On Sunday morning, MDPC “installed” a new pastor. Almost everything about the ceremony struck me as strange. It was watching a process perfectly designed for the church of 1955 try to make sense in the church of 2005. Some examples:
The pastor was being installed as a pastor at MDPC, even though he was not hired to serve as a pastor here. Instead, he’ll be serving as the founding pastor of an inner-city church that MDPC is sponsoring. During the installation service, the congregation was asked a series of questions, including “Do you promise to listen to the word he preaches? Respect his authority?” Well, we might, except that he is not serving this church. We were making promises that we could not keep.
The make up of the installation commission also interesting. The pastor being installed is in his early thirties. Every one of the installation commission members was at least 25 years older.
The installation process itself seemed badly out-of-place. I would guess that 80% of the people in the congregation don’t know what a presbytery is, and at least 90% have no idea why a presbytery would be called in to install a pastor. Unfortunately, nothing in the installation service helped educate them.
Finally, we conducted the installation in all three worship services yesterday morning. I suppose this was an attempt to make members of the congregation feel “included”. Instead, it just reinforced the idea that this was a show. If something were really happening, then once would do it, right?
The moderator of presbytery, RT, participated in the installation. He is a member of MDPC and I have served with him on various committees. He is smart, thoughtful, and completely committed to the work of Christ in the world and through the church. I felt sad to see him, and all the others on the chancel, caught up a drama which no longer seems to make much sense.
