Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What is the United Church of Christ?

It is a question that I am asked repeatedly. People have heard of the Church of Christ, they have heard of the United Methodists, they know of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Universalists, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Catholics. Few, apparently, have heard of the United Church of Christ. So, what is the United Church of Christ (UCC)?

A wee bit of historical background helps. The United Church of Christ is the offspring of four previous Protestant denominations. The ties stretch back to the 17th century European Reformation. The Evangelical Church and the Reformed Church were early players in European denominationalism. Each movement came to America fairly early, and those two denominations merged, in 1934, to form The Evangelical and Reformed Church. Coming from the European/German religious environment, this denomination formed around beliefs, orthodoxies and common practices. An opposite side of the theological coin is represented by the other two ancestor denominations of the United Church of Christ. They are the Congregational Churches, which follow Calvinist, Puritan and congregational beliefs, and the Christian Churches, which were spiritual movements. These organizations of churches merged, in 1931, to form the Congregational Christian Churches.

No foundational bodies could have been more distant in relationship. The E & R Church was firmly dogmatic and formal, while the CC churches tended toward spirituality and an energetic experience of authentic faith. But these groups merged, in 1957, to become The United Church of Christ. The denominational motto, "That they all may be one," is derived from the notion that all Christian denominations could be unified by the larger issues of following Christ instead of being divided by diversity of practice. The structure arrived at for the new denomination followed basic congregational lines, while forming wider church opportunities and ministries.

Part of that wider church structure is the bi-annual meeting of representatives from the entire United Church of Christ, called "General Synod." The most recent general Synod meeting was held in Tampa, FL in 2011. At that meeting, representatives from around the denomination wrestled with the issue of what it means to be The United Church of Christ. Their work is represented in three basic statements of what it means to be The United Church of Christ.

The United Church of Christ subscribes to "a continuing testament." Following on the heels of the UCC "Stillspeaking" campaign, a continuing testament suggests that the church today is an ongoing witness to a God who still acts, still speaks, remains relevant, forms the ongoing story of God in relationship with God's people. Our testament is not exclusively recorded in the canons of Old and New Testaments. It resides, too, in the stories of men and women and children who continue to hear and make manifest God's will in our contemporary context. We are a developing, reforming, reshaping institution, constantly seeking to hear new words that God may speak.

The United Church of Christ offers "an extravagant welcome." No matter where you are on life's journey, no matter where you have been or what you have done, despite what you may do, every person is welcome here. The united Church of Christ seeks to be open to every person, regardless of her or his background, orientation, color, race, creed, conduct or context. The United Church of Christ is, at its best, not simply "Open and Affirming," but actively welcoming. The UCC is about the empowerment and calling of every person. Persons are the means by which God continues God's work in the world. The UCC attempts to welcome all.

The United Church of Christ is "changing lives." Since God is still active in our world, and since the means of God's grace in the world rests with God's people, it is necessary for the church to be in the business of changing persons. The United Church of Christ seeks to shape persons as conduits through which flow God's grace. This sometimes means overcoming the hurt and rejection of those who have been shut out by creeds, dogmatism and orthodoxy. It sometimes means inviting persons to unlearn the systemic tendency to settle on certain acts and beliefs as sacred and holy. It sometimes means doing whatever it takes to help persons develop an authentic relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.

Readers of The Shiloh Insider will notice straight away that each of these descriptions of the United Church of Christ are actually actions. They are verbs. How congregations and people of the United Church of Christ go about the work of discerning a continuing testament, providing an extravagant welcome and changing lives is not nearly so important to the denomination as the simple fact that these three describe what the churches and persons are doing. Each person is called to minister. Each is called and equipped to serve. Each is called to follow a continuing testament, provide and extravagant welcome and change lives.

If this is work in which you might be interested, I urge you to seek out a neighborhood UCC congregation. Shiloh Church is very intentional about its work to be The United Church of Christ. So are many others of our local congregations. Plan to visit this Sunday!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Sinclair ASL Club Recognition

During its graduation recognition ceremony, held this past Friday evening, the Sinclair Community College American Sign Language (ASL) Club recognized Shiloh Church as an asset to Dayton's deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Not only was Shiloh recognized during the ceremony, the congregation was gifted $200 by Sinclair's ASL Club.

The gift and recognition arose from Shiloh's ministry of hosting ASL Club events, namely the two silent game nights and its annual auction, the ASL interpretation of its 10:30 worship service, and the support of students in the Sinclair ASL program.

I think that the recognition and the gift call Shiloh to take even more responsibility to the Sinclair ASL program and the Dayton deaf and hearing impaired community. Though Shiloh no longer has students in the program, Shiloh can take steps to better serve students who are learning ASL interpretation and build a stronger relationship with the community that those students will serve. Three things come immediately to mind:

1. Shiloh can continue to offer ASL interpretation at its 10:25 service. That interpretation could probably include each year a student intern from Sinclair Community College who would work with Casey Robinson, or other interpreters, to better learn ASL interpretation and provide interpretation service to the community. Shiloh can now begin to advertise that its 10:25 service is welcoming to the hearing impaired and deaf community.

2. Shiloh can continue to open its doors to the Dayton deaf community and the ASL Club at Sinclair Community College. Shiloh can continue to distinguish itself as a place where these members of our wider community are both welcome and served. Use of the facility goes a long way in building that relationship. Shiloh can host game nights and the annual auction, as a start.

3. Utilizing the skills of our own members, especially Karyn Sleppy and Casey Robinson, Shiloh can learn more about American Sign Language. In preparation for Shiloh hosting the Sinclair ASL Club silent auction, Casey offered a beginning class for alphabet and numbers. Several members attended the auction and purchased items in support of the ASL program at Sinclair. Imagine how welcome members of the deaf and hearing impaired community might feel if they were welcomed at Shiloh by people who have gone out of their way to learn, even rudimentary,ASL.

I believe that recognition from the Dayton deaf community, in form of the Sinclair ASL Club, calls Shiloh to greater accountability. Can the congregation support these three initiatives as a way of building and growing the budding relationship? I certainly think and hope so.

See You Sunday! 

Monday, June 11, 2012

SONKA News

Members and friends of Shiloh Church have very likely noticed that all sorts of information is now posted every week in Shiloh's "Information Gallery." Among the items posted across from the all-member mailbox system are notes and letters that Shiloh receives from persons and agencies in our community and around the world, the Conference newsletter, fliers that feature upcoming events, and the weekly Association newsletter, "Snippets."  I hope that everyone who is part of the life of Shiloh Church avails themselves of the information that is posted. Some of it is very important.

Shiloh Church is an active part of the Association. Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association (SONKA) is a joint ministry of 80-some churches that are located from Sidney in the north to miles within Kentucky in the south and from the Indiana State line to the west and nearly half-way across Ohio in the east. SONKA is a spectrum of traditional/progressive congregations, Evangelical and Reformed/Congregational Christian backgrounds, large/small communities, diverse identities, variant theological perspectives and different make-up. We are unified by shared ministry, common vision and mutual labor.

Several recent events define our shared Association ministry. One of those items is the retirement of Association Minister, Ruth Brandon. Ruth has done a fabulous job of helping the Association be a better organized and much more unified body of Christ. Ruth has served us remarkably well, and we wish her the best in what we hope is many years of happy retirement.

Another of those important recent events is the calling of a new Interim Association Minister. While I am not certain that I am at liberty to announce the name of the person called to the position, I can certainly state that the Association is in fine hands, and continues to be served by excellent leadership. There will be no gap in wonderful service to and in SONKA.

Yet another key to the ministry of the Association is the work of the Strategic Planning Team. After more than six months of work, this team is now prepared to begin listening sessions with every congregation of the Association. After that initial phase of hearings, the planning process will shift to Association Teams and Clusters, Authorized Ministers and the Ohio Conference. The content of the hearings will determine to a great extent any new formulation of Association structure.

Members of the Strategic Planning team are committed to helping SONKA be more effective in working with the ministries of our local churches, our Teams and Clusters (in whatever form they may take), our authorized ministers and whatever judicatory bodies SONKA may minister.

The current Association structure, now about seven years old, marked a step toward strengthening the ministry of the Association by strengthening its component parts. Whatever form the Association might take in this structural revision is a further step in that direction. The ministry of the Association IS the ministry of its component parts. The Association is the tide upon which all component parts rise. The process of strengthening the Association, then, lies in strengthening its component parts.

The means of strengthening the component parts of the Association rests in our ability to form a network of shared strengths and challenges. The Association is best understood as a network matrix through which the component parts of the Association are strengthened, not "from above" but "throughout." The resulting structure will, hopefully, reflect the already-existing strengths and challenges of our congregations, teams, clusters, authorized ministers and Conference.

The process will necessarily impact the search for a new Association Minister. For whom we search in leadership is very much determined by what the Association requires to achieve the network matrix by which each part is best served. 

This is new and exciting work. It reflects an innovative direction. I hope that you will join me in being excited about the potential of this new direction, not just for the Association but for all of its component parts.

See You Sunday!




Monday, June 04, 2012

Year of Two Halves

The Liturgical Church Year begins in Advent, usually the last Sunday in November (though it starts this year on the first Sunday in December). The entire first half of the church year consists of the story of Jesus, his earthly ministry in Galilee, his trip to Jerusalem, his Crucifixion and Resurrection, and his post-Resurrection appearances and Ascension. The first half of the church year contains both Christmas and Easter. By and large, the Church loves the first half of the Liturgical Church Year.

The second half of the Liturgical Church Year is another story altogether. The twenty-six weeks of the season after Pentecost have a completely different focus, lack significant theologically-based holidays, and just happen to fall when the weather is better and when the (grand)children are out of school. The second half of the Liturgical Church Year is based on the power of the Holy Spirit, at work in the Church. The Church does not at all seem to embrace the second half of the church year. Based on empirical evidence, like worship attendance and congregational activity, one would have to conclude that the bulk of Church focus lies in the first half of the year. The second half goes mostly ignored.

I find that fact odd. While the first half of the Liturgical Church Year, roughly December through May, focuses on the story of Jesus and God's Sacrament in him, the second half, June through November, focuses on the Spirit of God, which is at work in the Church that bears Jesus' name. The second half is sacramental. The same work is being done. Both halves are about God accomplishing the work of salvation for all people. Both halves of the year involve holy work, sacred calling, divine empowerment.

Why, then, does the Church of Jesus Christ mostly ignore the importance of the second half of the Liturgical Church Year? Unfortunately, the evidence would suggest that the Church of Jesus Christ embraces the first half and ignores the second half because the means by which God accomplishes salvation for all people differs.

The difference is stark. In the first half of the church year, Jesus is the means by which God accomplishes universal salvation. It is in Jesus' earthly ministry, his teachings, his miracles, his sacrifice, his death and new life that God works salvation. In the second half of the Liturgical Church Year, God works universal salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is put to work in the ministries and mission of the Church of Jesus Christ.

While we in the Church love to claim that the Church is the body of Christ, we are uncomfortable with the idea that God works universal salvation in the world by actually empowering us. God enables us. God calls us. God sends us. God relies on us. God waits on us. And we do not like it. God's call to us makes us accountable for the advent of God's kingdom in the world. God's empowerment makes it potential for the world that it may be God's kingdom. God's reliance on us makes it incumbent upon us to move with God's will toward the fulfillment of that kingdom.

The Church does not like the pressure. It does not like the idea that it is a crucial part of God's sacred work on earth. It does not appreciate the fact that God will not do God's work of salvation without the hands and feet of the Church as its vehicle.

We blame it on summer. We blame it on vacations. We blame it on yard work. We blame it on tee times or soccer games (which clearly are more important than God's work in the world).We blame the decline on the (grand)kids being out of school. The reality of the situation is that we do not want to be accountable for God's work. We do not want to be its vehicle. We do not want to be the means by which God brings God's kingdom to actuality. So we stay away. We pull back.

The Liturgical Church Year is a tale of two halves. The Church of Jesus Christ may as well admit that it likes the Sacrament of God in Christ Jesus, where all the pressure and responsibility is on him, but dislikes, and stays far from, the sacramental work that makes the kingdom manifest. We do not want to be responsible for the work. We want to receive the blessings of the first half, but we do not want to bear the sacrifice of the second.

Forgive us, Lord.

See You Sunday!