Rev. Michael Denton
Annual Report for the
Chicago Metropolitan Association Spring Meeting and
The Illinois Conference Annual Gathering of
The United Church of Christ
May 5th, 2007

My peers and I are at that time in our lives when not just the fact but also the idea that we’re getting older is really starting to sink in. At the same moment we’re being amazed by the fact that we’re not all that far from our 25th high school reunion we’re also thinking about being 25 years from possible retirement. We have to pay more attention to what we eat than we used to. There are some activities that we have to be a little more careful about. There are some things we thought we would definitely do in our lives that we’re realizing we will probably not do (and, actually, don’t really want to) and things we said we’d never do that we now do regularly. Some occasional aches and pains are becoming a more regular part of our lives. Some marriages we thought would never last are still going strong and others we thought would last forever have ended.

Still, overall there is a sense of getting on track and feeling more grounded. This is becoming a time for making adjustments, reprioritizing, making new plans and using the information from our life experience to make decisions appropriate for this moment in our lives. Some ideals have been put away as impractical but many are being given a second chance with a whole new set of hopes and intentions. Overall we feel on the cusp of something very new and very good. It is a moment that is a combination of celebration and reflection.

As the United Church of Christ celebrates its 50th year, we find ourselves in the midst of a time of celebration and reflection. Unlike personal aging, this is about something that was here (in some form) before us and will continue (in some form) after us. We have among us those who remember and still most strongly identify with our denominational predecessors and those who have known nothing but the United Church of Christ. We have struggled with the balance between courage, wisdom, caution and faithfulness.

Some of the aches and pains that we hoped were only temporary have become chronic and, when we step back, we can tell they are about a lot more than our denomination alone; they’re a condition of the US Church. Church membership is down almost everywhere. More and more people, especially youth and young adults, are refusing to be involved with an institution that clearly and consistently calls their experiences with a loving God in nature, community and technology as invalid simply because these experiences don’t occur within the humanly perceived boundaries of the institutional church. And, if we’re honest about it, many people within our churches are having a very similar experience. In too many ways, we’ve moved from being a church that is rooted in the meaning and life of its traditions to a church that is anachronistically and idolatrously preserving previously effective practices and structures.

We’ve all heard that our financial resources have not been able keep up with the increasing costs of church life. However, we also have to admit that many of our churches and denominational structures have become so addicted to maintaining some version of the status quo that at least some of our financial support has enabled a sick, ineffective system. Maybe, just maybe, our lack of quantifiable resources and growth is actually God’s working through our church and society to lovingly redirect a community that has strayed from its expressed and intended vocation.

If so, we can approach this moment with gratitude. We can be thankful for a God that loves us so much that She is encouraging us to continue to walk after we’ve fallen. We can be thankful for a God that cares for this prodigal church so much that He is looking forward to celebrating our remembering of whose we are. We can be thankful for a God that flows like a mighty stream and moves that which seems unmovable. We can be thankful for a Christ that invites us into the process of our own transformation by taking away the need to fear the risk of death with promised resurrection. We can be thankful for a Holy Spirit that offers us, through the ongoing experience of Pentecost, an opportunity to celebrate both the birth of the Church and an invitation to the Church to be born again.

And the amazing thing is that I don’t think there’s really anyone – anyone – reading these words that doesn’t agree that the Church as we currently know it needs to change. Think about it. Not a one. What does that say? Sure, we may disagree about what is most important to change but I really do think that all of us believe the Church needs to change.
So, let’s do that. With God’s help and our careful discernment, let’s change the Church. Yep, I’m serious.

Sure, we have lots of questions we need to consider. How can we best make changes in our local settings as well as the settings of the wider (even the widest) church that begin to reflect this call all of us recognize? How can we best take the wide variety of opinions and suggestions and form them into an integrated and healthy whole? How can we best support, challenge and interact with each other in a way that best reflects our collective understanding of our accountability to God and each other? How can we best draw from the insight of those who are currently not a part of the Church in a way that’s both invitational and non-exploitive? I don’t know the answers but I’m convinced we can. We just have to be brave and faithful enough to seek out the answers and then lve them out.

Sisters and brothers, we’re turning 50 and at this moment of celebration and reflection we have some amazing and wonderful opportunities for honest reflection, evaluation, reconciliation and celebration that God’s presented us with. Today, let’s decide to change the Church. Reformation, revolution and resurrection all go together. This is a Jubilee moment. This is a Pentecost moment. This is a moment of new creation. This moment, as difficult as it may seem, is a gift. Let’s accept it graciously.