DIVERSE COMMUNITIES ARE HEALTHIER

Recently, I had the joy of taking a class on "Prairie Spirituality" at Synod Schools.  The instructor was both a botonist and a pastor.  His central point in the class was that bio-diversity not only makes for a richer experience in nature but that it is also healthier for the species who live in such an environment.  He suggested to us that true prairies and healthy prairies support a great diversity of life and so it should be for the human species as we explore life and experience life here on the planet earth.  One of his great concerns about the life of the church and communities in the prairie states is that we have become so homogeneous that we are unable to adapt to the new challenges we are facing with our lives on the prairies.  He pointed out for instance that in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies the Presbyterian churches are almost 97% Caucasian, northern European, and over the age of 55.  Many of our congregations have declined so far numerically and generationally that we are looking at half of our churches closing in the next two decades unless we are able to adapt to the new influx of peoples from South America, Korea, China, and various countries of Africa we will diminish our ability to be viable spiritual communities in the 21st Century.

Blessedly,  First Presbyterian Church in Hastings remains a strong multi-generational church and in recent years have been open to new people groups in our congregation.  That being said, we have no reason to rest on our laurels.  The temptation of every mainline church is to look backward at its past rather than looking forward to the challenges we face as a community of faith in this first part of the 21st Century.  We have a rich heritage upon which to build but much of that heritage reflects the homogenized American mono-culture of the mid 20th Century.  Many of our own families  and the broader culture no longer reflect that reality so why should the church?  The questions surrounding diversity were among the most timely of questions being asked and addressed by our most recent General Assembly in San Jose.  Certainly the Commissioners gathered there reflected a far greater diversity than at any time in our church's history.  Religious practices among Presbyterians also reflect this growing spiritual diversity.  Churches unwilling to take in these new realities do so at great risk to their health and well-being.  Most of our young people seem to understand this as second nature.

Curiously enough, some of the new mega churches so admired by many people these days look numerically healthy on the outside but they are already showing the unhealthy signs of communities that lack sufficient diversity to keep from becoming sects and cults no matter how large they may become.  Sociologists are beginning to observe the signs of institutional brittleness that often comes from structures that are to tightly controlled by one point of view or by one way of living out the faith.  Our botonist instructor reminded the class of the mid-western environment once dominated by the American Elm.  Whole communities once beautiful to behold became blighted and ugly because the landscape had become so denuded by the lack of other varieties of trees.

My hope and dream for this congregation is that we will continue to have the kind of balanced spiritual and religious ecology which makes for a strong and vibrant church sufficiently unified to have a sense of belonging but also sufficiently diverse in faith and practice that we remain healthy by appreciating the diverse spiritual gifts represented by a gifted multi-generational multi-ethnic people of God.  I pray we will continue to be people who welcome both the challenges of unity and the joys of diversity as the people of God meeting on the corner of Seventh and Lincoln.  I hope too, that we will be and open welcoming congregation to those of you who come and visit us or who want to be part of us.

Rev. Dr. William Nottage-Tacey, August 2008

August 17, 2008
10 am Worship

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