The UCC and Preaching in the Public Eye

A Message from the Minister and President
March 15, 2008

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

Prayers and blessings to you as we stand by our Lord in his journey… and make it our journey.

Because we serve a God who is Lord of all the earth, in serving that God, our ministry is a public ministry. We are scrutinized by and beyond our congregations for what we have said and what we’ve left unsaid. At the conclusion of every worship service, in every congregation, no matter who is preaching, there are congregants who will leave in agreement with things we have said and congregants who will disagree with – even want to repudiate -- things we have said. Pastors know these truths. Congregants know these truths.

America is now engaged in a discussion with incendiary potential – and as leaders/members of the United Church of Christ, we can be a positive influence. I believe we are called to do just that.

First, we can hold in our prayers the members, leaders and pastors of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. And to inform our prayers (and perhaps our parishioners) I recommend reading this story from the national UCC webpage with the hope that its perspective will help you spiritually as you prepare for Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

Secondly, we can remind our congregations and as many as possible beyond our congregations:

1. That the UCC in particular, and Mainline Protestant churches in general, are filled with people who represent a range of theological views. We neither subscribe to a narrow theological alignment nor to an ideological alignment.
   
2. We view this theological diversity as a good thing, and we embrace the challenges it sometimes presents. These challenges prompt us to listen to “our still speaking God” more carefully.
   
3. We have a centuries old heritage that celebrates, honors and protects freedom of the pulpit.
   
4. For many of us, perhaps most of us, not a week goes by in which something we say from the pulpit does not meet with the disapproval of one or more members of our church. By engaging them in dialog, we listen to our “still speaking God” speak through them, and we (and they) learn together.
   
5. We recognize that over the last 30 years, this is not how Christianity has been portrayed in the public square. Instead, Christianity has been portrayed as a religion of doctrinal and ideological alignment.

I believe that in this public moment when the words of a preacher, the beliefs of a church, and the alignment of a member of a church are under severe scrutiny, the opportunity exists for the American public to calmly acknowledge what it already knows: that within congregations, as well as within and across denominations, Christians do not all think alike. And following Jesus does not require ideological alignment.

In this time of Holy Week, let us hold one another and all of our congregations in our prayers.

Jim

The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal
Conference Minister and President
Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ