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Home Away from Home

By September 21, 2015No Comments

None of the five young pastors in one New York clergy cohort grew up there. But they’ve all come to love serving on the East Coast.

By Annie Reilly

Five young pastors from the Midwest find joy in East Coast ministry

I recently had dinner with my RCA clergy cohort. Around the table were Blaine Crawford, John Compton, Lindsey De Kruif, Garret Szantner, and I. When we get together, we inevitably talk shop.

All of us serve congregations in New York state—Blaine serves at Church on the Hill in Flushing, John at Cobblestone Church (RCA) in Schenectady, Lindsey at Christ Community Church (RCA) in Clifton, Garret at Lynnwood Reformed in Schenectady, and I at State Street Presbyterian Church in Schenectady. But none of us are from New York. Blaine and John are from Kansas, Lindsey is from Minnesota, and Garret and I are from Michigan. We’re all fairly new to New York and to ministry. Three of us are in our first ministry setting; two of us are in our second.

We’ve been meeting since 2013, when we attended Beginnings and Beyond, a retreat put on by the Regional Synod of Albany for clergy who are new to the area. Since then, we’ve tried to meet once a month over Google Hangout to check in with each other. Occasionally, we gather in person.

At dinner together, I asked the group about what drew them to the East Coast. I heard a lot of my own reasons echoed back to me.

For one, the collegiality makes the East Coast a great place to do ministry. Lindsey first experienced this while interning at First Reformed Church in Wynantskill during seminary. After graduation, she took her first position in the Schoharie Classis as a solo minister under contract and experienced the same great collegiality, which she continues to enjoy at Christ Community.

This ministry setting is also less competitive than it can be in other places, and the community is more porous. Both those things make it easier for us newcomers to establish ourselves. When Blaine joined the Rochester Classis in his first call, he was immediately involved in the work of the classis with great support from his colleagues. Much of this has to do with an understood “no outsiders” culture in the Regional Synod of Albany.

We also have space here to be creative and to experiment with liturgy, worship, and programming. At Cobblestone this summer, John hosted “Conversations for the Common Good,” a series that covered topics like poverty, domestic abuse, and art. John has also had productive conversations about communion in his congregation that have led to a stronger understanding of communion and a deepened theology of the table.

The church on the East Coast feels both established enough to give us some job security and flexible enough to let us new ministers try new ideas. Garret reflected that he was called to the East as a place to live out unique approaches to evangelism. In recent years, the Barna Group has ranked Albany and the surrounding regions among the most post-Christian, least Bible-minded areas in the United States.

This atmosphere of secularism means we’re free to flex our theological muscles and to share the gospel with those who have actually never heard it before. This presents the sort of wonderful opportunities and challenges that we were seeking when we entered the ministry.

The synods of the East are exciting places to do ministry and continue to draw new and emerging leaders from other areas. While we were at dinner, our cohort counted at least seven other young clergy (we defined this as being under 40) who are transplants to the Regional Synod of Albany. We’re grateful to our congregations for making this a place we can call home, both professionally and personally.

Annie Reilly is pastor of State Street Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, New York, and the communication coordinator for the Regional Synod of Albany.