Bennett Guess Tells UCC "This is a time of significant change"

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

Guess: Tells UCC "This is a time of significant change"

> Written by Diane Weible
> July 1, 2011
"The United Church of Christ is undergoing a
period of great change - but not of great demise."

When introduced to delegates and visitors during
the Opening Plenary on Friday, the Rev. J.
Bennett Guess, nominee for Local Church
Ministries Executive Minister, encouraged the church not to forget this.

While recognizing a significant time of change
for the church, Guess admitted that there are no easy answers or quick fixe s.

"But I do understand that new leaders for the
United Church of Christ must be willing to speak
to the angst that stirs in us, to interpret it
and to minister to it, but more than offering
analysis, to take practical steps and make
creative decisions to welcome the new era of
?possibility? that so many of us are yearning for," he said.

In a world where the buzz word of the day seems
to be "hope," Guess reminded us that hope is more
than a good marketing strategy; it is a renewed
and refining presence in the world.

"Hope has been known to pack its bags and show up
in strange, unsuspecting places: in flooded,
tornado-ravaged towns and along
hurricane-battered coastlines. Hope opens wallets
and checkbooks, and it sets people to singing and praising God again," he s aid.

Quoting from Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer of

Pennsylvania, Guess shared the Bishop?s belief
that every 500 years or so the whole church conducts a great big rummage sa le.

"And lucky us, we were born into that 500-year
cycle," he said. "We?re in the process, as
Christians, of sorting through the church?s attic
and deciding what to keep and what we shall discard."

Guess said he is not just appreciative of the
United Church of Christ, but indebted to it.  He
received a laugh from those gathered in the
Plenary Hall when he admitted to a "newcomer
naïveté" when he first joined the UCC, believing
the denomination to be perfect.

> []
"All I can say is that you schooled me well, but
my enthusiasm for this incredible church has not dampened."

Through his current position as Director of

Publishing, Identity and Communications (PIC),
Guess has had many opportunities to observe what
is happening around the United Church of Christ
and he said he is encouraged by what he sees.

"I sense a strong hunger for an articulation of
our envisioned future together, an eagerness to
recapture the belief and proclamation that the UCC exists for a reason."

Guess acknowledged that the changes won?t be easy
because "the new" has always rattled the church.

"We wrestle with how to stay true to the

institution we have been and to the new mission
we sense God is calling us," he said. "Our
jitters are understandable. But resistance is not a faithful option."

Local Church Ministries Executive Minister search
committee chair Carol Williams-Swoope said Guess
was chosen from a large pool of talented and
diverse candidates.  In her introduction,
Williams-Swoope said the committee found his love
for the church and his success as a local pastor
as two of the reasons that he was chosen for the
position.  She pointed out that when Guess was
pastor of Zion UCC in Henderson, Ky., he led the
church through a period of growth from 12 to 300 members.

In speaking of the United Church of Christ?s
growth, Guess said that for too long we have
relied on two metrics to determine our
success­membership totals and dollars given to
national ministries.  While not diminishing the
importance of these statistics, he emphasized
that they don?t tell the complete story because
of changes in what "membership" means and new
patterns of mission-giving that illustrate the
growth of local mission, not necessarily a
disconnect with denominational impact."

Guess said that he has experienced what he calls
the saltiness that is the United Church of Christ
and that not only has he been beckoned by its
light but he believes tens of thousands of new
people will be touched and impacted by UCC ministries.

> "We respond not to diminished (or repeated)
> expectations of ourselves but to greater
> expectations of who God believes we can be - and
> then, in turn, what we imagine is possible for us."
General Synod delegates vote on the election of
Guess and the other Collegium nominees on Monday evening.