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Massachusetts Conference Edition
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Sharing faith and unbinding the Gospelby Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor February/March 2008
United Church of Christ churches have powerful faith – thoughtful, incisive, progressive,” said ordained pastor, researcher, author and speaker Martha Grace Reese. “It is a crucial witness in the world. We with progressive theology have something important to say. We need to learn to pass it on to others, to new people. That’s why I’m passionate about faith sharing in mainline churches.” On Saturday, March 1, 2008, at the Conference’s Framingham campus, Reese (president of GraceNet, Inc., in St. Louis) will be working with teams of people from UCC churches across the Commonwealth, all of whom have studied her book ‘Unbinding the Gospel.’ This publication arose out of a four-year, Lilly Endowment study of healthy evangelism in mainline churches. According to Reese, the book aims to provide encouragement, moral support and practical ways for church leaders to begin to learn to pray and to articulate their faith. UCC General Minister and President John H. Thomas, reviewing Reese’s book, wrote: “Martha Grace Reese gently but persistently lures the Mainline back to the ministry of evangelism that is the heart of the church. [Her book]… avoids gimmicks and the trap of the latest church growth fad, inviting pastors and members instead to a relationship with Christ that overflows the banks of our often cautious and reserved congregations. Filled with helpful suggestions for getting started, this book can convert even the most ‘evangelism-cautious’ Christians into eager disciples who love others enough to tell them why Jesus is the answer.” Reese has extensive experience as a consultant to church pastors and denominational executives. During the past decade, she has served several hundreds of these church leaders in ten mainline American denominations as a congregational consultant, retreat leader and spiritual leadership coach. She has envisioned and given leadership to two major initiatives initially funded by the Lilly Endowment (the Bethany Project and the Bethany Fellow-ships), as well as the Mainline Evangelism Project. “My deepest understanding of faith and faith sharing is that there is a God – that God is vibrantly available in our lives and in our world,” Reese said. “Being a Christian, a person of profound faith, matters. It matters to us, and it can matter in other peoples’ lives, in varieties of ways. We can, we must, go deeper into our faith. We must pray for real. We need a spirituality that will carry freight! If we have that faith, we can share it.” Her ongoing consulting in pastoral leadership and spiritual development is grounded in seven years as senior pastor of a revitalizing congregation, tripling worship attendance in the first three years. She has also served as a middle judicatory minister, a consultant for foundations, and on the boards of directors of several not-for-profit corporations, and has had extensive practice and training in centering prayer and Christian spirituality. Before seminary, she was a corporate lawyer. “People no longer come to church automatically – and I’m sure most pastors have noticed that!” Reese said. “We tend to be shy people. But we need to be able to talk about why being a Christian matters in our lives if friends bring up the subject! That’s what we’re going to talk about, think about and pray about during this event.” At the March workshop, Reese will teach her proven system of practical steps of faith sharing, prayer, worship and planning that promises to energize congregations. This particular workshop requires a pastor and a team of at least five lay people to read and do the exercises in Reese’s book ‘Unbinding the Gospel’ (available for purchase at www.Amazon.com) before registering. ‘Unbinding the Gospel’ is the first step in Reese’s ‘Real Life Evangelism Series’ – an integrated set of resources to help church leaders connect with the power of a deep faith in Christ and start to share faith with enthusiasm and theological authenticity. Jim Griffith, President of Griffith Coaching Network and consultant to many Conference churches, writes: “Reese loves the Church. Remember that, as you digest her study of American mainline churches and their seeming impotence over the ‘E’ word (Evangelism). Momentarily citing statistics to the point of shock and awe, she doesn’t leave the reader there. Hope for the mainline church abounds in these pages. She carefully demythologizes evangelism and then reconstructs it through common sense practices.” According to Reese, the Series has sparked a transformation in understanding, thinking, habits and practices of prayer and evangelism in churches of all sizes, cultural and geographic settings, and theological understandings. Richard Peace, a member of the First Church in Wenham, Congregational, UCC, and professor of Evangelism and Spiritual Formation at Fuller Seminary (see separate article) wrote: “‘Unbinding the Gospel’ should be required reading in all mainline churches. Our continuing existence may depend upon it.” Reese said: “One of the greatest joys in my recent life has been working with people with deep, progressive theology, particularly northeasterners. I found during my study that most mainline church people stare up in horror when they even hear the word ‘evangelism.’ It’s as if evangelism, the E-word, were a massive, rusty tanker, leaking sloshing toxic waste that’s splashing over the gunnels and into the little boat we’re rowing. “We can change that perception!” she said. “We love our faith. It matters. We can learn to say these things right out loud!”
Editor’s Note: Martha Grace Reese has recently received a new grant from the Lilly Endowment to work with 8-10 congregations who have worked with the concepts of ‘Unbinding the Gospel.’ The Endowment wants to discover how churches can transform if they start praying and working on faith sharing. Reese is looking for churches who could help as “field researchers” with this project.
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