 ONA Process Deepens Discipleship at Christ Church Brockton
Studies, small groups, talking, testing, and timing were keys
by Patricia Hayes
Senior Pastor, Christ Church Brockton
This year the Massachusetts Conference celebrates the 25th anniversary of Open and Affirming, and we at Christ Congregational Church, UCC, in Brockton, MA are celebrating too. On October 18th, a day after the 25th anniversary celebration, we voted to become an ONA congregation -- the 95th ONA church in Massachusetts.
Unlike some of our sister churches, our Open and Affirming journey had some starts and
stops. There had been workshops and conversations through the years, and even an appointment of a steering committee, but a variety of things derailed the process. We knew that for some churches the vote to be ONA was straightforward and without conflict, but there was some free-floating fear as people came with reports of their cousin's church or their friend's church that had upheaval because of the conversations.
Just because you are number 95 doesn't mean the journey will be a slam-dunk -- but neither does it mean you can't do it. Our congregational meeting that affirmed our ONA Statement of Welcome was filled with excitement and decorum, and yes, some fear.
We discovered some things along the way:
- We began with a study committee, not a steering committee. The charge of the study committee was twofold: first they were to look at the materials and resources available and determine what seemed appropriate for our congregation. Second, the study committee talked to members and conducted a formal survey to see if there was a willingness to begin the conversations for ONA.
- People needed to get used to talking to each other in small groups. For us, adult education was typically attended by the same 12-15 people, usually in groups of 4-6 (one daytime Bible study, one evening adult education group). While the study committee was at work, I heard about a DVD-driven 6-week course on spiritual practices (The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg). A colleague, Rev. Kathie Rhyne in Topsfield, had trained a cadre of group leaders in order to offer the class in 10 different time slots during the week. I couldn't do that within my goal timeframe of a post-Easter offering, but I decided that I could offer the course three times a week myself: one morning, one afternoon, one evening. No extra preparation for me; lots of availability for the church people.
The multiple sessions created a buzz -- a sense that you needed to be there. Suddenly I had 48 people coming to adult education and talking to each other about matters of faith. Since I was dealing with the material three times a week, it naturally slipped over into my sermons, and there was a sense of spiritual momentum that transferred over into the ONA study groups.
- People needed many opportunities to talk. We offered a five-week series (also offered three times a week) with the MACUCC study course, many showings of the film 'For the Bible Tells Me So', and a Lenten series (three times a week) on diversity. We watched a documentary about the churches' role in the Civil Rights movement. We watched Rev. Martin Copenhaver's keynote speech from the Conference's 2008 Annual Meeting on congregational discernment. We had a Diversity Dinner (foods from around the world) with a panel from churches that had passed ONA. We had a parents' night with resources and a panel to answer questions about raising children in 'diversity friendly' homes. We had an intergenerational luncheon with workshop stations on disabilities. In all, we offered 27 workshop settings over a 13 month period -- 45 if you count the multiple timeframes in which everything was offered.
- We tested our readiness. After we completed all the workshops we planned to do, we asked for a straw vote of readiness at the spring annual meeting. The question was "Did we feel we had completed the educational phase of the process and did we sense God's call to begin drafting a statement of welcome for review and ratification?" With only four abstentions, the steering committee began work on a statement.
- Timing may not be everything, but it is a factor. There is an old saying in congregational life that for any successful congregational process it must be long enough to get the congregation's attention and short enough to keep it. Summertime was not our friend in this process, since we tended not to want to offer workshops in the summer. Regaining momentum in the fall required some extra advertising and word-of-mouth.
Our Open and Affirming process has been life-giving to our congregation. People are talking together at new and deeper levels. We have all learned and grown, and diminished our categorical thinking. We know each other better. We know the "why"s of each other's comfort zones. We do not have total and complete agreement, but in the end there were some 125 members in the room and only one voted no.
Adam Mitchell, a deacon at our church, said that the Open and Affirming process represented a Congregational Church working in its finest capacity. "Not only do I believe we owed it to the history and the teachings of the church to actively welcome and encourage the participation of every person who wants to further Christ's work here on Earth, but the way we went about it spoke volumes about the character of this church," he said. "It was a member-driven process; everyone who wanted to be heard during the discussions had that opportunity. The discussion was sometimes difficult for some members of the Congregation, but always respectful."
Adam said it strengthened his knowledge that he made the right decision when he came to this church 13 years ago, but he believes there is still hard work ahead to make sure the ONA statement is more than just words on paper. He said that "every day from here on, we, as a Congregation, have to work to make sure our church not only says we are, but that our church really is an Open and Affirming church. It may not always be easy, but it will always be worth it."
Doug Anderson, vice moderator at Christ Church and member of the MACUCC ONA Task Force, wrote this about our process:
I have been going to churches that are in various stages of the ONA process for thirteen years, talking to people about why ONA is important and what the process might look like in their setting. At some point during Q&A someone would always ask me, "So how did the process go in your own church?"
I would stun the questioner when I would answer that Christ Church had not even started the process. When pressed for a reason I would tell them what I was told by the leadership over the years: it's not a good time because we are having a capital campaign, the church isn't ready for anything so controversial, it is an interim time (can't do it then) and the most bizarre reason of all was that the organist had just resigned.
Finally the stars aligned and the time became right. God bless those persons who labored on the process at Christ Church and enabled me to be able to proudly state out loud that my Church is indeed ONA.
We still have some fear to address: fear that we will do this imperfectly. But that is part of our Christian life, knowing that we will fall short but will try again.
Resources and excellent help for the process are available through the MA Conference ONA Task Force at kacarp@comcast.net and at: www.macucc.org/emj/ona.htm.
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