Saturday, June 8, 2019

2019 Report of the President Illinois Conference

Report of the President to the Illinois Conference of the 
United Church of Christ
June 8, 2019
Love in Action – Life Together 

            The future has arrived at our doorstep. It is not dressed the way we expected it to be dressed. It does not seem to have the kind of manners that our mothers required of us. There is no sense of sentimentality about it all. 

            To be completely candid, I cannot tell if it seems more masculine or feminine. The attire and hairstyle do not seem to present any clues. It would appear indifferent, if it were not right at the door and seemingly perturbed that we are slow at allowing access. 

            I searched some recent literature in order to gain a clue as to what I should expect of the future. The Handmaid’s Tale seemed a chilling warning about what could happen if we acquiesced to a swing to the extreme religious right. It is a frightening reflection of the reaction to the rights and role of women as equal members of society. 

            Ready Player One, seemed a bit more human and hopeful within the range of interpersonal relationships, while the world culture was identified as a stark appraisal of where ecological neglect could lead, and political power manipulated by corporations rather than the electorate leaves a foreboding lack of justice. 

            The future at our doorstep today is more immediate. It is not clearly claiming one kind of future is more likely than the other. But when the future steps inside of the church, the church structure seems poorly prepared to do battle. 

            Without an institutional memory, the future looks at our grand pipe organ, and lack of young skilled musicians, and silently does the math of what pipe organs receive as scrap metal. Without a sense of community, long heavy oak or walnut pews look like feed stock for furniture saw mills and a side market for local wood crafters. Our meeting space may be sturdy enough, but who would ever want to heat or cool all of that dead air space? 

            But I am getting ahead of myself. I am the Reverend Charles Maney. When I serve a congregation, I prefer to be called Pastor Chuck. I am not the person you elected as President last year. The Reverend Kimberly Wood has accepted a call to be the Acting Associate Conference Minister serving Eastern and Western Associations. I was selected as a candidate from Prairie Association, where I have my standing. 

            I received a phone call asking if I would consider filling a vacancy in the Conference. At this stage in my life I am doing Interim Ministry. I like going into a congregation, helping them sort out their issues and differences, and then support them as they call a new pastor. Then I go home to my wife Martha and rest for a while. I try to stick to what I do best with my limited skill set. 
            My primary church skill is making wisecracks and bad jokes from the back row during choir practice. I have been assured, there is no vacancy for that role – not in any choir in the Conference. Among my secondary skills, I am able to lead a meeting. It turns out the Conference President is expected to lead a lot of meetings. I am able to do what is needed. With that background out of the way, let’s turn our attention Back to the Future. 

            I am trying to confront the future in a Pastoral way. I want to show compassion for those who were raised outside the church, and believed the tales that they were told. All of us inside the walls are judgmental and self-centered, they were told. We all believe in a distant God who will ride in on a great day in the future and make everything right, they have heard. God has a plan, and all the world bends towards that plan, is what they expect us to think. God will make it all right, just believe. The future does not accept that thinking. 

            You and I need to be aware that the love of God does not accept the thinking of the culture, either. We cannot not fight fire with fire. We are not going to do battle with their chosen weapons of war. 

            We are not without hope, you and I. Our strength lies in the power we have to trust each other and the power of the Holy Spirit that holds us together. Our power grows when we reach outside of the walls of our churches, and make a difference for the good. The love of God is as strong a presence in the world, as the love of God can be made real in the actual ministry we do together.

            Future plans have no power. Mission Statements that are printed on paper and not burnt like brands on the hands of the servants of God or labelled on the backs of mission Team t-shirts, are ineffectual. We must live like the love of God is a jet pack tied to our backsides, where we cannot sit still, we cannot be content, we cannot rest while there is human suffering and souls longing for the love of God. 

            There is an awakening call echoing across the Illinois Conference of the UCC. It is a call that seeks a response. Do you harbor the love of God within you? Is there a spark of passion for justice within you? Are you ready to tell the story of Jesus; the ‘son of man’ misunderstood; and tortured and executed by the powers of law and order – a sacrifice to the collusion of a politicized church and state. Jesus modeled what it looks like to suffer injustice, and not be co-opted into the prevailing corruption, and not be reduced to confronting their violence on their terms. 

            In this time and place, this Conference is building a bias for action. Where we find a passion for love in action, the Conference will bring fertilizer, and water, and sing and pray and dance until the sun rises again for God to bring growth. 

            A bias for action means that we can work on the language for the tri-fold handout later, but first let us begin to do the work. We only need to ask, “Do you feel the presence of God in this work?” “Do you have a number of others who feel the fire?” “Has this discernment taken place in the community?” Lone Rangers are so easily compromised. 

            Denominations in general are under siege by a future that does not believe the promises of the “modern” world that were so important 50 years ago. The entire logical sequences that were the building blocks of modern thought were based on expectations that we took for granted. Upon closer examination of the gospel, the “American” perspective on faith, that accompanied the explosion of the middle class in the 1950s and 60s, was a tangent at best. The heart of the gospel is not built on self-sufficiency and social mobility. 

            We cannot take anything for granted any more. If we want to share our inclusive view on the love of God in this post-modern world, we must share our flame with others, and make a ministry that touches real people where they live. We will need to make a ministry that builds a sense of community for young people - working multiple lousy paying jobs - from corporations that dodge taxes and any sort of accountability. The hunger for genuine community is real.  

            The future is at the door but it does not expect to confront the love of God. The love of God is a better dealthan what the future was told to expect. The United Church of Christ is a better wayto be a Christian for thinking people. Find thinking people around you, and find your common passion that makes the world better. Then start! Ask for prayers and help, but start! Genuine ministry is the most compelling evangelism. 

            A good choir director can improve the musicality of singers who have no training. The director can introduce skills and exercises to improve the ability of people to sing in tune, to hear each other, and blend their voices. We learn how to shape words in our mouths to be understood. Sometimes, we can even learn to keep time. 

            The choir may joke; “How many choir directors does it take to change a light bulb?” The answer of course is; “Nobody knows, nobody is watching the director.” But it is only a joke, because we love our director, and appreciate that the director makes choir members sing better, and sing together. 

            Our strength is in the covenant, the promise we make, to love and stand with each other. There is no time to wait. The future is at the door. We must increase the power of our community to meet the future and the legitimate suffering it faces. We need to be present at our Association meetings. We need to bring more of our friends to the Conference Celebration. We need to send our hearts and prayers with our liveliest representatives to General Synod, so that our great way to be a thinking Christian, will be prepared to meet the future - with love and compassion. Each of us needs to seek, or at least accept, the invitations we receive to bring whatever gifts God gave us, to serve the wider church and it’s mission. We need to listen to each other so that we can sing in tune, and blend, and eventually even keep time

            I am most aware of the presence of God, when I am in the company of God’s saints. I get my strength from serving with those great saints. Our theme this year summarizes what we know to be true for the hope the church has going forward, “Love in Action – Life Together.” Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, the future needs your hope, your love and your compassion. You are needed as a partner in the face of this great challenge. 

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