Connections and Transitions

by Angela Williams

I write this blog about a week after I have officially stopped working with NEXT Church, a few days after I have left Washington, DC, and am well into a month of transition home with my family in Rock Hill, SC. Already in these few days home, I’ve met up with a friend whom I met at the 221st General Assembly in Detroit, where we served as Young Adult Advisory Delegates together. She is interning this summer at a church in Charlotte, NC, before she heads off to Scotland to serve as a Young Adult Volunteer, where she will be working with Sarah Brown, a pastor who gave an Ignite presentation at the 2016 National Gathering. This is the most life-giving part of working with NEXT Church.

angela-servingYou see, I might not have known the church in Charlotte and my friend’s future supervisor had I not had the opportunity to immerse myself into the connectional network that is NEXT Church. At times, the PC(USA) can feel way too small. Perhaps a negative word traveled too fast and ended up hurting another member of the Body of Christ. Other times, this relational network feels like a fishnet where each of us is a knot, and we are connected to all the other knots through strings and knots. Alone, we may not be able to withstand much, but together we can hold a full haul of fish.

That is the only way that NEXT Church can do its work. We could not have completed a denomination-wide listening campaign with 447 Presbyterians if we had not already had relationships with the leaders who had relationships with the participants. National and regional gatherings are impossible without a whole village of people coming on board, taking on leadership, and doing the work to make it happen. We could not continue to grow this movement with good folks like you hearing the message and sharing it with others.

To the NEXT Church community, I thank each and every one of you for making this a wonderful site placement for me this year. I am grateful for each and every one of you and what you bring to the table. It has been an honor and a privilege to connect with you over email, on conference calls, and in person. While I may be leaving the NEXT Church staff and Washington, DC, I take these experiences with you in my heart as I move to Austin, TX, to begin seminary. We may have said goodbye, but the PC(USA) is too connected for it to mean anything more than see you later.


AngelaWilliams270Angela Williams just wrapped up her year with NEXT Church and New York Avenue Presbyterian Church as a Young Adult Volunteer in Washington, D.C., after serving a first YAV year in the Philippines. She looks forward to taking these experiences with her as she journeys on to Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary to pursue an M.Div. and Masters in Social Work. She finds life in experiencing music, community organizing, cooking any recipe she can find, making friends on the street, and theological discussions that go off the beaten path.
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