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I am writing to you from a high speed train in Germany after visiting the Michigan Conference’s partner church in Northern Pomerania, because in my first year in this job, I promised someone I would do it. I remember hearing about how our Michigan church members poured decades into a partnership, with musical and youth exchanges, but like so many things in life, it had languished in recent years. They were tired but they didn’t want the program to die and by the end of our conversation, I didn’t either.

Besides, I also knew I could use the education. You see, in my thirty years of parish ministry, all four of the historic churches I have served were born of the Congregational tradition, which is only one of the five streams that make up our denomination (Congregational, Christian, Afro-Christian and the two German streams Evangelical and Reform.) So I know the stream that came from the pilgrims in England, but as I visit our UCC churches in Michigan, about half have their historic roots in Germany, with names like “Salem,” “Bethlehem,” and “Saint Paul’s,” started by farmers who may have first worshipped in a humble cabin. Their beautiful larger sanctuaries were built later by the next generation of woodworkers and bricklayers, extended families who came here to make a new life. Many of our churches held German language worship services until World War II made that untenable. The suspicion and prejudice they received as German immigrants, even those who had been here for generations, caused many to switch to English only, and to place an American flag in the sanctuary as a sign of their loyalty to the place that was now their homeland. These are the stories I have learned in my visits in Michigan, and they made me long to learn the story behind that story in the land in which it began.

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At the risk of stating the obvious, the United Church of Christ is a Christian denomination.

We have always been followers of the way of Jesus with a deep passion for bringing the Bible to the people, willing to stand up against the excesses of our own extended church family, but with humility because you never know who God will speak through next. Our ecumenical passion was bigger than the rest of Christianity’s. We are always reaching out to other Christians, including those who dismiss us. We are rebellious reformers, but also the first to call the warring factions together, trusting in the promise “that they may all be one.”

Ecumenically, we stand in the Reformed tradition that was not very traditional when it started. Some of our forebears were willing to be burnt at the stake so that people could read the Bible for themselves in their own language. The reformers didn’t do it to draw attention to an educational equity issue, or a justice issue, or even a class revolution, although all those things can spring forth when people try to follow Christ because the Holy Spirit is never asleep. But let’s be clear: the motivation of those early reformers, and to the current reformers who gather under the UCC tent to worship something other than themselves, was not to boost a political party, or to be first among ecclesiastical franchisees to produce the next spiritual happy meal, or even to create a list of “historic firsts” for a marketing campaign that I imagine our forebears would hate. They risked their lives and their relationships with the institutional church, not to create a new list of merit badges for secular forces to run through the church for some higher good. No, they did it all so that future generations could hear and read the gospel of Jesus Christ as they had. They were willing to bet it all on the idea that God was still speaking. And they didn’t make that up as a tagline, they found it in their worship and practice as Christians.

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“Save the Environment!”

I saw the slogan everywhere growing up, on tee shirts and bumper stickers but it was the posters of exotic animals from far away that captured my childhood imagination. They were my first hint that the world was huge and I had only seen a small patch of it.

I lost myself in the posters of parrots in paradise, monkeys in the rainforest, polar bears staring at stars while lounging on glaciers, and of course the bamboo-nibbling panda couples on that special date night in the wilderness. All of them seemed to be beckoning me to jump on the hang glider of eco-justice and come rescue them. Later, I was somewhat disappointed to learn that none of these animals were looking for me to rescue them by bringing them home as pets. Apparently, these rare creatures wanted me to save them by saving their environment, and then by leaving them alone. As I matured, that mission of preserving some species’ habitat inspired me. But in the interests of honesty, I’d also like to briefly thank Jesus for inventing stuffed animals, which got me through a potentially rudderless time.

Today, I look back on all those early imprinting visuals featuring animals that I would never see in my own block or backyard, and I now believe that I subconsciously internalized the message that the environment was somewhere else, far away, in a special spot much prettier than my boring neighborhood or block, and therefore much more deserving of preserving.

But there comes a time to put aside childish things, including the idea that the environment we should be saving is somewhere else, out on an iceberg our grandchildren may never see unless we get our Alaskan cruise tickets early.

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Share what your local church is doing to Save the Environment

As you read this, I am returning from the second annual, four-day, Michigan Conference Clergy Preaching retreat at beautiful Tower Hill Camp on the dunes of Lake Michigan. For this event all clergy participants received generous scholarships to reduce the cost of the event, through a Brown grant but mostly by what your local churches give through the “Basic Support” designation of “Our Church’s Wider Mission.” (OCWM)

There are many ways to support the denomination within OCWM. Through special envelope offerings such as the Christmas Fund (which the Michigan Conference sends straight to the national Pension Board to help retired clergy in need) or One Great Hour of Sharing (that we send straight to the National Setting of the UCC for their ministry of disaster relief.) But it is your “Basic Support” gift within OCWM that stays most local and allows us to equip, encourage and connect the churches and clergy of the Michigan Conference, responding to real needs, right here and right now.

One way we do that is attending to the care of our clergy. This is the focus of Rev. Cheryl Burke, our Associate Conference Minister of Clergy Care and Formation. Under her leadership, in the last two months we have launched thirteen new caring clergy groups. Six of these groups are led by committed clergy volunteers, the rest are led by staff. No pastor should have to do this work alone, nor should our Committees on Ministry. This is why Cheryl is meeting with them all, to connect us in best practices and community.

The care of congregations is the focus for Rev. Lawrence Richardson, our Associate Conference Minister of Church Vitality and Transitions. He meets with governing boards about strategy, vision and revitalization. When churches are seeking a pastor, he helps recruit candidates and connect our search committees to the person that God has already called. This week, he co-led the preaching retreat with me. Where does that fall in his job description? Under the category of “We’re all part of a team and we help each other out.”

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When our churches shut down in-person during the pandemic, we learned what we missed and what we did not miss. Speaking personally, I missed visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, praying in unison and singing. I missed eating food together and I even missed washing dishes. I missed funerals more than I missed committee meetings. It was clarifying. Today when I think of what the church should be about when we gather in person, I think of the things I missed the most when we couldn’t.

Another clarifying question from that time was who, in our surrounding communities, missed our churches when we shut down in person. This question is not for the pastor or the church member, but for the outsider who walks by the building. What loss did the community suffer in our absence?

If your church served a free meal once a week, that would be missed by people outside your church if it had to stop. If you host twelve step meetings, if you offer meeting space to teenagers, if you provide coats in the winter and fresh vegetables in the summer, all that would be missed by people outside church. But if community members missed nothing when your church closed down, that is also clarifying.

As I visit our Michigan churches, a different one most weekends, I look for commonalities among the congregations that feel vital to me. What is a vital church? It’s one where I feel the Spirit moving in the worship, where there is a sense of hope and hospitality, and a serious sense of service. A vital church is one you want to come back to. And when it comes to vitality, I am always reminded that size isn’t everything.

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March Monthly Conference Minister Message from Lillian Daniel:

* Updates on Action related to the Michigan Conference Resolution of Witness in Support of Second Look Legislation March 19, 2024 at 8:00am

* Opportunity for pastors and members-in-discernment to sign up for Caring Clergy Communities

* Conference Communication submission deadlines, and more…

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One recent wintry weekend, I decided to visit a random church in my neighborhood, and just for a change of pace, since I spend so much time visiting our Michigan UCC churches, I thought I’d go to another denomination.

I tried to forget that I was a pastor and professional church visitor, so I looked for a church the way normal people do – online, at the last minute, haphazardly and on a day with bad weather. I plugged three nearby churches into google maps and drove toward the one that looked to be starting soon but hadn’t started yet.

I circled around looking for parking, and then I circled around again, and by the time I finally parked somewhere semi-legal, my frustration was high, as I slipped on icy sidewalks toward the entrance. I’ll admit it. I was now late and coming in hot.

I know enough about historic church buildings to know that the front door they built a hundred years ago is almost never going to be the front door today, so I went to a modern office door near a staff parking area, but it was locked, and on the door was a paper sign that said something unhelpful like, “Please enter through the north narthex courtyard office staff side main entrance” and included a map of the church’s architectural blueprint with a few illegible squiggles. So I slipped along the sidewalk to a side door, also locked, and finally up the unsalted stairs to the grand gothic door, amazed that the main entrance was actually going to be the main entrance but of course it wasn’t. Pasted to that door was the same mysterious sign I had seen on all the other doors, so I circled back to door number one, which was at least made of glass and knocked on the window, and finally reluctantly pressed what might be a doorbell, that I prayed didn’t ring straight to the pulpit.

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“Over the last year and a half of visiting our churches as your Conference Minister, I am convinced that our 2024 priority must be the care of our clergy.”

Our Conference Ministerial Team is seeking your help.  Pastors, please complete the 2024 Pastor Support Survey to let us know what you need.

There is space to share your wisdom, experience, and add things that we have not even thought to ask.

Even if you don’t have any unmet needs or interest in support from the Conference,  having that data that is valuable information for us too.

This quick survey is a judgment free zone.

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