My Love-Hate Relationship Being a “Presby”: Part 1: presbyterian with a little “p”

As a pastor when I am talking to folks about our worshipping community, I get a lot of questions as you would expect. One that I get quite often is “What denomination are you affiliated with?” Well, the language may not be exactly that, but the gist is the same. I usually answer with, “We are presbyterian . . . with a small ‘p.’” That always gets a smile from folks who seemingly know what I mean.

Everyone who does not have their head located on the wrong end of their anatomy knows that folks today, by and large, do not make a church decision based upon the signage out front. That alone may not seem too unique, but we have to remember it is a radical shift from not too many years back, when you automatically looked for the label on the sign. I am not saying it does not matter any more, but it is nowhere near the issue it once was. And in almost every case, it is just not the deciding factor. I have a church full of people who come from every almost every background, and they still choose us. Many of us find the label quite often to be a deterrent as much as a draw. So in our case, we hide it as much as we can. That, however, is a comment for another time.

I am not the first, nor will I be the last to say we appear to be moving into a post-denominational age. I am also not the first, nor the last, to recognize that some alliances are still going to form as like minded folks attempt to serve together and support one another. But in increasing numbers we are finding those alliances in places other than our denomination.

I would love to take a trip like the one in Back to the Future 2 and 3 when they went 30 years into the future. I would like to see if denominations survive. My guess is they will in some form. But I would be utterly shocked if they looked, smelled, or tasted anything at all like denominations do today.

So when folks ask what my connections are, unless pushed, I may increasingly say, “Jesus.”

Next Up: Getting Inside the Mind of a Bureaucrat