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Journey to becoming a blessed church

by Bill Hoover, Chair of the Trinitarian Congregational Church’s Blessed Church Subcommittee

April/May 2008

Bill Hoover

Trinitarian Congregational Church (Tricon), United Church of Christ, of Concord, MA began a fascinating and challenging journey in the fall of 2006. 

Responding to an inquiry by Senior Minister, John Lombard, for some inspirational literature dealing with spiritual growth in communities of faith, MACUCC Associate Conference Minister Susan Dickerman recommended to John a number of potential resources for the church leadership to read and discuss.  The leadership chose Graham Stan-dish’s book, Becoming a Blessed Church, as a basis for reflection, and the church adopted as its annual theme “Being and Becoming a Blessed Church.” 

A subgroup of the Diaconate then met with Susan and Tricon’s clergy to plan a midwinter retreat for the church leadership.  In January 2007, an enthusiastic group of some 60 people participated in an inspirational and engaging retreat dealing with how Tricon might begin to develop a more intentional, faith-based, and spiritually-led way of doing the church’s work. With advance materials from Standish’s book dealing with the nature of a blessed church, the four principles of discernment, and how to hold spiritually grounded meetings, the retreat participants enjoyed a challenging, stimulating, and energizing day leading to the adoption by the leadership group of action items intended to deepen the spiritual life of the church through its committee work and beyond.

The overall goals of the retreat and subsequently for the church were four:

1. To be touched by God through the Holy Spirit to help the church better understand what God wants the church to be as it plans, shares, and expresses its mission and ministry as a faith community.
   
2. To create and experience a spiritual basis for church committees to become small communities of faith.
   
3. To realize the fullest potential possible for Tricon in mission and ministry supported through prayer, discernment.
   
4. To experience Tricon as a receptive community open to the Spirit where individuals can freely share their faith stories.

For a traditional New England congregational church well accustomed to doing its work in an efficient and effective manner, these goals became both a challenge and an inspiration.

A Diaconate subcommittee then became the primary group to help usher Tricon through a deepening of its spiritual life.  This was accomplished by working with committee chairs, producing a user-friendly manual of resources, and helping the leadership to be increasingly comfortable with engaging the overall leadership of the church, through its committees, in a process of faith-based sharing and prayer as a means to discerning what God’s will might be for Tricon, its work and its witness, its mission and ministry. 

Several key themes became essential: 

• helping all to understand what constitutes a blessed church and getting a vision of how a healthy church fully grounded in a relationship with the triune God allows blessings to flow through it.
  
• confronting rational functionalism and its limitations and helping people understand how its logic-bound theology might restrict the possibility of spiritual experiences. (Overemphasizing the functional practice of doing the church’s business to the exclusion of being intentionally engaged in spiritual practices might limit the occasions for God’s people to know fully transforming experiences of God.)
  
• working to transform groups using “corporate” meeting styles and practices into small communities of faith where stories are shared, prayer and reflection are honored, and discernment is valued.
  
• developing ways to layer intentionally into committee meetings certain practices to allow adequate time for centering, sharing, and prayerfully discerning God’s direction for our shared life.

Although many were enthused about the possibilities inherent in becoming a blessed church, the realities of contemporary life with its time constraints, frenetic pace, and comfort with rational functionalism proved to be a significant challenge.  After all, it is hard to change the culture of a place which has always conducted its work in a particular, effective way. 

As strange as it sounds, some of the biggest challenges had to do with simply helping people become comfortable with sharing their stories and understanding prayer and faith-based reflection and Scriptural study as central rather than peripheral to the work of the church.  Discernment takes time, centeredness, intentionality, and an openness to the Spirit.

Yet, as such practices have become more accepted and viewed as the norm of committee meetings, meetings have become richer and, interestingly, the work of the groups is still accomplished in an effective manner.

The above said, the work is long term as the church trusts itself increasingly and prayerfully to the movement of the  Spirit in its life.  For two or three committees, there is a genuine renewal of life and an increasing comfort in a different way of doing their work.  Other committees are just easing into the process.  And some, quite frankly, resist the effort.  But at the same time all are supported and encouraged in any way possible so as not to make the effort unpalatable and disconcerting for those for whom this represents an unfamiliar way of doing the church’s work.  With God’s help and by God’s grace we continue to celebrate the renewal already at work in our midst.

As a result of Tricon’s ongoing efforts at becoming a blessed church, we shall hold our second leadership event in early April.  This will be followed by Graham Standish’s workshop at Trinitarian Congregational Church, 54 Walden Street, Concord, on Saturday, April 12th, and his preaching at our 10:00 a.m. worship service on Sunday, April 13th. 

We encourage all UCC members and churches, especially their leadership, to attend the Standish events in April. You will hear, and learn, from one of the foremost speakers/preachers in the spiritual renewal of communities of faith. Out of your great care and interest, and your desire for spiritual renewal in your church, you will discover a different but exciting, energizing, and exhilarating way of doing church business.