Between 1994 and
2004, Canada's population increased by almost three million people. During that
same time period, The United Church of Canada closed 433 preaching places and
opened only nine. To describe this as dismal is to put only the most positive
of spins on what is a full-fledged organizational disaster. Cracks are appearing
all around us - staff layoffs, reductions in mission support grants, last-minute
pleas to support the Mission and Service Fund.
At the dawn of the 21st century, our denomination is stumbling about in the dark. The future choices we face are clear: continuing decay and decline, or a daring reformation of our denomination. The crisis we are facing is, at its heart, a crisis of purpose. Until we address this central issue, nothing we do has a chance of working.
I believe passionately in the transformative power of the local congregation. Even with all its problems, it is such a precious gift to be part of a worshipping congregation in our denomination. Yet church is hard and it's going to get harder; but God does not call us to easy things. So let me make three suggestions.
First, we should follow upon the work of our past moderator Very Rev. Peter Short and enter an intentional period of national discernment. This discernment should be located in congregations and all courts of the church. The questions are deceptively simple: What is God calling us to be and what does that need to look like in the 21st century? The answers may be complex, but we will discover a shape and unifying texture that draws us together.
The second idea comes from a member of my congregation. I believe it is consistent with the recent pastoral letter from the current moderator, Rt. Rev. David Giuliano. We should hire a consultant to inventory every church and piece of property owned by the United Church. With that should come recommendations about what churches should be maintained, closed, merged, redeveloped or developed as commercial properties to fund the ongoing work of the church, or simply given away to local communities. In addition, we should identify places in need of ministry and then vigorously launch new ministries in these areas, with appropriate funding mechanisms and specific targets and measurements for effectiveness and accountability.
Finally, we need to revisit our structure and governance. Our current structure is based upon a world that has not existed for a very long time. It is killing us and has turned us into managers and away from focusing on our mission. We should reconvene a task group on governance and structural change and develop a system that is lean, effective and faithful and that feeds the mission of the church. Everything we do needs to come out of the renewed vision, purpose and mission. Our decisions, our ministry, our very theology need to emerge out of a newly defined vocation.
In poker, there is a time when you put all your chips on the table and go for it. It is time for us to go all out. The alternative is a continued decline into irrelevancy, and that I believe would be faithless to God, our history and a terrible loss to our nation and the future generations who will need our particular and unique Christian voice.
Rev. Christopher White is a minister at Westminster United in Whitby, Ontario. Reprinted from the United Church Observer with permission.
Congregational News May 2008 Vol. 14 No. 5