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Presbytery Gathering | Saturday, April 1st

Have you ever clicked onto Ancestry.com or another genealogy site to learn more about your family’s history? My mother has done so, tracing Bronzan family roots on one side through Yugoslavia and on the other side through the family of Abraham Lincoln!

Genealogical searches are fascinating, whether we engage them ourselves or watch along on TV shows like “Who Do You Think You Are?”.

Presbyterian history traces it’s genealogy through the early 1700’s, when the first Presbyterian church was founded in Philadelphia. The founder of Presbyterianism, however, was John Calvin, a French lawyer-turned-pastor, who was convinced that the most significant danger in life was the constant temptation to idolatry - the pursuit of, longing for, and trust in things in place of God. He would have fit right in during our series in Ecclesiastes!

But Presbyterian history goes back even further than John Calvin and the Protestant Reformation, all the way back to the early church, which is where we find the Greek word “presbuteros” - which translates simply as “elder.” Passages throughout the New Testament make it clear: At it’s most rudimentary, a Presbyterian church is one which is elder-led.

Among other things, this reveals the importance of community to Presbyterians. This emphasis on community is even seen in our own mission statement: Inviting all people to grow into a Christ-centered life in God’s family. But community is not only important in individual churches like Good Shepherd, but in networks of said churches, too (we call these networks “Presbyteries”).

This “connectional” form of government will be on full display Saturday, April 1st (no fooling!) as Good Shepherd hosts the other churches in our Southern California Presbytery. If past record is any indication, this gathering will be a wonderful time of worship, fellowship, and learning together.

As a member of Good Shepherd, you are invited to join in the fun on Sunday, April 1st from 9am-3pm. More specifically, we are on the lookout for willing servants to greet and host our guests from all over fellow southern Californian Presbyterian churches!

Please contact Mary Gerard at mary@gspc.org if you’re willing to serve at this event. If I haven’t yet convinced you how fun it’ll be, how ‘bout this: I’ll buy you lunch!

Pastor Curtis

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