Last fall, I was standing in the narthex of a church where I had just given a sermon as a guest preacher when two parishioners walked up to me and introduced themselves as new members to the UCC. With a little more conversation, they shared that they had been members of the Missouri Synod Lutheran…
This week’s blog post comes from The Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, the Minister for Environmental Justice for the United Church of Christ. He writes a column called “For the Love of Children” that recently launched with The Letter Manifesto: Children and Climate. As the Environmental Justice Minister for a denomination, I recently found myself in a…
This week’s post is written by Rev. Elizabeth Dilley who serves as Minister for Ministers of the Ministerial Excellence, Support and Authorization (MESA) Team within the UCC’s national setting. In the summer of 2017, the MESA Ministry Team surveyed Licensed Ministers and Association/Conference staff about their understandings and practices of licensed ministry. Last fall, MESA overviewed…
When our team evolved and became the Center for Analytics, Research and Data (CARD – previously known as Research Services) six years ago, we gathered in a retreat center for team building and began to form our mission, vision, and purpose statement. One of the BIGs (bold, inspirational goals) that came from our meeting was…
This week’s blog post is written by Reverend David Schoen, Minister for Church Legacy and Closure, for the UCC Church Building & Loan Fund. Rev. Schoen is one of the writers of the Living Legacy; Church Legacy and Closure Resource (http://www.ucc.org/legacychurch ). To contact Rev. Schoen directly, feel free to email him at dschoen@ucc.org. A legacy, rather…
At the end of every year, we share some of our most memorable posts from the past twelve months. This year, I’m highlighting a few of our most viewed articles. The following post from November 13 touches on the importance of social networks within faith communities, as one way to increase stewardship in churches. This…
At the end of each year, we share some of our most memorable posts from the past twelve months. This year, I’m highlighting a few of our most viewed articles. The following post from August 14 examines how isolated we have become from one another creating a loss in social capital and how this loss…
