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…
Over the past century, American life expectancy has increased by nearly 50% (as seen here). We in the U.S. now have multiple generations facing significantly longer lifespans than their parents and grandparents. The fastest-growing population here is, in fact, people over 85 years old. This has literally never happened before in human history, and we,…
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. Bobbie McKay, Ph.D., is a UCC minister, author, and licensed psychologist. Rev. McKay co-created The Spiritual Health Center, NFP and conducted a research study on Spiritual Life in the United Church of Christ. Based on the findings of this study, “Spiritual Life Teams” were born and the study has been extended into the Episcopal Church, the Catholic Church and the…
This Vital Signs & Statistics Blog article is going to be a little unusual. It contains few scholarly quotations and citations. And it is not overly-laden with social science research. Instead, it asks a simple question: Can we who are members, congregants, authorized ministers, and leaders of the United Church of Christ (UCC) please begin to…
There is an old joke about a dog food company that was failing. The CEO called her top executives together and railed at them. “Why is our product such a loser?” she snapped. “We have the best people, the best kitchens, and the best marketing and advertising campaign. We deliver our product to the best…
