{"id":44590,"date":"2023-04-26T11:49:24","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T15:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=44590"},"modified":"2025-01-10T11:40:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:40:40","slug":"dont-be-afraid-urges-the-presbytery-of-charlottes-jan-edmiston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/resources\/news\/dont-be-afraid-urges-the-presbytery-of-charlottes-jan-edmiston\/","title":{"rendered":"'\ub450\ub824\uc6cc\ud558\uc9c0 \ub9d0\ub77c'\uace0 \uc0ec\ub86f \ub178\ud68c \uc580 \uc5d0\ub4dc\ubbf8\uc2a4\ud134 \ub178\ud68c\uc5d0 \ucd09\uad6c\ud558\ub2e4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In the Presbytery of Charlotte<\/a>, which the Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston<\/a> serves as general presbyter, seven churches predate the United States. \u201cPeople in our churches run banks and universities and hospitals and seminaries. I feel really fortunate to be here,\u201d she told the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty<\/a> of the Presbyterian Foundation<\/a> during last week\u2019s episode of Leading Theologically, which can be viewed here<\/a> or here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And yet, as Edmiston told Hinson-Hasty concerning a recent blogpost of hers<\/a>, she and her husband went out for brunch after each had preached during Easter services. There was \u201czero indication that it was Easter morning,\u201d she wrote in her widely-read blog \u201cA Church for Starving Artists. \u201cNo \u2018Happy Easter\u2019 from the host. Nobody was dressed up. There were no \u2018Easter Specials\u2019 on the menu. For the first time in my life, I\u2019m not sure most of my neighbors knew \u2014 or cared \u2014 that it was Easter morning. And I live in the Bible Belt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmiston, Co-Moderator of the 222nd<\/sup> General Assembly (2016), said she\u2019s recently noticed \u201ca lot of anxiety, a lot of stuckness and fear, a lot of despair and diseases of despair that our churches are dealing with, but also hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a chaplain, people don\u2019t tend to call the [presbytery] office unless something is wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cI could not do [the work] if I didn\u2019t see massive displays of hope.\u201d Edmiston offered this example: One church has \u201ccrunched the numbers. They are a great church, but they are not going to be with us in the next five years. They know the reality of that, and so they have decided they are going to spend their time creating a legacy\u201d by seeking partnerships to work with to provide affordable housing. \u201cHere\u2019s the cool thing,\u201d Edmiston told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cI would not be surprised if they are not only here but thriving in five years. I get to see that kind of thing all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of hope for the church,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I also feel that heaviness because for our churches to thrive in the future, some huge changes are going to have to happen, and it may not be pretty. A lot of pastors feel like they didn\u2019t sign up for that and they just don\u2019t have the bandwidth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another factor is fear, according to Edmiston. \u201cWe are a ridiculously fearful world,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are so afraid they shoot a child who rings your doorbell without finding out what he\u2019s doing there in the middle of the day \u2026 We have to ask ourselves, \u2018Whose power gets maintained if we are afraid?\u2019 The power of God helps people be fearless, like that church that wants to do something that would create a legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmiston said many conversations in the Presbytery of Charlotte center on a question she\u2019s famous for asking: What breaks God\u2019s heart?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more African American Presbyterians than any other presbytery in the country,\u201d Edmiston said. \u201cMany African American pastors have less in terms of retirement,\u201d since \u201cthey may have served churches as temporary supply pastors and they weren\u2019t even enrolled in the Board of Pensions.\u201d Every time the presbytery receives \u201ca big chunk of money, we take 10% for our retired African American pastors who are members of the presbytery \u2026 It\u2019s not thousands and thousands of dollars, but it\u2019s fairly substantial. That\u2019s not because we think Black people are poor. They probably have served churches that could not pay them as well as some white churches. This is about reparations, although people don\u2019t like the \u2018R\u2019 word. It\u2019s a tiny, tiny thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future \u201cholds a lot of hope for congregations and presbyteries that partner with unlikely partners. It could be our Jewish, Lutheran, Baha\u2019i neighbors, the bank, the YMCA,\u201d Edmiston said. \u201cI think partnering for shared goals is really important for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

If we\u2019re still making mistakes three years into the pandemic, \u201cit\u2019s the lack of imagination, the fear we are going to lose people,\u201d Edmiston told Hinson-Hasty. \u201cThe churches that are doing cool things are doing scary things, but they\u2019re not scared. They are taking seriously the \u2018fear not\u2019 stuff from the angels<\/a> \u2026 We have quite a few churches looking at affordable housing projects. We are fortunate to have a nonprofit in Charlotte<\/a> headed up by a Presbyterian who partners churches with property with nonprofits that need property.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cgreat question [for churches] to ask is, \u2018What scary things are we doing right now?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhat if we took $100,000 out of our cemetery fund and used it to start a program with the elementary school that\u2019s right next to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your church is addressing what breaks God\u2019s heart in your neighborhood \u2026 your church will thrive and grow,\u201d Edmiston said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to find out what breaks God\u2019s heart. You may think you know, but you can\u2019t know unless you know your neighbors and you have relationships with people who don\u2019t cross the threshold of your building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay God bless you with fearlessness and courage and delight in knowing and trusting that God is with us, and resurrection is the gift that we get,\u201d she said as a benediction. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Presbytery of Charlotte, which the Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston serves as general presbyter, seven churches predate the United States. \u201cPeople in our churches run banks and universities and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":44631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47508,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590\/revisions\/47508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}