C:\Users\antalj.MACUCC\My Documents\_data\MACUCC\Board\Changing Landscape of Ministry.wpd
Page 1
February 4, 2011
The Changing Landscape of Ministry
Some Seismic Shifts – Some Guiding Insights
Our faith looks back 400 years – but our ministry looks forward!
Notes and Observations from a MACUCC Board-Staff Discussion Feb. 2011
1. The MACUCC Board, MACUCC staff and key Conference leaders have been engaged in this for 6+ years
i. Talk of “adaptive change” part of our DNA
ii. Both Board and staff have read and discussed Rus Crabtree’s: The Fly in the Ointment
2. How do we understand the changing landscape of our ministry? (from Nov. 17, 2010)
i. Movement to a post-denominational faith-understanding. "Progressive" is the operant term. Going forward, we must be and understand ourselves - as a movement / network
ii. Abandonment of membership as meaningful; loyalty can no longer be counted on; its significance is rapidly diminishing
iii. The UCC is increasingly counter to the cultural view of what Christianity is (the culture's view of what Christianity is is
shaped by media reporting of fundamentalists, and extreme social conservatives)
iv. We are moving to emphasize new role for lay leadership in a context of lessening clergy centrality
v. Pluralism - we're not the only show; only 17% worship on Sun. Morning; non-white
vi. No longer does the culture buttress the church by protecting it with blue laws, no sports on Sunday, etc.
vii. Society is increasingly immersed in fear - economic, ideological, etc... perhaps reminiscent of Weimar 1935
viii. Environmental degradation
ix. Increasing divide between rich and poor - and diminishment of the middle class - leaving our congregations (most of them)
as either a gathering of the rich or a gathering of people who feel bound by scarcity
x. Also: worldwide poverty, hunger, violence, racism and other isms.
xi. Also: diminishment of America’s role in the world
3. Numbers
a. MACUCC Numbers to celebrate
i. Over 60% of our pastors have participated in a Community of Practice
ii. Almost 100% of our newly ordained pastors are in New Clergy Groups
iii. Over 50% of all UCC pastors under 40 years of age (nationally) are in MACUCC
iv. 103 of our 383 churches are ONA
v. 114 of 383 churches report membership increases
b. Other numbers
i. Only 65% of Americans believe in God (Diana Butler Bass)
ii. 33% of the people born in the Catholic church are now EX-CATHOLICS
c. MACUCC Numbers that challenge
i. 118 churches report membership losses
ii. Membership as of December 31, 2009: 73,875; down 4% in 2009
iii. Many churches are moving from full time to 3/4 or ½ time pastor
(1) Andy estimates only 42% of our churches (167 of them) can afford a full-time pastor
(2) 28% of our churches (109 churches) have less than 100 members; they account for 5% of OCWM
iv. Look at the graphs tracing the diminishment of the UCC in Massachusetts:
(1) From 624 churches in 1932 to 379 in 2011 – currently 61% of peak
(2) From 213,785 members in 1965 to 71,655 in 2011 – currently 34% of peak
4. Rus Crabtree’s “Changing Landscape of Ministry” Observations - from The Fly in the Ointment
a. We now live in a multi option world; the single option world is gone
b. Congregations must compete for and constantly earn loyalty of members
C:\Users\antalj.MACUCC\My Documents\_data\MACUCC\Board\Changing Landscape of Ministry.wpd
Page 2
February 4, 2011
c.
Conferences must constantly re-make the case and convince each church to continue to contribute financially to the Conference
i. “The Conference is the best option for services that your money can buy”
ii. “The Conference leverages your ‘mission dollar’ better than others who seek your donations.”
d. Conference staff must convince churches who are searching for a new pastor that working with the Conference is better than
having a head-hunter
e. Churches want change; we want churches to change; it’s up to us to deliver the “HOW ”
5.
1960-2010: A few of Herb Miller’s 7 Changes from The Parish Paper Dec. 2010
a. People feel they really have choices
b. Small institutions that once thrived are struggling; large institutions are thriving
c. In a culture with increasing one person households and single parents, the model of a “family” church has no footing
i. Congregants demand improved customer service – or they leave
d. Mission trips to sister churches on other continents changes lives and makes disciples
e. Personal faith journeys seek discipleship; membership is irrelevant
6. Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence:
a. The great 500 year rummage sale is underway – we are on the precipice of a new age. How can we help a more vital
Christianity emerge?
b. Authority - its nature and its source - is the issue that dominates all religion and politics. Pluralism vs. fundamentalism are
competing for hearts and minds.
7. Diana Butler Bass (sociologist) [notes from lecture 2010]: “We are beginning the ‘fourth great awakening...’"
a. The past 10 years are best described as system failure.... There’s nothing left to fix.... Detroit is the metaphor for all of us. Its
over – the 19th and 20th centuries are gone.
b. We are beginning the fourth great awakening. An awakening is a massive, sustained movement of cultural reorientation and
revitalization wherein dysfunctional, outmoded beliefs and behaviors are replaced by a "new sense of reality, of identity, and of
self-confidence, and above all, a revision of institutional structures."
c. Christianity will be marked by: religious pluralism, a capitalism that is nurturing, environmental compassion, communal caring
for one another.
8. Robert Putnam’s American Grace (2010) – Good news for the UCC
a. Over the last 20 years, the % of young people in America who reject institutional religion has skyrocketed from 5%-30%
i. They pray frequently; they’re not atheists; most were raised in the church
b. Their reasons for rejecting institutional religion: religion is judgmental, authoritarian, exclusivist, hierarchical, hypocritical
i. Note: much of this opinion is based on the portrait of religion that comes from FOX and prominent, headline-grabbing
evangelical leaders
c. At our best, the UCC is none of these things.... can we “shout this truth from the rooftops” in ways that young adults can hear?