PNCUCC Annual Report (April 28th, 2018)

Michael Denton

Verbal Report

PNCUCC Annual Meeting

April 28th, 2018

I'd first like to show my respect and acknowledge the Host Nations of this land, their elders past and present, on which this gathering takes place.

(Prayer)

It’s no surprise to any of you that, for better and for worse, I have frequently been immersed in church and religion based statistics. Let me save you a lot of trouble by summing up what I’ve seen hundreds of times in many different ways: they don’t look good.

And yet…

Hear something else, too. The Spirit whispers in my ear sometimes. It’s usually somewhere on the continuum from gentle words of comfort to insistent words of  encouragement. The 2nd half of this winter, I was down. I was all wrapped up in that place of depressed panic other people call anxiety when the Spirit spoke. Maybe speaking isn’t exactly the right description because she grabbed my shoulders like the nun who who was my 5th grade teacher, made me look her in the eye and, with compassion and exasperation said, “Mike, I don’t care about those numbers. Don’t let those facts get in the way of the Truth.”

My Siblings in Christ, we have to get used to the Truth that - collectively - we in the Pacific Northwest Conference have to deal with something we haven’t had to deal with for awhile. Today, we have to accept that in spite of all the facts that may suggest it’s impossible, the Truth is that something - something contrary to all that should be happening - is happening. Our vision is becoming clear. We are coming alive. We have momentum. Something new is breaking forth.

Some of you have felt it, too, and have told me about it. In more and more places, the period of mourning our not being the church we once were is coming to end and the celebrations of the church we’re becoming are just starting. Something new is breaking forth. In more and more places, there’s the recognition of that Truth “that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.” Something new is breaking forth. In more and more places there’s that growing recognition of the Truth that all God requires of us is do justice, do acts of loving-kindness, and walk humbly with God and that’s sufficient. Something new is breaking forth. In more and more places, there is the recognition of the Truth that perfection is a false god and that the God of Truth sees what we perceive as our flaws as raw materials for the building of God’s kin-dom. Something new is breaking forth.

Something new is breaking forth when I hear from a church taking a risk to provide a sanctuary for those Children of God the head of our government demonizes; when I visit a church that only used to have a sanctuary that echoed with pipe organ music have gospel music echo there now, too; when a church supports its members who, through civil disobedience, resist the idea that incarceration is ever the best option for children and young adults; when I learn of a small town church that is figuring out how to provide a home for the members of two other churches whose denominations determined needed to be closed; when I get the honor of participating in a combination church anniversary celebration and pastor’s installation that makes it clear that the kin-dom of God is not something we wait for; when I read about a pastor advocating for a mobile health clinic in the “health care desert” their church is right in the middle of; and there is so much more. When I see, hear and learn all these things, it is so clear that something new is breaking forth. And, beloveds, all these stories I just mentioned? All these are stories from just the last. Two. Weeks.

Last Fall, your conference board recommitted to the call to focus on vitality as a conference imperative. A little more than a year and a half ago, we called Courtney to this conference as our Minister for Church Vitality to help uncover what vitality is here and found this new call is best expressed through old words: committing to deepening relationships, doing justice, doing acts of loving kindness and walking humbly with God. The danger of having any commitment like this is that it gets reduced to a good idea and a catchphrase; that it becomes so broad a commitment that it becomes meaningless. But that’s not what I’m seeing. Our first year of living into this was getting our minds around it but this year has been devoted to building a strategy around it.

As a staff, we’ve wrestled with this calling and are still wrestling with it. This wrestling has made it stronger. Mark Boyd and Wade Zick have a very good working relationship and this has made both of our camps stronger. In the past it was appropriate for both camps to have mirrored programming but -  as our two good stewards have been in conversation with each other - it’s made more sense to begin to differentiate the work of these settings. N-Sid-Sen is expanding our traditional camping model while, at the same time, increasing the sense of partnership with all those UCC and non-UCC groups that use the facility. As the Port Orchard area grows and more and more development creeps closer to the boundaries of Pilgrim Firs, Wade has done an excellent job asking questions about how the changes to the setting might necessitate a change in function. As more people live there, might there be more opportunities for us to welcome people to use our setting for conferences? What might be our role as an oasis in the middle of a developed area? At both camps, we’ve frequently been somewhat of a silent partner with our non-UCC partners who use the facilities but what we’ve started to find is that as we’re more open about the kind of our church we are, our partners are feeling more welcome, not less. We owe both of Wade and Mark our thanks.

At both sites, UCC usage of the camps is down as churches are struggling with their own transitions. As a staff, we’re going to figure out ways to start to turn that around this year so that we can help provide settings and programming that will help local churches deepen their relationships with each other; build programming that will help churches move through the transitional moment that the whole church is living through; and figure out more ways that we can can model and promote the call to do justice, do acts of loving kindness and to walk humbly with God.

The idea of a position called a Minister for Church Vitality emerged from several different streams of conversation but was articulated by Wendy Blight and our Stewardship Committee at a conference budget summit a couple years ago. We decided, then, that this role and work was so important that we would use conference reserve monies to fund it. The momentum we have as a conference today is, in large part, because of the commitment to the vision Courtney has uncovered among us. We owe Courtney our thanks.

Arlene has deep relationships with you already. She continues to be that person I count on to help remember the history of this conference; help answer all those questions each of you may have; remind me about different voices that might otherwise be forgotten as well as historical commitments the conference is obligated to follow through on. We owe Arlene our thanks.

Michelle Doherty resigned her position last month as Accounts Manager in order to increase the time she spends with her family (Kara Newsome is in this interim role, now, and she’s doing a great job for us). I miss Michelle’s ability to ask hard questions along the way and having someone who knows us well enough to help us figure out the best ways our resources can serve our calling.

That said, we’re considering the ways we can best fulfill the functions of this position in a way that makes sense at this time and place in our conference’s life and calling. In particular, we’ve started conversations with another conference to see if there might be a way to fill some of our accounting and bookkeeping needs by working with their financial staff. I hope to be able to share more with you, soon.

Peter and Wendy have been a great as moderator and vice-moderator team. They both have great minds and great hearts that have both challenged us to do better as well as be in deeper relationship with each other. Most of all, they have helped us celebrate successes both large and small that have helped us have the energy we need for what comes next. They have both helped push me to be better at this work in more ways than they know. We owe both of them our thanks.

Still, in the midst of all these great things and great people, I confess to sometimes getting stuck with conference blinders on; where I wish we could do more.  At other times, I have conference envy when I look at other larger conferences and mourn that we can not or do not do as much as they do. But, I also have the advantage of being in rooms with those same and other conferences and hear them ask me how we pull off doing as much as we do with what we have.

How, they ask, are we the only conference in the UCC that owns and operates two camps that have been overall self-supporting and successful? In the last 20 years, close to 2/3rd of conference camps across the UCC have been sold or had their mission significantly reduced in scope. This is no small thing.

How, they ask, does a conference our size have Communities of Practice when other larger conferences have struggled with starting such programs? Our conference has a unique relationship with Rev. Tara Barber in her role ministering with churches and the ministers of our conference as a Specialized Minister for Support of Clergy and Congregations. She has a covenant that empowers her to help provide trainings for local churches in concepts related to basic congregational health as well as help form small communities where our authorized ministers have the opportunity to find the support and accountability that helps them live in to their calling. Tara has become a denominationally recognized resource for helping design these and other programming. I have been reminded again and again how her deep commitment to this work is rooted in a deep faith and a deep love for all of us.

How, other conference’s ask, does a conference our size have a program like the Justice Leadership Program? This program has one established part and one emerging part. The first is a residential program for young adults in which they live in community for a year while interning at a church and community organization; learning community organizing techniques; and reflecting on their faith and spiritual practices. The 2nd is a program for older adults that, although not residential, provides them with the same framework for learning and reflecting. This program came about because the pastors of a couple churches - Rich Gamble and Lauren Cannon of Keystone UCC and Greg Turk of All Pilgrim’s UCC - put together their resources, ideas and energy to see what might happen and, together with the conference, launched a program to try and change the world.  

And they are. They have steadily increased and expanded their organizational and congregational partners since this program launched. I am not overstating it when I say that those who have been involved in these programs are making a difference in the lives of thousands of people as they work to create a world that is more compassionate and just. There are many stories of many graduates I could tell but one of the graduates is in seminary at this moment; one is working with the Church Council of Greater Seattle advocating for fair immigration laws and practices; one is an organizer with the Faith Action Network; and - if you vote in the affirmative - one is about to become the Vice-Moderator of this conference. These examples really are just a taste of what alumni from this program have done.

I really could go on and on with some of the things folks look at our conference and go “How do you do that?” about. We have Amy Johnson as national staff teaching the denomination and the church international about faith based and fact based sex and sexuality education. We have Darrell Goodwin serving on the United Church of Christ Board and also working with the Pension Board to help clergy have clarity about their own finances. Meighan Pritchard recently moved out of our her position and the denomination’s Minister of Environmental Justice. We are the largest per-capita giver to OCWM in the entire denomination. We helped create the resource that accompanies the “Be The Church” materials for the UCC; a resource that helps local churches determine what areas they need to work on while reflecting on the “Be The Church” elements. Our staff are increasingly turned to as experts in their fields and being invited to participate in national initiatives and to be consultants with other conferences. We are faithful participants and leaders in our denomination and the world.

This is all being done because of your faithfulness and dedication in and through a conference that has the largest geography of any conference of any conference in the UCC. This is being done by a conference that is one of the most secular areas of the United States. This is being done by a conference with the reality that, out of 38 conferences in the UCC, ours is one of the smallest. Based on church membership, we rank 32nd in size.

The temptation is to look back on all that has been done and all we are doing, stick to how we compare to other conferences and simply be satisfied. But something new is breaking forth.

Many of you have given to your churches and the conference because of what has been needed. I can’t thank you enough for that. I also know that some of you waited to give because the timing hasn't seemed right for you to give of what you had. We owe our thanks to those who have given out of a commitment to help us be sustainable. You - many of you in this very room - have gotten us this far. Now, for those of you have been waiting for the right time to give or give more, I'm asking you to give, now, not just because of what we need to be sustainable but out of the reality of what is possible.

Our camps are great but they need some updating, maintenance and improvement in order to serve an expanding and changing mission in expanding and changing times. Our work regarding church vitality counts on the reserves that were built in this conference past. We’re going to need your help to make sure this work continues into the future. The Communities of Practice are making a difference in the lives of pastors and in the lives of the churches they serve but not every pastor or pastor’s church has the means to support the $250 per year needed to sustain this program. We need your help in helping provide scholarships for pastors that might not be able to participate otherwise.

We need your help, so I’d ask you to do 2 important things: 1st, go back to your local church and encourage increased giving to your congregation. As you know, local churches are one of the most important places where love of God and God’s people is expressed and shared. You represent all of us as you do work together. It is also the most important place that where we begin to discern the difference between the calling lived our in autonomy and the callings that need to be lived out in covenant together.

The 2nd most important thing I’d ask you to do it to become a sustaining member of the conference. You can do this one of two ways. On either your computer or your phone, go to www.pncucc.org , click on the donate button and become a monthly, sustaining giver of the conference. On your chairs, are envelopes where you can do the same.

Siblings in Christ, something new is breaking forth because of what you have already done. We have clarity of vision. We have momentum. Just imagine all that we are yet to do. God is doing something important with us. Something new is breaking forth. Amen.