THE recent Presbyterian General Assembly was a story of a huge army of people intent on making a difference in society – but struggling to maintain relevancy in the 21st century.
At the start of the week-long assembly, the elected leader for the year, Moderator Rev Dr Roy Patton, gave his vision for the year ahead.
If anyone is going to listen to Presbyterians, he said, “it will happen... when they see that the words we say are rooted in the honesty and integrity of our lives; when we acknowledge the truth about ourselves then we encourage others to do the same”.
He also spoke about the need for the church to have confidence in a clear message it has to give.
But it appears that those that need convincing the most are the church’s own young people.
Perhaps the most telling phrase of the week, which cropped up time and again, was that of “the missing generation” of young Presbyterians.
The youth assembly of the church was granted exceptional time to address the entire leadership of the church this year to put their case.
Various witnesses said young people in the churches feel that nobody cares about them, nobody misses them when they are not there; they are not allowed to ask the questions they need to ask for them to deal with the pressures and stresses of modern life and they are given no role in their local congregations.
Former Moderator Dr Norman Hamilton noted that in emergent and independent churches the leadership is often in their 30s whereas in the Presbyterian Church leaders are more often in their 50s.
He asked if Youth Assembly leaders should not be formally treated as the succession leadership for the whole church.
The Rev Peter McDowell, from Garnerville Presbyterian Church, said the Presbyterian Church needed to experiment in supporting the planting of new churches for such young people, which could be more ‘youth culture’ than “Presbyterian culture”.
And director of youth ministry, Roz Stirling, who got a standing ovation this week to mark her retirement, said young people want “absolute truth” to guide their lives.
However, in public and in private it appeared this week that the church leaders valued “nuance” above all else on doctrines which go to the heart of young people’s lives – such as marriage.
It also has to be noted that although tribute was paid this week to those Presbyterians who helped resolve the Presbyterian Mutual Society collapse, none of the church leaders have ever accepted responsibility for the crisis (just like government).
Although good legal reasons may be offered for this, how would the idealistic missing generation view this matter and any similar that may arise in future – either at congregation level or in the heart of the national leadership?
Dr Hamilton suggested looking to the church’s passionate and articulate Youth Assembly for succession leadership.
But does the Youth Assembly really want such responsibility?
Will its members ever be ordained for it?
This year there was a clear message coming from young southern ministers; that their churches are thriving and that more ministers are needed.
A young Catholic-raised minister, who leads a successful new church in Dublin, told his elder Protestant-raised brothers that there is nothing to fear in the Republic and that thriving churches there demonstrate how the gospel – not Presbyterianism – is winning many to faith.
Another young Dublin minister said they are sending a Catholic-raised man in his thirties to train for the ministry.
Could it be that these young southern ministers, including increasing numbers of those raised as Catholic, are the real succession leadership that could show how to win the missing generation once again?