My co-moderator on the Charlotte Presbytery Ministry Resource Committee and I had lunch with our new General Presbyter yesterday.  We spent some time talking about the MRC, what we’ve been, where we’ve come from, what we are currently doing, and what perhaps we might can be in the future.  As Gail and I prepare to end our time as co-moderators and pass the baton off to others, we asked Steven what he perhaps thought we might want to begin thinking about in terms of the future.  He responded with something that has grabbed my imagination and won’t let go.  “I kind of would like to imagine the MRC – or perhaps ask the MRC to reimagine itself – as the heart and soul of a connectional Charlotte Presbytery.

The heart and soul.  Could we imagine ourselves this way?  Serving such a vital, central, yet often overlooked function in the larger community of our 92 churches?  I came home and had to search my video archives for this scene.  It’s from the 2002 movie “Drumline,” and the metaphor it raises is – I think – exactly what our new leader was suggesting we think about.

There it is in 56 seconds.  The metaphor that perhaps can guide us in powerful and meaningful ways.  The MRC of Charlotte Presbytery?  We are the pulse… and without a pulse?  You’re dead.