At times, summer conferences or Synod meetings seem timeless. One feels a connection with history, with previous generations. But when you read history you also see stark differences. It’s hard today to imagine people walking hundreds of miles to a family conference (as they did in the 1920s) or to imagine most Synod delegates arriving by train (as they did in 1861). Big issues of the day change, too. I can’t conceive what it must have been like listening in on a Synod where an American civil war was starting, though war is no stranger to our generation. Some of the biggest factors that make the previous generations seem dated and distant are connected to innovation and technology. Our forebears’ life concerns and convictions often resonate with us, but their way of life seems gone forever, even as the tools and transportation they used make their way into museums.

With the growth of Everyman’s use of the internet and digital communications, we’ve witnessed over the past couple of decades that the worldwide Reformed Presbyterian Church has seemed to draw together. Sure, some RP congregations that are hundreds of miles from other congregationas still at times feel isolated; some RP denominations feel isolated too. But I hear that frustration much less than I used to. Even those folks have great opportunities to connect with RPs around the world, in real time, and Everyman can readily participate in worldwide ministry, even if he is relatively poor.

While all this could spawn several articles, what I’m leading to in this editorial is this: The shrinking of the RP world is also affecting our denominational agencies and institutions. As one reads the reports coming to the 2013 Synod, it is clear that Home Missions has a global component, Global Missions is connected to interchurch relationships, youth ministries and short-term missions are connected to all of them. In recent times the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America has had four presbyteries that weren’t in North America.

This can be unsettling and confusing at times. Distance once kept the lines much more distinct. Travel was expensive; communication was expensive, and so great work was put into establishing official channels for very specific types of ministry. Now we are managing a glut of information from all sides, trying to determine how to fit them into the need for wise counsel and established procedures and ongoing equipping and accountability. I’m sure the changes have only begun.

The irony, then, is that the amazing, shrinking RP Church is also the amazing, growing RP Church! The number of Reformed Presbyterians worldwide has grown rapidly. The number of opportunities for further growth is mind boggling. But this also puts big burdens on our global missions, home missions, and interchurch endeavors. We haven’t earned these opportunities; God has given them. Let’s all pray that we respond with wisdom and love and sacrifice.