Rev. Dr. David B. Lindsey serves as the Executive Director of Interfaith Action for Human Rights, a multi-faith non-profit dedicated to criminal justice reform in Virginia, Maryland, and DC. In addition to his previous leadership at the Interfaith Council for Metropolitan Washington, Rev. Lindsey has served local UCC churches in Southern California, Minnesota, and Northern…
Greetings! I would like to reintroduce you to The Rev. Phiwa Langeni, Ambassador for Innovation & Engagement for The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD) team. You can read Phiwa’s introductory post from January 2021 here. This week, I wanted to highlight the incredible work Phiwa is doing with the Exodus Experiment.…
This week’s post is written by the Rev. Dr. Patrick G. Duggan, Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Church Building & Loan Fund. Since 1995, Rev. Dr. Duggan has also served as senior pastor of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead in South Hempstead, New York. In case you are a faith leader…
If Game of Thrones taught me anything, it’s that “winter is coming.” I’ve seen enough of the show and read enough of the books to know that the fact that winter is coming is not a good thing. Summer of COVID19 When I last wrote to you, Massachusetts was in the grips of a massive…
This week we welcome a new writer to Vital Signs & Statistics, please welcome Rev. L. Gail Irwin! Rev. L. Gail Irwin has served UCC and PCUSA churches as a settled and Intentional Interim Pastor. She is a freelance writer for The Christian Century and author of Toward the Better Country: Church Closure and Resurrection…
Welcome back! It’s a new week and I’d like to introduce and welcome another one of our newest writers to Vital Signs & Statistics, Rev. Daniel Haas! Rev. Daniel Haas is currently serving as a chaplain in hospice, hospital, and Army Reserve. Rev. Haas loves numbers, manages his own blog, and helps churches with their…
After being the last pastor in a congregation, Reverend Gail Cafferata, wondered “how other pastors and congregations who experienced the closing of a church felt and, particularly, how it affected pastors who, like me, had accepted their call with starry-eyed hopes for renewal.” Her wondering led Cafferata, an Episcopal priest and sociologist to study, research…
This week’s post is written by the Rev. Dr. Patrick G. Duggan, Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Church Building & Loan Fund. Since 1995, Rev. Dr. Duggan has also served as senior pastor of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead in South Hempstead, New York. On December 20, 2019, the UCC…
This week’s post is from Rev. David Schoen, author of Facing Your Church’s Uncertain Future: Helpful Practices for Courageous Conversations & Faithful Decisions. To contact Rev. Schoen, email him at dschoen@ucc.org. Are church closures increasing? It’s a question that I’m often asked. Through the work of the UCC Center for Analytics, Research and Data…
Rev. Dr. Chris Davies is the Team Leader for Faith Education, Innovation and Formation. She focuses on spiritual innovation, resourcing local congregations, and helping vision towards the future of the church I have often heard questions about the correlation between a church’s status as an ONA church and their congregational vitality. While we can clearly…
Vital Signs and Statistics 