When we joined First Presbyterian way back in 2021 we had no idea the pressure the church was under. Our new pastor had joined right as Covid started and we were in the middle of what would turn out to be a multi-year search for an associate pastor. That wrapped up in 2024 when we hired a young man fresh out of seminary.
This past Sunday while at Hersheypark we got a message from him saying he had taken a job to be the head pastor at a church in New England. I felt a little sadness but we knew he was temporary. That is the role. No one wants to be an associate pastor forever.
However when I returned from vacation and went to the Men’s Breakfast I learned things weren’t as ordinary as they seemed. The associate pastor had a planned obligation at what would be his new church that Sunday and had not properly informed our church. That led to church almost being canceled and the luck of having a retired pastor living up the street saving it.
It now returns the church to its old bind of having an overworked head pastor trying to juggle too many spinning plates. Add that to an aging congregation that if half of them ever looked at the social section of the PCUSA website would either have a heart attack or find a new church and our upcoming search is going to be extra difficult. Or at least keeping the peace will.
That doesn’t even bring in the issues that the Presbyterian Church at large is having as the fastest shrinking denomination in the world. Most people go to church for answers and not more questions. Presbyterians treat religion as the quest for truth and not the answer to it.
That means this Sunday morning is going to be very interesting. It will be an interesting environment to walk into and I am looking forward to it and dreading it in equal measure.
David Huzzard Writes 