Interim Update - Elder Edition
June 2026 Dinner and Discernment
I think by now everyone realizes how much 2020 changed the landscape of the Church in America. Even before the COVID shutdown, even discounting any scandals with the leadership of other churches, more and more potential pastors have been turning their backs on The Call.
I mean, can you imagine being paid to stand at the pulpit and give the biblical response to the question "Who is my neighbor", only then to be told that suddenly now you're a political risk for having faithfully done your job??
Nobody wants that!
We live in a horribly critical world climate.
Just as Jesus did.
That is why the Presbyterian Church in America - the PC(USA) - chose to formalize the interim process with documents and milestones; to intentionally slow us down and give us a much better chance to not only obtain, but to retain the right pastor for each congregation. And yes, in case you hadn't noticed, even neighboring churches are taking 3-5 years to go through this exact same process right now.
But if you've been paying any attention, you've already heard all of this multiple times: from this pulpit, from our presbytery representatives from the COM (Paul Rack, then Cathy Foerester), and nearly every month at Dinner & Discernment.
With that said, I'm actually amazed at the amount of progress we've been able to make here in an astonishingly short amount of time! And if you don't also see how remarkable the amount of knowledge and healing this church family has undergone in the past year and a half, let me ask you:
Exactly how active have YOU been in our monthly Dinner & Discernments?
Because although I'm an elder at First Presbyterian, I've only been a member here in Watkins Glen for less than a dozen years; and not only have I learned a lot during this process, but I'm actually feeling much more emotionally integrated into this congregation as a direct result of Lynda's leadership through these activities!
All of that review last year laid the foundation for the future of this congregation. If I were to put a number on it, I'd guess we've gleaned a little over half the information we need in order to put together this new Self Study document that John King talked about last month.
To be specific, we have all of the info we need to create a thorough study of our past, with very little thought towards our future. That would be more than enough to place our church on hospice care, but not quite enough to allow us to *thrive* as a congregation. So obviously, that means there's more to be done!
I was planning to talk here about the progress we made at our June Dinner & Discernment:
- about this thing we did called a Congregational Asset Mapping, where we linked the church's assets to the community's needs;
- about the cool new programs that we proposed as a direct result of this exciting new exercise;
- about how we already have a brand new ecumenical "place of worship" on 5th Street, which is now labeled on Google Maps as "The Labyrinth at First Presbyterian";
- and about why each of you needs to be actively participating in this process, or expect to be surprised by the actions that we take without you;
I was _planning_ to talk about that, but we changed course a little during sessions last Tuesday. We wheeled in a new proverbial Crash Cart to try and jolt a little new life into this process.
So rather than just continuing to make these monthly appeals for all of you to become active participants, the elders will be proactively calling on each of you over the summer. We will be leading the charge to get your input!
Each elder was given a list of active members Tuesday night, along with a list of questions; and if you are an active member here, one of us will be giving you a call. In fact, if you aren't called by the end of August, grab an elder and demand that your voice be heard!
Let's THRIVE together!
God bless you. And may he guide us through the rest of this process according to his timing. Not ours.
Amen.
Respectfully, iliese Bowman
