wfn.org | Young Computer Whizzes Help Put the GA's Business Online

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99129 
25-June-1999 
 
                      Young Computer Whizzes 
                Help Put the GA's Business Online 
 
FORT WORTH   Some time-worn denizens of the General Assembly newsroom refer 
to the fresh young kids who make all the high-tech magic happen as 
"Merrill's ducklings"   partly because they have been seen paddling along 
single-file in their mentor's wake, and partly because of their Web feats. 
     The young people, chosen for their computer expertise and devotion to 
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are Andy James, 20, of Jackson, Miss., 
Luke Hagen, 17, of Sunset, Utah, and Robert Nelson, 16, of Louisville, Ky. 
Their GA Svengali is Merrill Cook, administrator for computer communication 
in the GAC's Office of Communication, an ordained minister who these days 
is hip-deep in what he considers "a ministry of administration." 
     Collectively, they are the people who put General Assembly news on the 
World Wide Web, see that the audio is always audible, and keep the 
streaming video streaming. And when there is technical trouble, these are 
the guys who shoot it. 
     "I enjoy having a small flock to deal with," says Cook, who once 
pastored a small church near Syracuse, N.Y. He and his wife Esther have a 
16-year-old daughter, Erin, for whom he says a computer is "like a backpack 
or a pen, just something she uses   no big deal." 
     Cook says the whiz kids' help during General Assembly is "invaluable 
I couldn't put a price on it." 
     "If I wanted to hire people to do the work they do, first of all I'd 
have to spend a lot of time finding the right people   and then we'd have 
to put them through six or eight weeks of training before they would have 
the skills these guys have picked up already," he says. "And these young 
men have been remarkably faithful to this work: If something needs to be 
done, they're quick to pitch in; if we get behind, they will take up the 
slack; and they're willing to stay up late when necessary. 
     "And one of the things that attracted me to these guys is the depth of 
their faith, their commitment to the church. They also do well in school 
and have good personal skills. ... This is a denomination where all the 
kids are above average, but these young men really stand out." 
     This is James' second year as a GA newsroom techie. He says he became 
familiar with computers in junior high school, when he counseled his school 
counselors about using a program for class scheduling, and before long 
"knew more about the system than the counselors did." 
     "I don't know if I would describe myself as a computer geek," he says. 
"I've just used computers all my life because I had to   because the jobs 
that I did required that I know how to use them. ... I'm not a programmer. 
I consider myself by trade a Web designer." 
     James, a junior at the University of Mississippi, plans to major in 
history and become a history professor. He says he first went online in May 
1996   "That's a long time for being on the Internet"   and his favorite 
sites include those of the New York Times and the PC(USA).  "What I think 
is amazing about the Internet is how it makes it possible for people to 
communicate across cultures, the way it breaks down the barriers between 
people." 
     James says working at GA is "fun most of the time, but it's a 
challenge sometimes. It's an opportunity to get backstage, see things from 
a different perspective. ... The amount of work to be done is staggering; 
it's not a job that one or two people can do." 
     "I consider myself a Presbyterian, and I'm proud of that," he says, 
adding that he plans to lobby his presbytery to send him to next year's 
Assembly as a Youth Advisory Delegate. James is a member of First 
Presbyterian Church in Oxford, Miss. 
     Hagen says he met Cook while visiting "chat rooms" on PresbyNet. 
     "I was interested in learning about the church and started talking 
with him," he says, "most of the time about things like what I thought 
about God, what I thought about Heaven, things like that   and also 
questions about computers." 
     Hagen says he was something of a "slacker" in those days, "doing the 
least possible and always whatever was most comfortable; mainly I just 
slept, and hung out with my friends." He says his talks with Cook "gave me 
direction, helped me with goals; before that I thought, Why go to school? 
Why even have a career? But talking with Merrill got my interest up enough 
that I started going to church a lot. ... Since then I've been a lot 
happier." 
     Hagen, who hopes to attend MIT or the University of Arizona and to 
become an aerospace engineer, is an elder at First Presbyterian Church in 
Ogden, Utah. 
     Robert Nelson, the youngest of the crew at 16, is a junior at 
Collegiate School in Louisville. He says he has high-tech pedigree: "My 
grandfather (Hap Nelson) ran the computers at GE." But he started learning 
about computers in 1992 so that he "wouldn't have to depend on tech 
support" from the hard-to-reach manufacturer of his family's first system. 
     Nelson is a member of Harvey Browne Memorial Presbyterian Church in 
Louisville, and serves on the congregation's pastor nominating committee 
"one of the best experiences I've had with the church." He intends to 
attend either Vanderbilt or Purdue and to become an electronics engineer. 
     He says he met Cook "one day when I was thinking about setting up a 
Web page." Nelson, who says he's a good student "in my science classes," 
has been involved in the development of his high school's Web site and 
helped design a page for his French class. 
     Nelson is a lifelong Presbyterian. "Church is really important to me," 
he says. "It's a building block of life. Since the sixth grade I've not 
missed any activities of the Youth Fellowship at my church." He says he 
expects one day to return to the General Assembly as a commissioner, and 
will ask his presbytery to send him as a YAD next year "and every year for 
the time that I'm eligible.". 
     Nelson, who says a Web-page project "is never done," admits that 
getting computers to do what he wanted "was pretty hard when I first 
started, but it was easy once I got rolling. I've grown up with it." 
     "I know there are kids who are rebellious, who are lost," Cook says, 
"but these kids, although they are struggling with questions of identity 
and are not always entirely mistake-free, have a good ethical basis   and 
we have good relationships." 
     Together, they all answer Cook's call to develop the Internet as a 
communication medium and as a means of creating community. 
     "From my years as a pastor," he says, "I know that if you are able to 
communicate with other pastors of small churches, you feel much more 
supported   whether you live in some isolated part of Montana, or in New 
York state. That kind of communication can help to make us the broad-based, 
diverse church we want to be." 
 
John Filiatreau 

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