wfn.org | UCC Young clergy braced for challenges

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Young clergy braced for challenges

> Written by Ginny Brown Daniel
> February - March 2009

> Uncertain times not a hindrance

Many groups within the UCC are wrestling with change and the 
challenges faced today and in our future. The UCC 2030 Clergy 
Network, a group comprising UCC ministers under the age of 40, is 
approaching these challenges with the ideals of their UCC foreparents 
in hand and heart, and with the creativity that inspires the UCC.

They formed in 2005 in order to discuss the blessings and needs of 
the UCC from the perspective of a new generation of clergy. Although 
in 2006 only 6 percent of all UCC clergy were under the age of 40, 
members come from all 39 conferences and embody the diversity of the 
UCC. Theologically they are conservative, liberal and everywhere in 
between. They represent Philippino, African American, German, Samoan, 
Native American, Southern, Western and New England cultures. They 
serve in hospitals, the military, colleges and churches. They choose 
to have children and they choose not to have children. They are 
transgendered, gay, straight, bisexual and lesbian.

Today the UCC 2030 Network provides a collective voice on needs of 
healthcare, restructuring the denomination, alternative paths to 
ministry, evangelizing in our postmodern culture and defining what it 
means to be an open and affirming just peace denomination - all 
questions with which the UCC is currently wrestling.

The Rev. Amy Sens, a member of the 2030 Clergy Network in the Central 
Atlantic Conference, says, "I think 2030 clergy take on an important 
role bridging between the modern and the postmodern shape of the 
church. We know and appreciate the gifts of the church, but also have 
the ability to see things from the point of view of our generations."

Among the questions the group hopes to address are the following:

* How can we live into our identity as a United Church of Christ 
rather than as Congregational, Christian, Evangelical or Reformed 
first and then UCC?

* Will there be enough clergy to serve all our churches?

* Will the importance of theological education continue to be 
valued by all branches of the UCC?

* Will the associations and conferences hold their same historic 
roles and responsibilities or will they adapt to a postmodern culture?

* Will the UCC keep up with technology enough to use social 
networking and communication tools to reach out to and sustain 
spiritual nurture of all people?

* Will some UCC churches live off their endowments while others 
merely scrape enough money together to pay the quarterly bills?

* Will there be a different burning theological question tearing 
at the seams of the UCC or will we continue to wrestle with the 
inclusion or exclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered members?

* Will the historically diverse churches and denominational 
organizations preserve the ethnicities of our different cultures?

* Will creative seminary scholarships be formed so that clergy 
don't graduate with massive debt and so smaller churches and 
conferences can benefit from the giftedness of these clergy?

The Rev. Ginny Brown Daniel is pastor of Plymouth UCC in Spring, Texas.

> Learn More

For more information about the 2030 Clergy Network go to 
www.2030clergy.net or its Facebook page, "UCC 2030 Clergy Network." 
The 2030 Clergy Network will sponsor a number of events at General 
Synod 27 in Grand Rapids, Mich.