UCC, United Church of Christ General Synod

I don't think the world cares much about what goes on at the United Church of Christ General Synod and that what goes on there makes much difference in the world. Thus, it doesn't really edify the mission of the body of Christ. It rather uses a lot of money, time and energy for folks to act out self-centered, self-importance power politics play acting.

Synod always seems to draw the addicts who obsess over the intensity of the Synod atmosphere, the illusion that all its issues are making a major difference in the world, and who get high from the whole shebang.

There are better ways to steward the gifts of God than this!

United Church of Christ views from the sides

I shared my post below from June 20th on the 50 year vision of the UCC on another UCC minister's web site chuckcurrie. That led to some give and take, which I am posting below:

That's a really depressing perspective on the UCC. I think the UCC is staged for growth in the next 50 years. My congregation is extremely vibrant -- in fact we've added more new members this month then we did all of last year. Also David, why do you think that our ministers paid more of a price with their prophetic leadership in the 1960s than they do now? I think our pastors are doing some very fine work indeed and I'm proud of all the many beautiful things the UCC is doing.

Posted by: David | Friday, June 22, 2007 at 15:40

Mr. Loar, with all due respect, you offer a dark vision of our church that I cannot in my experience and knowledge of both our history and present agree with.

Posted by: Rev. Chuck Currie | Friday, June 22, 2007 at 22:07

David and Chuck, appreciate the comments...and Chuck, the respect! :-) My context, 58 years(lifetime) in the E&R/UCC, 32 yrs local UCC church ministry, (and also an Eden grad), while at Eden worked for the American Friends Service Committee as a staff member in the Midwest to inform church folks about the Vietnam War and to encourage actions for peace in Southeast Asia and internationally, the first UCC Peace Intern in 1972, involved with the former Office for Church Society in many veins on domestic and internatial justice and peace issues, including human rights delegation to E Germany & Hungary in 1986, in Nicaragua during the US contra war in 1987, UCC representative on the most amazing ecumenical economic and community development ministry ever -CORA/Commission on Religion in Appalachia in the 1980's. Attended 7 General Synods. Former conf staff associate minister. Two of my former congregations were within the top five highest per capita giving OCWM churches in the denomination. The present congregation I am serving has gone through major transformation in the past 7 yrs and is growing spiritually and numerically, but also is reaching out to a vast array of hurting people through social change and social service. At the heart of our journey though is a faith in the life changing grace of Jesus Christ. The motto of our church is "Its not about us." Thus, we do not focus on the story of Fairlawn West or the story of the UCC. Rather, we focus on the living Christ who is changing us all from death to life. We (myself, Fairlawn West UCC, the UCC and so on) will die. My read is we (UCC and the US church as we have known it in the 20th Century) are at points of great disintegration which is why we are trying more and more to project ourselves into the public arena. In the "old days" when justice action was done via the UCC we did not build up that it was the "UCC" doing this. Rather, Christ was doing it through we servants.

Posted by: David Loar | Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 07:58

David Loar,

God bless you for all the wonderful work you have done. Christ is still working through his congregations -- whether they are UCC or not. We have been forced to project ourselves into the public arena due to the rise of the Religious Right in our country. To not respond in kind would eventually lead to our silence. How else could the church have responded?

Posted by: David | Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 09:53

You say we need to respond "in kind" to the Christian right. Didn't Jesus choose a different way to respond the principalities and powers? Instead of responding in like fashion, he offered a way that to the world seemed weak and vulnerable, to death. And yet,.... I think we have as Pogo said "we have met the enemy and he is us." In adopting in response in like fashion, we have allowed the so-called "religious" right to set the terms. Like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and temple elite of Jesus' time, they sought to set the terms for even those who opposed them. I think we have done the same. That was the genius of ones like M L King, Gandhi, Dorothy Day and others. In the fashion of Jesus of Nazareth they were more creative and found a "higher" way in which to respond...but then it wasn't really a response. It was the mission from the beginning.

Posted by: David Loar | Saturday, June 23, 2007 at 11:31

Brueggemann on the UCC shrillness

from the web discussion site UCCtruths.com (a site run by a more conservative critic of a lot of stuff labeled as "UCC" but still a fair voice in and of himself, and the overall discussion board has a variety to it), written by Don Niederfrank (Don and I were the two long haired hippies in our early years at Eden Seminary), who is clearly not a conservative, but has sought for years to bring the ideologs of the UCC into acknowledging a common center FIRST in their identity in Jesus Christ:

Probably the best, though not necessarily inspiring words were from
Walter Bruggeman who was applauded at Christ Church when at the end of
his talk--which was typical Bruggeman--profound and sound--he said that
the UCC needed to remember that God did not start speaking after the
comma. (applause) And that we--I'm pretty sure he said 'we'--need to
confess our unneighborliness toward those among us who do not choose to
follow the progressive agenda. (applause and amen's).

During the q&a he criticized the progressive church for devaluing
the 'Text' by its elevation of Biblical criticism.

He also said that part of the responsibility for the stridency of the
conservatives is the shrillness of liberals and that he finds himself
using the word 'shrill' with 'liberal' more and more these days.

Be hopeful.

Don N.
=================
Walt Brueggemann was my Old Test prof at Eden Seminary. He is one of the most prolific writers and speakers on OT theology, biblical theology more widely, and even more so on what it means to be faithful in times like these. He is no shrinking violet either in calling out the need for social justice in our world as the prophets are written about Biblically.

Kate and Martha in Europe, Molly at soccer camp, Kate's colleges

Martha and Kate are in the middle of the two week Summit Choral Society Touring Choir tour of Germany, Vienna and Prague. Kate has been in the choir since 6th grade (six years) and Martha has been a "volunteer" choir manager for five years. Four years ago they were in Italy. Two years ago in China. Martha has said this tour has been the most fun. Here is a picture on the right from the front page of the Speyer, Germany newspaper, with Kate right in the middle. Here is my web page with links of videos and choirs pics and info. Here is a link to the tour blog which has videos, pictures, and commentary of the tour day by day. Here is the choir's ongoing tour picture gallery. Here is the choir's regular home page/blog.

I just picked up Molly from the

Hiram College soccer camp where she spent a week. She liked it better than last year's College of Wooster camp. It was a good week for her. There were girls there from both Strongsville and Hudson, Ohio girls high schools teams which have regularly won or at least are in the final four of the state tournament. Molly was on par with those girls. She is looking forward to this coming fall on the Firestone HS girls' team. They began conditioning two weeks ago with running and scrimmages.

Haven't updated for a while on Kate's college search. Here is the present list:

Lawrence University, Appleton, WI

Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA (Church of the Brethren related)

Heidelberg College, Tiffin, OH (UCC related)

Alma College, Alma, MI (PCUSA related)

of interest:

College of Wooster, OH

Otterbein College, Westerville, OH

Bowling Green State University

UCC history

I am concerned that a grandiose and prideful history of the United Church of Christ is being paraded around which only tells the part of our story we want to tell...the victors tell their version of history?

We post all over the place that we ordained the first woman minister in the US in 1857. The Congregational churches allowed her some privileges to preach, but would not ordain her. Antoinette Brown went on to do ministry in the Unitarian Church.

Puritan/Congregationalists in New England in the 1600's established a state church with taxation that if you didn't attend or pay, you went to jail e.g. Roger Williams.

In the first half of the 1900's up into the time of the merger of the UCC in 1957 southern Congregational Christian conferences were segregated.

We forget the many local church pastors especially who in the 30's. 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's provided deep prophetic leadership at a far higher cost than many face today, but we live off today of their legacy and try to reap an institutional/denominational reward off of their sacrifice with our advertising.

We are forgetting good Reformed theology that has shaped who we are especially in the tradition of the social change work and political leadership and theology that grew out of daily life of John Calvin and his community/church in Geneva.

Many claim UCC identity but want to waffle on the lordship of Jesus Christ...when 50 years ago in the merger of this denomination "Christ" was intentionally put into our identifying name at sacrifice of breaking with the historic names of Evangelical & Reformed and Congregational Christian.

Barbara Brown Zikmund some years ago gifted us with the "Hidden Histories of the UCC". Today, what was the core history of the UCC back then, is now ignored or forgotten or revised to fit with the image folks want the rest of the world to believe who we are. In Alcoholics Anonymous this is called "terminal uniquness" and "image management" both of which lead to dying from our addictions.

50 year vision for the United Church of Christ

I just found the blog for the 2030 Clergy Network of the UCC which is clergy of the UCC in their 20's and 30's. As I read their statement http://www.myblurredvision.com/blurred_vision_god_music_/2007/06/2030_clergy_net.html
it sounded very much like what I wrote below on May 19th under the title "yea for our club."

As a clergy of age 58 and 32 years in ministry, what was my 50th anniversary vision of the UCC? Not what we have. My vision really developed more 40 years ago of a church that focused on helping those who were part of it to be able to seek God's will in the midst of the world rather than telling them what God's will is. My vision was a church that helped to nurture its sisters and brothers in the Reformed tradition of the scriptures (which we have allowed the funadmentalists to co-opt that title of "Reformed tradition), rather than dissecting scripture to make it fit for us ideologically and intellectually. My vision was a church passionate for justice and so it had become more institutionally vulnerable and less presumptuous about itself rather than a church that lifts up its denominational name in advertising more than it does inviting people into the transforming experience of Jesus Christ.

I am reading McGrath's biography of John Calvin. We have so much to learn from this ancestor of our church tradition who led at a time that massive cultural, political, social and theological change was taking place. We spend too much time on the trees of Calvin rather than the forest of Calvin...in similar fashion that I see happening with the Apostle Paul. We make them into static historical figures and fail to learn from their experience of reaching out and changing at critical times in the journey of God's people.

Ironically, in the diversity of the UCC, I do not find a place in which to abide these days. And yet our local church is one of the most transforming, justice communities around...but we are more focused on the longer ancient tradition in shaping us rather than the more recent 25 years that are being honored at the UCC General Synod. The historical identity being honored in the UCC these days is called 50 years, but it is more so a 25 year history. As one who helped shaped the prophetic voice of this denomination, I hear and see more revisionist short term history than a long term honoring of our ancestors who have gone through more than we have.

Vanguard Church: How to have an Appreciative Inquiry conversation

Vanguard Church: How to have an Appreciative Inquiry conversation in sharing the journey with Jesus

Father's Day, the day my father died at the age I am

My father, Alton Loar, died on Father's Day 1977 (June 19) at the age I am this year, 58. He died of colon cancer, never having been sick or in a hospital other than making hospital visits as a minister, until 10 months earlier when through surgery the cancer was found.

I have thought a lot about Dad these past few days realizing that his life development before he died was probably in the ballpark of who I am now too. It feels weird to think that I have been in local church ministry longer than he was (32 years for me, 28 years for him).

I have developed a web page about him and his amazing courage and action for justice in the world focused around the full page obituary the Akron Beacon Journal had for Dad after he died.
http://loar.org/dadobit.htm It includes a picture of Dad.