Listening Committee begins to formulate vision
February/March 2007
 With more than 400 churches and 90,000 members spread out across the state of Massachusetts, it seems a daunting task to effectively listen to all of the folks doing God’s work on behalf of the United Church of Christ in the Bay State. But on two Saturdays in January, at fourteen separate meetings held in locations from Plymouth to Lunenberg to Dalton, that is exactly what the Listening Committee of the Massachusetts Conference did.
“Our goal was simple: to bring together as many lay and ordained UCC local church leaders as possible, and hear directly from them about what kind of Conference support they need to be vital in their ministries,” said Listening Committee Chair, Reverend John F. Hudson, Senior Pastor of the West Concord Union Church. Organizing the gatherings was a challenge, according to Hudson. “We had to find locations, train facilitators, recruit recorders and get the word out, but I’m confident we’ve received the information we need to begin to formulate a vision about how the Massachusetts Conference might be
re-shaped, re-structured and re-formed for the years ahead.”
Each gathering had one simple goal: to ask and receive answers to these three questions:
QUESTION 1: Based on these five areas of vitality – Worship Attendance; Mission Outreach; Faith Formation of children, youth and adults; Stewardship; Our connection to the wider UCC – where do you want your church to be in five years?
QUESTION 2: How can Conference resources (Conference Financial Resources; Deployment of Conference Staff; Use of Volunteer Time [Board; Committees; Commissions]; Conference land/ buildings) be deployed to help your congregation get from where your congregation is now to where you expect to be in five years?
QUESTION 3: Keeping in mind the four resources of the Conference mentioned above, how has the conference blessed your ministry in the past?
As the next step in “Our Work in Progress: Nurturing Church Vitality” the Listening Steering Committee will analyze feedback from these sessions and then present their findings and recommendations to the Board of Directors in March 2007. These will be used by the Board of Directors, along with other research and input, to develop a restructuring plan that will be brought to the Annual Meeting either in June or September 2007.
“Stay tuned,” concluded Hudson. “And most important of all, keep us and the entire Massachusetts Conference of the UCC in your prayers. God is still speaking!”
The Listening Steering Committee includes: Paul Adkins, Liz Aguilar, Jim Antal, Candi Ashenden, Cindy Worthington Berry, Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, John Hudson (chair), Hooks Johnston, Bette McClure, Terry Martinson, Peter Meek, Mike Penn-Strah, Carol Yelverton, Peter Wells, and Jonathan Wright-Gray. For the latest information, visit
http://www.macucc.org/news/listening.htm.
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