The State of the Maine Conference

United Church of Christ

 

June 11, 2010

 

The Reverend David R Gaewski

Conference Minister

 

 

Introduction to Next Generation Perspective

               It was about five years ago when we began in earnest our discernment regarding our conference facilities.  A lot of ground has been covered since then, and we have done it slowly, carefully, and deliberately.  Some have felt the process to move along too slowly while other have believed that some decisions came about too quickly.  From my perspective, our discernment has been deliberate and careful.  What has become clear is our need to be mindful of the next generation of the United Church of Christ in Maine.  I began to reflect on our next generation at last year’s annual meeting.  Because this is truly where the focus of our conference now is, I will continue that reflection this year.

Is the Church dying?  An historical perspective

               It has been said that the mainline church is dying; that there may not be a next generation after our current membership crosses the river to be home with God.  As a historian, I am mindful  that we’ve been here before.  There really is nothing new under the sun, as the author of Ecclesiastes asserts.  In the 17th century Congregationalists lamented in the decline of church membership because their children could not confess the “born again” experience of their parents which was required for church membership.  That led to the Half-Way Covenant which permitted membership without confession of a conversion experience.  And while it bolstered membership for a few decades, by the end of the century, congregational churches were not thriving.  But fifty years later in the 18th century, the Spirit blew through the churches in North Hampton, Massachusetts using the voice of congregational preacher Jonathan Edwards, leading to a pre-awakening only to be followed by the First Great Awakening that swept ecumenically through the colonies and truly renewed vitality of faith among Congregationalists.  And even as that waned in the late 1700’s it was to be rekindled by a spark from Yale Divinity School at the dawn of the 19th century, leading to the Second Great Awaking.  But that too waned and by the 1830’s congregationalism was thought to be a dinosaur as churches were dis-established from financial support through town taxation.  Many Congregationalists though that was the end of the New England experiment…. Until…..a schooner sailed into Long Island sound in 1839 when the Amistad Incident ignited Congregationalists with the passion for abolition of slavery only to be followed by the birth of the Social Gospel movement and the passion for justice that that brought to the churches.  The next waning of church vitality was followed by the passion for ecumenism and the ecumenical experiment that led to the formation of the most radical ecumenical union in 1957, the United Church of Christ.

The Vocation of the Church is to Engage

               So when nay-sayers speak of the death of the church, I think about what is said about New England weather…. If you are discouraged by what you see outside your window, then wait a minute.  However, unlike waiting for the weather to change, Christ’s vocation of the church is not to wait, but to engage.   It is to tirelessly engage the world with the Good News of the Gospel.  And the Gospel is engaged in different ways.  As I look around our conference today, there is not one single trend that defines the state of our UCC churches.   There are, rather, a number of trends.

Engage in what leads to Vitality

               It is definitely erroneous to make a blanket statement that all mainline churches are in decline.  Without mentioning names of congregations, I am aware of some of our churches that are growing numerically by engaging the Gospel through creative liturgy, including outstanding preaching.  I am aware of others that have grown in numbers and vitality through prophetic engagement of contemporary issues like marriage equality and equal rights for all.  Others, while not growing numerically have gained  a new sense of vitality through outreach and missional focus.  It is key to become aware of the unique calling based on the skills and gifts present in your local church that can lead to church vitality.  Not every church is called to do the exact same thing.  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says, “And to some are given the gift that they be missionaries, advocates, companions, pioneers, champions (all of these apostles), to others the gift to be prophetic, some are to be evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, to weave together a holy tapestry that is the Body of Christ.”  I used this text recently when I spoke to the Cumberland  Association Members in Discernment.  The text, however, speaks equally to congregations, faith communities, as it does to individuals discerning their unique call.  What is the unique call of your congregation that leads to vitality?  The Small Church Parish of Promise program aims at answering just this question.  Those churches that have experienced the greatest vitality are those that have found their vocational niche.  This is the first trend.

Engage ministry of the laity

               Nonetheless it is also accurate that we have never seen as many churches go from full time ordained ministry to part-time ministry as we have in the past couple of years.  This is also a trend.  The global economic downturn has indeed impacted many local churches.  I will speak about churches undergoing pastoral transitions in a few minutes, but it is noteworthy to acknowledge that of the 29 churches currently with open pulpits, seven of these have become part-time ministerial positions only within the past year or so.

               Rather than taking the perspective that moving from full time to part time ordained ministerial service is a sign of failure, I encourage us to make it an opportunity.  From the beginnings in Plimouth Plantation, strong lay ministry has been the bedrock to the “Congregational Way”.  The increase in part-time ordained ministry opens the door to a more vibrant and dynamic lay ministry.  We already see signs of how vital this ministry is through the enthusiasm for the Academy for Congregational Life and Leadership.  The graduating class is passionate for ministry, we must open every door to allow these graduates to engage the Gospel through the vocation of making new disciples.  Another sign is the sharp increase in “Members in Discernment” who are not choosing a path toward ordained ministry, but rather toward Licensed or Commissioned ministry.  These are exciting developments for our church.  I am thrilled with the two new certificate programs being offered by Bangor Seminary this Fall, one in Parish Nursing and the other in Elder Care.  These are essential lay ministries that will instill vigor and vitality in the life of some local congregations.  If you see members or participants in your local church who you think have a calling for either the Certificate program or the Lay Academy, you should tap them on the shoulder and ask: Is God calling you?  Twenty years ago that question was limited to those considering an ordination path.  How exciting it is to grow our sense of Christian Vocation to include God’s efficacious and relentless call to lay ministry!  I think it was Andover Newton that had an advertisement years ago asking “Is God keeping you awake at night?”  Today that question is relevant to both those who might become ordained as well as those who are called to non-ordained ministries.

Engage Making Disciples

               Another trend that is becoming more apparent is the number of church attendees, perhaps a majority of these under the age of 40, who find church attendance meaningful for a season or more, but then take a hiatus, only to return for another season at a later time.  Membership in most organizations is less likely today than it was a generation ago.  I believe it is a mistake for us to battle this trend.  I think our opportunity is to engage the Gospel directly and passionately with those who are acutely hungry for it.  I believe our focus must turn away from membership as a goal and toward discipleship.  The purpose of the church is,  after all, to make disciples of Jesus Christ.  And while discipleship may come about through membership on a board or committee, it is more likely to result from spiritual direction, Christian nurture, study, and engagement in mission, the later being a key operative for the next generation. 

               It is in light of the cultural trend away from membership that I sent a letter to churches last summer asking that each church consider adding to their membership list for the purpose of fellowship dues assessment, those persons who participate in the full life of the congregation, but are not members.  I introduced the term “Participating Community Members”.  These are persons who have not joined the church by the rite of membership, but have joined the community through participation.  Because the services that each congregation receives from the conference are for all persons within the local church, it is only fair and just that fellowship dues also be assessed for “participating community members.”

Recap

               Let me pause for a moment and recap the ground I’ve covered so far before I move on to another subject.  I’ve talked about the ebbs and flows of church vitality in our history.  I’ve emphasized that the Gospel  is so compelling that we cannot wait around to see what God will do, but rather it is our Christian vocation to engage the Good News.  Next, I spoke about different ways we engage such as: 1)  identifying  that which leads to vitality in YOUR local church, recognizing that different churches are given different gifts; 2) Engaging the ministry of the laity as was the vision of our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors;  and 3) Focus our congregational life on making disciples rather than increasing membership.  I’ve identified three trends that are opportunities to engage the Gospel and instill vitality to local church ministry.

 

The Next Generation Working Group

               I’m going to turn now to reflect a bit on the hard work of the Next Generation Working Group.  You’ll hear a process report from then tomorrow.  This group has been actively meeting since last November.  They have continued our deliberate process of listening deeply to the joys and concerns, the needs and the celebrations of this generation of the Maine Conference, and then engaging the question: What are the hopes and dreams of and for the Next Generation?  Some themes that have emerged include the importance of faith nurturing for all generations; the importance of good, clear, effective, and technologically appropriate communication;  the importance of a conference staff that provides resources to local churches;  and facilities that foster community building recognizing that community is built differently across different age groups.  The task of the Next Generation Group is to make a recommendation to the Coordinating Council on the most faithful use of the assets made available through the sale of Rockcraft Retreat Center.  Any recommendation from the Coordinating Council will come before either an Annual Meeting or Special Meeting of the Conference for approval.

 

 

 

Equipping the New Generation Now

               Even as we discern the future, our conference is not “waiting” for God to do something.  We are engaging the Gospel now looking toward the next generation of the UCC in Maine.  Some of the ways we are doing this include:

·        Susie’s work with the Middle School Rallies and Regional Youth Event

·        Darren’s work with the Small Church Initiative

·        My workshops of “Church Safety” and “OCWM”.

·        Both Susie and Darren’s Clergy and Laity Boundary training

·        An initiative that I will speak of momentarily on “Green Churches in New England”

·        The Pilgrim Lodge Task Force on marketing and immediate facility needs

·        Continued growth of our Resource Center

·        And finally the continued unfolding of the Maine Ministerial Excellence Program which includes:

1.      Promotion of the Academy

2.      The Fall Learning Event which hosted Diana Butler Bass last year and will host Ben Guess this coming October 22-23.

3.      The trip to Cleveland for clergy ordained 5 years or less to expose them to the many ministry resources of the National Setting of the Church.

To fully engage the seven strategies of the Maine Ministerial Excellence Program our conference needs to develop an endowed funding source that would allow us to:

·        Provide spiritual direction for all clergy

·        Provide coaching to those within their first five years of ministry

·        Provide clergy consultation groups

·        Provide lay leaders consultation groups

·        Experiential Learning Opportunities for clergy and church educators

The vision set forth and slowly being realized in the Maine Ministerial Excellence Program is a very concrete way we are paving the way to excellent ministry for and from the Next Generation.

 

A Potential Opportunity

               An opportunity presented itself to the conference several months ago when the faithful congregation in Gardiner discerned that it was good and right for them to close the doors of their congregation and subsequently offer their physical and fiscal assets to the Maine Conference.  Careful work has been done over the past four month on our part to carefully assist the Gardiner Church in the transfer of their assets.  An even larger question posed itself recognizing that our conference identified the Gardiner/Augusta/Waterville area as a potential site for our conference office.  We are not close to making a recommendation on this possibility.  However, due diligence is being done in exploring the potential for the Gardiner Church building to be transformed into a conference office/retreat center.  It is distinctly possible that no recommendation will come forth, however, it is important to communicate that your conference leadership is exploring this possibility.  Any decision on this matter would require a vote of either an Annual Meeting or a Special Meeting of the Conference.  At a minimum the Gardiner gift will provide a generous grant toward Pilgrim Lodge camper scholarships.  For their vision, generosity, and faithfulness the conference is grateful to the Gardiner Church members.

 

A New Focus

               It seems even more apropos given the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, that I planned to introduce to you at this annual meeting a new initiative that has been endorsed both by the Witness Life Commission and the Coordinating Council.  Last January there was a meeting of the six New England Conference Ministers where we discussed, among many topics, a possible thematic vocational direction of the New England United Church of Christ congregations.  We discussed the many issues which we discern are of passionate concern among our congregations.  What quickly led to the fore was the deep concern and commitment toward the integrity of creation and living green.  A program was developed by the Connecticut Conference to promote Green Churches called the Green Action Plan.  In your registration folders you will find a New England wide initiative to promote Green churches across the UCC in New England.  Steve Hastings, the chair of Witness Life Commission, is currently serving as the liaison with the New England planning group.  We will, however, need to create a Maine Green Action Committee to oversee the Maine progress of the plan.  If this is something for which you have a strong commitment, please speak to either Steve or me. 

               At each Annual Meeting we will recognize those congregations that have achieved 80% compliance in the three categories outlined on the handout.  So, if between now and next year’s annual meeting your church can document that you have completed at least 12 of the 15 steps in the first column, you will be recognized as a One Green Globe Congregations.  If in the following year you complete 80% of the second column, you will be recognized as a Two Green Globe Congregation.  The same process applies for a Three Green Globe Congregation.  Our hope is that churches from across New England will be recognized across the conferences annually.  The real purpose, however, is not recognition, it is to live the Christian Vocation of being good stewards of our planet.  On Sunday morning, I will address this vocation as the theme of my sermon.

 

A Continuing Covenant

               I’ll turn now from a new focus to one which has been important in the Maine Conference for at least the past 14 years, arguably much longer than that.  The Honduras partnership grew out of a personal relationship between Dean and Alice Davies and Robie Doughty in Maine with Dr. Joyce Baker a longer time medical missionary in Honduras.  During the 1990’s there were regular mission trips to Honduras first from the Brunswick church and then broadened to conference mission teams.  In 1997 the relationship became formalized by a Partnership agreement between the Maine Conference and the Evangelical and Reformed Synod of Honduras.  This partnership has grown steadily over the years.  At last year’s Annual Meeting Reverend Carlos Ortega addressed our assembly and spoke very frankly of the political and social turmoil unfolding in his country.  At the request of the Board of Directors (Junta) of the Synod in Honduras, our partnership committee placed a moratorium on all mission trips to Honduras until the situation there was deemed safe by our partners.  In late March the Directors of the Synod informed us that the situation on the ground in Honduras was relatively back to normal and mission teams could resume.  The first team went in April to build the fifth of our seven house project in La Vueltosa.  This team was lead by May Schermeyer of Buxton.  This coming summer the partnership will resume its regular schedule of several mission teams, including the biennial Mission Planning Council.  Reverends Anne Roundy and Marcia Charles will join me in Honduras as we plan with our partners possible mission sites and program for the years 2011 and 2012.

               At a recent Honduras Committee retreat here in Maine, our group was led in a “Honduras Justice Issues” seminar by Sarah Bigney.  One additional and new focus we hope to bring to our partnership starting in 2011 will be study groups that visit Honduras on an educational mission to learn firsthand the roots of injustice by speaking face to face with those in Honduras who have become our trusted friends.  We believe this will be an exciting addition to our partnership in addition to our continued work in construction and medical mission.  We are also absolutely thrilled to introduce at this Annual Meeting our own Maine Conference blend of Honduras coffee called “Partnership Blend”.  Our partnership committee, with leadership provided by Nancy Olmstead of Foreside Community, has worked tirelessly with Wicked Joe’s Coffee Roasters to produce this special Fair Trade blend which is on sale in the display area.  Two dollars from the sale of each bag of coffee will go to support the Vocational Education Center called CEVER in the town of Yoro.  Over the years our partnership committee has always been impressed with the work of this school as it equips young people with needed skills that allows so many of them to earn a living wage.  The education provided in Yoro provides systemic solutions to poverty in Honduras.  We hope you will give “Partnership Blend” a try.

 

Search and Call

               Moving from one form of mission to another, I’d like to address the issue of unprecedented numbers of pastoral transitions in the Maine Conference.  Assisting churches in finding pastoral leadership has been the work of the Maine Conference and Missionary Society for over 200 years.  It is one of our most primary tasks.  I mentioned early the fact that as of today there are 29 churches with open pulpits in the Maine Conference.  Our Placement Team has a couple of other categories of “transition” which are not reflected in this number.  There are those churches which we identify has “pending transition” meaning that the pastor has either announced a future departure date to the congregation or they have confidentially informed the conference staff that they will be leaving.  There are also churches the Placement Team places on our “Watch” list meaning we have some information that leads us to be relatively confident that a transition may come about at any time.   Adding our “Pending” and “Watch” lists, our team has 40 churches with which we are providing either direct service or behind the scenes service.   That is one out of every four church in our conference.  It is difficult to do this work with Darren’s position being ¾ time rather than full time.  It is also difficult to provide these services with a Placement Assistant position whose hours were cut in last year’s budget.  Of the 40 churches 21 are part-time positions which, frankly, require much more work from the staff than full-time openings.  The reason for bringing this to your attention is to ask for your understanding of the work load of your staff and ask for your patience as we do what is humanly possible to attend to these many, many needs.

 

Become a Friend

               I will close this presentation with an appeal.  Five years ago our conference began an annual appeal called “Friends of the Maine Conference”.  Over these years our revenue from this appeal, which augments our OCWM support, has grown steadily.  This year our goal is the highest it has ever been:  $12,500.  Your personal gifts to this appeal are needed so that your conference can continue to maintain the current level of services of which I have been speaking.  So many of your have been incredibly generous.  Thank you!  To express our thanks, as well as to spread to good news of our ministry, this year we are giving each “Friend” of the Maine Conference this lapel pin to wear proudly.  If you have ever made a gift of at least $25. to this appeal, you either have or will receive a pin.  Please wear it.  And when someone asks you “what is that “Friend” pin”, tell them about the ministries this conference provides and why you personally support it.  But then ask them too, to consider becoming a friend.  We appreciate every gift.  We are deeply grateful this past year to have received four gifts of $500 or more, one gift in excess of $1000. and one gift in excess of $2000.  Thank you.

 

Conclusion

               In conclusion, the challenges we have faced these past couple of years are, indeed, opportunities to live our faith and to bring about new vitality.  What is essential is that we address each challenge with the positive hope that is the Gospel message.  Your staff thanks you for the opportunity you provide us to serve you.  I can say with certainty that each person on the staff approaches their tasks as a calling, not a job.  We look forward to our year ahead in covenant and in partnership.