I have had the chance this year to attend a number of PCUSA events where there has been a great deal of conversation and concern of where the church finds itself today, where it is going, and the biggest question, how are we going to get where we think we want to be.  Listening to the stories of our churches ministry across Mackinac Presbytery, I am filled with the spirit of hope for our future as churches, the Presbytery, and the denomination.  I recently came across an article that was sent to me in June of this year.  It is an Op Ed column in the New York Times, May 30, 2011 by David Brooks entitled,  "It's Not About You".  David Brooks is responding to the many graduation speeches given this year to 2011 college graduates.  "Worst of all, they are sent off into this world with the whole baby-boomer theology ringing in their ears....you see that many graduates are told to:  Follow YOUR passion, chart YOUR own coarse,  march to the beat of YOUR own drummer, follow YOUR dreams and find YOURself.  This is a litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture. 

David Brooks goes on to say, that this mantra misleads on nearly every front.  Who of us knew ourselves at 22 or were capable of having a significant inward journey to find ourselves at 24.  Instead, the great stories we hear are of those who have truly found themselves was through something they DID.   A relative has Alzheimer's and a young woman feels called to cure that disease.  A younger sister attends the birth of her nephew and becomes a midwife.  They found themselves in the tasks of life, being part of a family, a community, an institution, in living life itself. 

I would like to apply this to our Presbyterian community here in Mackinac Presbytery as we look towards new beginnings as a denomination.  Many have described where we find ourselves today much like the early church communities of Peter and Paul.  It isn't about us as individuals or individual churches, it is about us living in community and caring for each other, those around us and the world.  It is defining ourselves by what we are doing for others.  You can call it "missional" which is the new catchword for the church. What I believe it means as members of a Christian community, is what we as Christians are DOING TOGETHER for others that helps us to be faithful to the Gospel. To be the Church of today, we cannot be the dominant culture of rugged individualism. 

David Brooks goes on to say, "Today's grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course as they age, they'll discover the tasks of life are at the center.  Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can't be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it's nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task.  The purpose of life is not to find yourself.  It's to lose yourself."

Of course, we say it a bit differently from Matthew 10:39, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."