With General Assembly before us, I thought it might be helpful to steal a line from an Indiana Jones movie (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and offer a challenge that may serve to encourage those who attend. In spite of the fact that our passions are often most displayed on the floor, in debates and votes, GA is more than a political gathering. Beyond where we debate, stand at microphones, and vote, are the display floor and bookstore, the hallways, and the natural gathering area in the corridor immediately outside where business is being conducted. There are the restaurants, the large organizational gatherings in various venues, the breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and the hotel lobbies and bars.

It’s true that when we enter that assembly space, we bring our leanings, agendas, votes, and concerns with us. We are brothers and individuals, but we also represent perspectives on various issues. We sit with friends who share our passions and opinions on various overtures, nominations, and debates. We get fired up, even hot at times. In the assembly where we vote, we feel causes acutely, and this often leads to deep divides in our views of the denomination, ecclesiology, our missiology, etc. Two years ago, I was convicted to call a brother that I had wrongly offended in a GA debate – at the microphone – live and on film (It was that bad, but I digress).

However, I want to argue that where we debate and vote, is the space between spaces, the alien space (to be consistent with the movie), and that in all others, we have opportunities to really connect – as humans. GA week is full of spaces where we don’t ask women to sit in seats behind voting aisles, and where we don’t have to endure the voting fob instructions, where partisan concerns are more internal than outspoken, and where there are no tables for signing protests, and where there are no points of order.

Truth be known, these outside-the-assembly spaces are the most desirable ones, and often make that week most enjoyable, even meaningful. Encounters we never expected. Encouragements from the least anticipated people. Introductions to people we would never otherwise have thought to know. These spaces are where our truest ‘points of personal privilege’ reside! People we haven’t seen for a year, or years, catch our eye, and in an instant, we are reunited in joy. Those grieving come into view during hotel check-in, and we embrace. Recently published friends draw our congratulations, and maybe a few selfies with their books. Baseball games in Major League cities, museums, historic buildings, and roads draw mutual interest.

So, let this be an encouragement and a challenge. The place to be most human is not where we will vote, but everywhere else. The voting room is where our preparation, research, and caucusing dovetail into debate, clarifications, and results, and maybe a few groans. However, we are most human outside the assembly hall. Take advantage of those spaces! With a few exceptions (and there have been some, to be sure), I have found that most everyone I have strongly disagreed with on the floor, I have found to be delightfully human – and humane – in person.

It’s true, there are always outliers (and sometimes we ourselves are the outliers). On every point on the continuum of differences in the PCA there will always be some who are as rigid in the exhibition hall and the food hall as they are in the assembly hall. But they are the exception to the rule. The problem comes when we reduce GA to what happens on the floor.

So, let me offer a few suggestions for keeping perspective at GA:

Hug an adversary – If you really want to freak someone out that you disagree with, greet them with a hug (or at the very least, a sincere smile and handshake). The point isn’t to freak them out, but to put on display genuine Christian love that transcends differences and unites us in “the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace,” because of Jesus.

Encourage someone you’ve never met, who may feel, as David once did, like a “bird on a roof.” Introduce yourself to a stranger. At any given GA, there are people who arrived alone, and who feel alone, people who are walking around, wondering if there are any meaningful connections to be made. Some are looking for work. Others feel invisible. So be that person who reached out. You will be the one they tell their wives about.

Congratulate someone you may disagree with for an accomplishment that is worthy of congratulations. Congratulating someone we disagree with isn’t capitulation to their views, or aiding and abetting the enemy. We aren’t enemies! We are friends on different sides of the issues. So, celebrate them, and let them have their well-deserved moment.

Here’s the thing: The ‘one anothers’ in the New Testament are there for a reason, and they are commands for a reason. In our fallen state, we are so naturally bent towards ourselves and causes and opinions, that we need to be told to ‘one another,’ one another! We need to be told to “love one another,” to “bear one another’s burdens,” to “forgive one another,” etc!

And, when we do, the One who perfectly and unfailingly put each “one another” on display is on display in our lives. The very thing that C. S. Lewis describes at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, happens!

“Everywhere, the statues were coming to life. The courtyard looked no longer like a museum; it looked more like a zoo. Creatures were running after Aslan and dancing round him till he was almost hidden in the crowd.”

In the assembly hall, we are voting commissioners, teaching and ruling elders, committee members, chairmen, spokesmen, coordinators, and representatives. Outside that space between the spaces, we have the opportunity to be dads and friends, brothers and sons, pastors and strugglers – humans! And we can be to one another what Jesus has been for us.

And, that is good news.

Mike Khandjian is the Senior Pastor, Chapelgate Presbyterian Church, Marriottsville, MD