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian Church in Durham, NC. Mary was definitely excited and on fire about the upcoming Festival of Young Preachers Event that will be taking place January 7 - 9, 2010 in Louisville, KY. When I heard this my ears perked up and definitely wanted to hear more about it! The description of the Festival is given on its website and facebook page -

The Academy of Preachers is a fresh initiative, underwritten by the Lilly Endowment, designed to identify, network, inspire, and support young people who sense a call to Christian preaching. We invite students in high school, college, university, and seminary—roughly between the ages of 16 and 28—to engage with one another in their common calling through the following opportunities:

* Preaching Camp—an eight day summer event at a conference center near Louisville offering personal coaching in the art and science of preaching;

* The Festival of Young Preachers—a two-day winter event hosted by a consortium of Louisville-area congregations offering young preachers an opportunity to preach for friends, family, other young preachers, and seasoned evaluators; and

* The Program of Certification—an on-going program of activities, opportunities, relationships, and requirements designed to sustain the young preacher in his or her vocation as a proclaimer of the gospel.

The Academy is ecumenical, diverse in many ways and has quite a few young preaches lined up for the first-event of its kind (click here for the registrant list). On that list you will find a few young, up-and-coming Presbyterians such as Taylor Lewis Guthrie, who will be one of our worship preachers at General Assembly in Minneapolis next year and Christine Coy Fohr, a student at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary who I met earlier this year when I preached at Central Presbyterian Church. I am really glad to hear about events that are created for training, supporting and encouraging young people for the ministry and I ask two three things of you: 1) Pray for all the participants, 2) come out and hear them preach if you are in town and 3) please support this new, fresh initiative for young pastors.

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Visit to a church and two presbyteries

[image: Covenant Presbyterian Church, Wendell]

The last five days have been busy ones for me as I continue Vice-Moderator visits. This past Wednesday night I went over to be with the good people of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Wendell, NC. Wendell is a town just east of Raleigh in Eastern Wake County. It is a strong congregation under the leadership of Interim Pastor, Rev. Bruce Berry. I was invited to be the featured speaker at their First Wednesday Dinner. After a wonderful potluck dinner (which included a jalapeno quiche that was too hot for me to eat!), we began a time of a short presentation and leading questions and answers. Some of the questions that were asked of me were "What one great experience you had this past year screams PCUSA is great?" (Young Adult Volunteers!); "If you could identify one area of our denomination's work that needed more emphasis, it would be . . . (Evangelism!);and "When you agreed to serve as Vice-Moderator, what one thing do you wish someone had told you about the office?" I had a great time with them and blessings to Bruce and the Covenant congregation for being great listeners!

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The very next day I drove two hours to Laurinburg, NC to attend the December stated meeting of the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church. This Presbytery is just south of my Presbytery (New Hope Presbytery New Hope) and I have a lot of friends who formerly served churches in New Hope and moved "south", so to speak. I was invited by the Western Region Mission Coordinator, Rev. Laura Lupton to preach the presbytery's opening worship service. In addition, the Presbytery officially commissioned 18 people who will be members of the Presbytery's Mission Team to Mexico in January 2010. I also stayed through lunch and talked to many people that I knew and met. Thanks to all in Coastal Carolina for hosting me for the day!

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The very next morning I got up early and flew to Lexington, KY to make an official visit to Transylvania Presbytery. When I boarded the plane in Raleigh, I forgot that the next day was the big UNC-Chapel Hill vs. University of Kentucky basketball game. So we had some pumped-up UNC fans on the plane. The airline steward looked at them with a wary eye! If you don't know already, Lexington is known for its Bluegrass and Horse farms and it is a beautiful place! I was picked up by the Executive Presbyter Richard Smith and we went to lunch at a great Mexican restaurant named Abuelo's. The presbytery was having their annual two-day meeting in Lexington which began at the Downtown Hilton Hotel (which was right across from Rupp Arena, the UK basketball venue) with a dinner and conversation with me. I spent about an hour speaking about my experiences and fielding questions and answers and afterward I hung out with the young adult pastors - and Twitter/Facebook friends - at McCarthy's Irish Bar. The next day the second half of the meeting was held at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in town. The big deal here is that it SNOWED early that morning and we saw about six separate car wrecks in a twenty-minute drive! Similar to my visit to Coastal Carolina Presbytery, I preached the opening worship service. After the meeting and lunch at the church Richard drove me around to see the horse farms and two of the Presbytery's churches before returning to the airport home. I had a great time getting the known the members of the presbytery and I was presented with a UK blue sweatshirt, a light-up wildcat paw pin, a chocolate wildcat sucker, and a John Calipari basketball book. Talk about making UNC fans jealous! ;-) Thanks to my Transylvania Presbytery peoples for being great hosts!

These were my last trips of 2009 and I will be here at home in Raleigh until January 12, 2010 when I leave for a Latin America trip to Nicaragua, Colombia, and Venezuela. So you will hear a lot more from me on different topics and I have a special message for all of you that use Skype. So stay tuned!