The first definition offered in the dictionary reads: to put something in place so that it is ready for use. We install appliances and software. In some ways I like that definition better than the second definition of install which is the pertinent, but not quite accurate, definition for Sunday’s service at LPC:  to place someone formally in an official job of high rank.

Sunday all the ordained officers (elders, ruling and teaching, and deacons) at LPC currently serving on their respective boards (the Session and the Deacon Board) will be installed as the officers of LPC in its new EPC denomination. Yes, a lot of ecclesiastical procedure, but also something important.

Now at the end of one long journey and at the beginning of another great adventure, Langhorne Presbyterian Church, still LPC, has found a new denominational home, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the EPC. Presbyterian is the common denominator. Presbyterian is a way of organizing our life together with elders (presbyters) having oversight and leadership responsibility in the local church and deacons given particular work in ministries of care and compassion. We gather in presbyteries (the community of churches in a region) for the purpose of accountability and mutual support. I can’t imagine ever not being Presbyterian.

Less institutionally encumbered and theologically more faithful to our Reformed Tradition, the EPC is a good home for LPC.

So, what is this service of installation all about?

Installation begins with ordination. Presbyterians ordain those called to ministry as elders (teaching and ruling) and deacons. We believe that such office holders are called by God into the office they hold – wonderfully we say, “called by God through the voice of the congregation.” In ordination that calling is affirmed by officers and congregation alike through faith declared, promises made, and the laying of hands as we beseech God by the power of the Holy Spirit to encourage, sustain, and protect those so called.  Ordination is for life.

Becky and I will be at an ordination service in Ephrata, Washington, in a couple of weeks. Ordinations are usually a bigger deal than installations where previously ordained officers (or just ordained officers) are put to work.

Being Presbyterian, the EPC joyfully affirms an ordination in another branch of the Presbyterian family. No ordinations this Sunday at LPC. But we’re going to put some people to work – or, to be precise, ask them to continue their work in the new denominational family.

We sometimes describe our elders as leaders who serve and our deacons as servants who lead. That’s why I don’t think that pertinent definition of install is quite accurate: to place someone formally in an official job of high rank. There will be some formality about things on Sunday, but the one we follow liked to talk about the first being last and the last being first, so high rank doesn’t describe elders (teaching and ruling) and deacons in the church of Jesus Christ.

If we change that first definition, to put something in place so that it is ready for use, just a bit, we’ll get better sense of what’s happening on Sunday. To put our officers in place so that they are ready to be used.  Used by Christ for Kingdom good.

Our journey to a new home is over. It was long and sometime arduous, but worth it all.  A new adventure just begins. Sunday is one of the marks of it start. Install: to put something in place so that it is ready for use. Lord, make us ready!

See you Sunday