A Social Scientist Looks at the UCC

Rev. Chris Xenakis is a UCC pastor currently serving Groton Community Church (UCC) in Central New York. In addition, he is an adjunct lecturer at SUNY-Cortland, teaching courses this year on world politics, democracy, U.S. foreign policy and multiculturalism. Chris has written numerous books and articles, which can be found on his blog.

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Source: Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash. Image: Black and white rendering of a church viewed from below.

Since this blog is devoted to social science research on the church and on ministry, I thought that it might be appropriate to take a look at the United Church of Christ (UCC) at the dawn of 2024.

With the twin caveats that, first, this cannot be an exhaustive “top down” examination of our denomination in the same way that, say, the new UCC Statistical Profile is, but rather, that it is more of an impressionistic bottom up” appraisal by a retired UCC pastor and political scientist, and second, that any analysis of the United Church of Christ is really a snapshot in time, here is what I see going on in our denomination right now:

1. A lot of our UCC churches are doing really great ministry. They are taking care of their people, and they are interacting with and improving their communities. Many are speaking truth to power. And some if not all are growing. Analogously, our pastors are exerting terrific, innovative leadership, week after week. In most instances, they are not calling attention to themselves as they do this work, but they are functioning quietly, at a very high level, as unsung heroes caring for their people and their communities.

2. Many of us in “progressive” or “mainline” Protestant denominations (including the UCC) are speaking out powerfully on social justice issues, but I believe that we are less powerful—and sometimes we are downright neglectful—in our preaching and teaching of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and of Christian theology. This may be understandable, as an overreaction to churches outside our denomination with an extreme literalistic focus on the Bible and on exclusive, condemning and divisive theologies. But we can do better! A recent seminary graduate preparing for ordination admitted to me recently that she struggles with the lectionary readings in her weekly sermon preparation, because her seminary did not require her to take Bible and theology survey courses, and the Internet has very little biblical and theological content that is appropriate for progressive/liberal UCC congregations. She added that attending a weekly lectionary group has helped—but even so, she does not feel that she has enough of a mastery of the sweep of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, or of basic Christian theology, to know how individual weekly lectionary readings relate to the whole of what our faith and practice are all about. Bottom line: we need to maintain, not decrease, our focus on social justice, and we need to add much more emphasis on preaching and teaching the Scriptures and Christian theology—which are, historically, two of our church’s core sources of authority—from a decidedly progressive and liberating perspective.

3. Demographically, our churches need to be more diverse. Many of us, particularly in white churches, have only recently become aware that the Afro-Christian tradition constitutes a fifth historical “stream” of the United Church of Christ (Hans Holznagel, “Afro-Christian Tradition’s Status as Distinct UCC ‘Stream’ Gets Historical Council Support”; Yvonne Delk, ed., “Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the United Church of Christ” [Cleveland: United Church Press, 2023]). Yet incongruously, we are something like an 83.1% white denomination (see the 2023 United Church of Christ Statistical Profile, p. 8)! All UCC congregations (and especially our white congregations) need to embrace and learn from the plethora of non-white UCC traditions among us, and especially from our Afro-Christian sisters and brothers. I am not suggesting that we engage in cultural misappropriation by trying to become something that we’re not. But at a minimum, every UCC minister should be trained in culturally responsive ministry, focusing on Black and White history and culture. In addition, all UCC ministers need cultural awareness and training on gender and LGBTQ/Straight issues and differences, and on Rural/Urban differences and ministry. Such training should be made available to congregations as well as to ministers, throughout the United Church of Christ.

4. I believe that our Church is poised on the keen razor’s edge of many of the most important social justice concerns being debated right now nationally. Many “hallmark” UCC social justice issues (such as our church’s call for racial justice; our radical welcome of LGBTQII+ people; our church’s ongoing battle against sexism; our historic embrace of the role of women in church leadership; and our support of women’s reproductive rights) have gained broad “mainstream” consensus: we are exactly where the majority of Americans are on these issues—never mind the loud and negative minority who want to shut down these rights—and I believe we should take great comfort in this.

5. At the same time, 2024 may be a time of deepening political alienation and disruptions in the United States, and UCC churches and congregations may find ourselves threatened or attacked physically by extremists who are politically opposed to racial justice, gay and transgender rights, and the protection of immigrants—or who simply don’t like the rainbow flags and Black Lives Matter banners that are hanging outside our church buildings. Let us pray that such threats and acts of violence never occur but let us also be prepared for extreme political reactivity. And God forbid, if UCC churches are ever targeted, I believe that they will refuse to temper either their social witness or their powerful message on these issues in order to hide from, or avoid, this irascible onslaught.

6. Most UCC ministers entertain warm, intimate and nourishing relationships with their “loved ones;” in addition, many pastors have professional and appropriate relationships with their colleagues and congregants, enjoy healthy friendships outside of their churches, and are members of communities of practice, lectionary groups, and pastoral support groups, and/or take advantage of a wide variety of spiritual directors and coaches, therapists, and counselors. Even so, far too many of our pastors continue to “bowl alone,” in Robert Putnam’s evocative phrase (see my blog article, “Is Autonomy Turning UCC Authorized Ministers and Churchgoers into Turtles?”). Many church leaders are lonely. They may be married; they may have Internet friends in other states or halfway around the world; and they may be surrounded by people all the time—but they do not have someone to whom they can pour out their hearts and tell their troubles to, honestly and face-to-face. Ministers are human; they have the same physical and emotional problems that everyone else has; but because even the most progressive of congregations may harbor beliefs that “the minister is not supposed to have problems and doubts,” some ministers may feel that they cannot divulge their feelings, their frustrations, and even on occasion, their sense of lostness, to anyone. Refusing to show any vulnerability, they are trapped in a web of isolation. Honestly, I don’t know how to break through to these lonely women and men. In its own unique way, isolation can be like a thick, protective and impenetrable shell that is very difficult to crack open.

7. The UCC may be a denomination of small churches (see “FACTs on Smaller Congregations,” 2015), but there is a fairly widespread feeling by many of our smallest churches that they are not being attended to or heard by their Conferences or by Cleveland. I say this after having served churches and heard this complaint repeatedly in three UCC Conferences over the past 34 years, and after serving on committees on ministry for more years than I care to divulge. I know that this is frustrating for many of us in Associational, Conference and National leadership positions to read, because we know how much Conference ministry teams and the folks in the “Church house” truly care about the welfare of small churches, and want to do anything they can to help them. Even so, that perception is out there; too many small churches feel ignored—particularly during pastoral transitions, when they need help with “search and call,” and at times of transition or crisis.

8. Finally, and most obviously, we, like all Christian denominations, continue to lose members and lose churches. Relatedly, we have a shortage of ministers. Not long ago, half of the churches in our Association had empty pulpits. (Conversely, a colleague recently suggested to me that our problem may not be that we have too few ministers, but that we have too many small, older congregations with empty pulpits and deteriorating buildings, that refuse either to revitalize or end their ministries. I disagree sharply with that perspective, but either way, the net effect is the same: we are experiencing losses.)

There are several possible explanations for these losses. The most obvious may be that the current status of the American church is a bit like the joke about the dog food company that was failing. After spending several hours in a strategic planning meeting trying to determine why the company’s product wasn’t selling, the executive vice presidents came to a startling conclusion: “Maybe dogs simply don’t like our dog food.” Something similar may be going on with the decline of the church and the rise of “Nones:” Maybe people don’t like what the church has to offer. Perhaps they don’t find the church’s message to be relevant to their lives, and they are turned off by the church’s politicization and hypocrisy, not to mention its many sexual predation scandals.

I can only say that I believe that UCC ministers and congregations are not like that. They are held accountable for their behavior; they are held to a higher standard, and so I believe that we do not have the same problems, at least not to the same degree, that other denominations and churches experience. So call me a UCC cheerleader if you must, and tell me that I am not a very objective social scientist. I continue to believe that the United Church of Christ holds a unique place in the American Christian tradition, and I am keeping alive my hope that this decline in our denomination will abate, as more and more people come to realize both the congruence and the amazing relevance of our church to their lives and to the whole of American society.

Happy new year to one and all!