NACCP’S JOURNEY
By Jake Young (pastor, 2004 - 2012)
Anderson, South Carolina: April 2012
During the summer of 1992, I moved into a little house on North Busey Street in
Urbana, Illinois. I was one of three courageous tenants who shared the rent that year. Why
“courageous”? Well, partly because the entire second floor had been constructed by a
former owner whose profession had nothing at all to do with construction. It was evident
in every un-level, off-square joint and surface. (There were no level or square surfaces!)
But the main reason we were courageous was that we had never met each other
before! Our lives converged in 1992 out of a shared experience: the need to be in
Champaign-Urbana for our education and, perhaps more importantly, studious poverty.
The most courageous of all in this tripartite co-resident arrangement was Regina, the
Comparative Literature graduate student. Gender should have no bearing on employment
consideration and other issues of equal opportunity like voting rights, access to public
services, etc. But from the beginning of human history, women have necessarily carried the
burden of surplus caution—not fear, but caution. There is a clear difference between the
two. Caution is well-thought out. Fear is not. Women must be more cautious because we
don’t live in a perfect world and our systems of government and social interaction have
favored males for thousands of years. It’s not fair. But, as we all hear so often these days:
“It is what it is.” (I used to despise this facile phrase. But it sums up many complex
situations very well. It is also unarguable. Sure, maybe “it” would not be what it is in a
perfect world. Maybe “it” should be changed because it perpetuates social injustice. But,
no matter how you slice it, dice it, chunk it, lump it….Still, it is what it is.)
So, as August became September, and September flowed into the deep freeze that is
Illinois for the five darkest months of the year, we three strangers settled into our mutually
negotiated routine in the little, cobbled-together house on North Busey. That routine
included Regina and me staying up to watch reruns of Star Trek every weeknight long after
our other roommate had donned his pajamas, obsessively made his chamomile tea, and
subjected us to his odd routine of calisthenics before wordlessly dashing off to bed up the
stairs to the drafty second floor.
No sooner had his aura left the room than we heard the unforgettable words of
Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner): “….The USS Enterprise’s ongoing mission to
boldly go where no man has gone before…” This followed quickly by Regina saying, “I
can’t stand that!”
“What? Our roommate’s obsessive overly-public bedtime routine?”
“No, not that. He’s going to do whatever he’s going to do. If it makes him feel
better about himself and it doesn’t’ hurt anyone else, then that’s fine. What I object to is
that phrase, ‘to boldly go…’”
“Oh, I see. Because it’s sexist, right? Saying ‘no man’ instead of ‘no one’ or ‘no
person’.”
“No,” Regina replies. “It’s not that. In fact, they fixed that in Star Trek: the Next
Generation. The problem is the split infinitive! The mission is ‘to go.’ Boldly is an adverb.
The Enterprise’s mission is ‘to go.’ If it’s boldly, fine, but don’t confuse the action—to go—
by inserting an adverb between the words.”
“So,” I asked, “What’s the grammatically correct mission for the Enterprise?”
Regina replied matter-of-factly, “To go boldly.”
I am recalling all of this because the time has come for North Anderson Community
Church to go boldly into the future. This means two things: First, I am putting my words
into action and going boldly along my journey. For 7 ½ years, I have preached the good
news of our Creator to be not afraid and to embrace Christ’s call to us all to receive
gratefully God’s gift of ‘abundant life.’ In 2004, that journey led me and my family, to
NACCP. Now, it is time to move again in response to God’s call. Secondly, and more
importantly, God is calling NACCP to go boldly forward. Our faith community has been
through many transitions over the last 40 years. Some of those transitions were the results
of circumstances beyond our control. Today we have the luxury of determining our path
forward without the burden of unwanted circumstances. There is no crisis forcing a
decision. Anyone who says there is, is seeing a glass that is ¾ full and declaring it empty!
Likewise, any effort to re-invent NACCP according to “the way we used to do
things” is living in a past which, as glorious as it may be in our collective memory, no
longer exists. (It is doubtful it ever existed in the way our gilded-memories depict it today.)
In other words, moving forward, God has a New Thing in store for us all.
My last Sunday as NACCP’s pastor is April 29. I hope to see you before then. And,
throughout April, I look forward to sharing with you all how and why God is leading me to
undertake a new chapter in my personal and familial journey. It has been an honor and
privilege to serve NACCP these 7 ½ years. I have learned a lot! I humbly hope that feeling
is mutual.
The time is now.
May the Holy Spirit continue to Inspire us all to embrace it.
The Reverend Jake Young
