What Can We Do?
I was cleaning the library today at RPTS and I started to think about the Wilkinsburg church. My mind started to wander and I ended up in the RP history section, scanning the reports of synod ranging from 1843 to 2004. It was a sad thing to read. To see our denomination cut in half in a matter of 80 or 90 years, is a thing that should cause many to pause for a moment of reflection. From almost ten thousand members in 1904 to a little over four thousand in 1954 and not many more than that in 2004 deeply concerns me. There is a question that I hear over and over in my head, and it is getting louder and louder. What can I do now? How can I a first year seminary student act as a disciple of Christ, where he has put me. I have for too long put off notions of serving and extending the Gospel as things assigned to the future. What can I do now? Should outreach be at the front of my list, or is my time now assigned for study. Of course different people will have different answers. But my answer seems to be, what good will all my studying do if I cannot communicate what I learned. Communication happens much easier when it is done between people that have pre-existing relationships. So I must now be cultivating new relationships. Now all I need to do is prayer for the resolution to reach out to those around me and prayer that I have enough faith to know that it will happen if I am willing to let God be the one in charge.