I am an evangelical Christian pastoring in the United Church of Christ, one of America’s most “progressive” denominations on matters of theology and ethics.  I am often asked why.  In 2007, the congregation I serve went through a discernment process and vote on whether to stay in the UCC.  On February 18, 2007, I presented my “case to stay.”

(1)  Heritage.  It is difficult for those who are new to understand this point, and I hasten to add that not all who have been here their whole lives agree with it.  Still, it’s an important one to mention briefly.  Virtually any direction we go other than where we are removes us in a significant way from our heritage in the German Reformed church.  Without a doubt being in the UCC has diluted that heritage, but even with all the defections, there are still more German and Hungarian Reformed churches and members in the UCC than anywhere else.  Our heritage not only includes the Heidelberg Catechism, music and worship, and historical development, it also includes ongoing connections to institutions that Corinthians helped to found, such as Catawba College, Johns River Valley Camp, Blowing Rock Conference Center, and Abernethy Laurels.·        

(2) Calling. The Scripture text that has become key for me on calling is 1 Corinthians 7:17-24.  In his discussion on calling, the Apostle Paul says, “Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him” (20).  If you were married when God called you, stay married.  If single, stay single.  If uncircumcised, you don’t have to be circumcised.  If circumcised, you don’t have to become uncircumcised - though I’m having a hard time imagining how that is possible.  If you are free, stay free.  If you are a slave, Paul says, “Don’t let it trouble you - although if you can gain your freedom, do so” (20).

The default choice is to assume that God put you where you are for a purpose.  Never say never (that’s Paul’s point about slavery), but don’t be restless to change.  And if you change, don’t change because you are running from something but because you believe God has called you to a new way or place to serve.  God in his sovereignty moves people and changes their location.  But in a highly mobile society our first instinct has become to change when we are unhappy - change churches, change houses, change cars, change jobs, even change spouses.  I am not at all sure we are usually seeking or following the calling of God when we do.

(3)  Service and witness.  If you believe, as I do, that the UCC is off course, it would certainly be easier to join a denomination with which we have greater agreement.  But as I look at Scripture, I find few examples of people God calls to the easier place.  The question is not, “Where am I happy?” or even “Where am I wanted?” but “Where am I needed?”

Again, I have to admit that this is part of my own story.  My parents were missionaries to Muslim people for their whole careers, and their theme song was “So send I you to labor unrewarded, to serve unloved, unpaid, unsought, unknown.  To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing.  So send I you to toil for me alone.”  It was never about personal fulfillment, or success, or how much difference they could make.  It was about who needed the message God called them to share.  It was about being in a strategic place for Christ’s sake.

If I weren’t in the UCC, I would be praying for people like me to join the UCC or if they are there already, to speak up.  I believe the UCC needs us, and the more of us who leave, the more its drift will be unchecked.

(4)  Freedom.  The UCC gives its congregations total autonomy.  The denomination has zero ownership or control of property.  Nobody tells us how to worship, whom we can call as our pastor, and how much we have to give or even should give.  No one ever will or can force a congregation to call a gay or lesbian pastor against its will.  None of our pastors will ever be required to officiate at a same sex marriage or civil union ceremony if he or she chooses not to.

The freedom that we have also extends to every other congregation in the UCC, and some of them make very different choices than we might about whom to call as a pastor or what to do with their money.  In the UCC, even the General Synods and national ministries have freedom from the churches and from conferences and associations.  It’s a denomination of voluntary covenant.  Everyone can do their own thing, if they want to.  This freedom is the tension that always has and always will exist in the UCC.

Freedom means freedom to go our own way, to do our own thing.  That is true in our denomination, and it is also true in life.  I am amazed when I ponder the freedom God gives to human beings.  As Isaiah (53:6) says in the text we will use on Ash Wednesday, we like sheep go our own way.

We live in a society where personal freedom is deeply valued, especially when applied to religious matters.  I would not change our system, because the alternative - religious coercion - is far worse, as borne out by history.  God certainly does not force anyone to believe or obey him.  He lets us trot merrily on down the path toward self-destruction, if we so choose.

But our American religious system has caused all of us to feel this sense of self-righteousness and rightness about what we believe and how we live.  We congregate with other people who believe the same things, so they only affirm how right we are.  If we don’t agree, we leave and find another group. Individual believers go their own way in finding a church.  Churches go their own way in finding a denomination.  Denominations go their own way in ignoring what the Scripture says or what Christians have said for two thousand years.  In my view, the most extreme views in the UCC are the logical end result of our cultural commitment to the right of private judgment and biblical interpretation.

Maybe the freedom God has given to us is not necessarily designed to help us go our own way.  Maybe the freedom we have been given should move us to stay on the road less traveled.  In other words, freedom means we can leave if we want to.  But why not use our freedom to stay?

(5)  Blind spots.  Well, you say, the UCC’s direction is so far off base we should go our own way, as so many have before us when confronted with similar issues.  Let me offer some personal perspective again.  Although my upbringing was modified by my early experience as a missionary kid in Pakistan, I am a southern white boy at heart.  And I can tell you that I am ashamed of how my southern white ancestors treated the issue of race.  In the 50s and 60s, we were fighting integration for all we were worth.  Not too many generations before, we thought it was OK to own human beings of African descent as slaves.

The United Church of Christ was on the forefront of racial and social justice issues in the 1960s, at great risk and cost to its early development.  In retrospect, they were almost completely vindicated in their advocacy of racial equality.  In the UCC, at least on the regional and national level, Christians of other races were fully welcomed and treated as brothers and sisters.

I do not agree with those who make a moral parallel between race and homosexuality.  For me the parallel is on the subject of blind spots, so please allow me with some trepidation to make another point.

The UCC has helped me to deal very differently with homosexuality than I would ever have done had I remained in an evangelical or independent denomination.  It is all too easy to condemn homosexuality from the pulpit, make jokes and use degrading nicknames in private, and inadvertently or intentionally condone the kind of hatred and even violence that I am sure grieves the Lord Jesus.

Gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people need love.  Probably because I am a UCC minister, I have had numerous opportunities to hear their stories.  They are almost always stories of brokenness, early rejection, pain, and identity confusion - sexual and otherwise.  To sit in our churches and condemn them without investing the time and energy in loving those starved for love and inviting them to find wholeness in Jesus Christ is by far the easier path - but it is so very wrong.

What I am saying is that I may not have ever confronted by own prejudices and blind spots about gays and lesbians if I had not been in the UCC.  This denomination has made me more compassionate, more caring, more interested in reaching out and loving those who need love than I ever would have been had I remained where I was.  It is too easy to spend time only with those who will pat me on the back and say, “You are so right and such a great person.”  It is so much harder to be in the company of those who challenge my convictions and even presuppositions.  But it is also necessary.  The friction within the UCC has only reinforced my basic conviction that homosexual practice is sinful and self-destructive - but I deal with self-destructive, sinful people all the time - and what they need is an invitation to sit beside other sinners and seek truth and grace and transformation.  Rejection and ridicule will never change lives.

(6)  Front lines.  Let me say again, just in case you missed it.  I believe any sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful.  It’s not the only category of sin, and the Lord knows homosexual practice is far from the only sexual sin practiced even in this congregation, even by people in this room.  We are always quick to condemn the sins of others while making excuses for our own.  When it comes to homosexual sin, it’s not only not my sin, it’s not even my temptation.

It is also true that we are in what is often described as a culture war over ethics, particularly sexual ethics.  The battle rages in the media, and American society has all but given in to the idea that private, consenting sexual behavior between adults is nobody’s business but those engaged in it.  Trust me - the next battle will be over the right to have multiple partners.

Most of us, every time we hear the line, “It’s nobody’s business if someone’s partner is the same sex,” even outside the church, find ourselves angry and wanting to do something.  I experienced that last week when a retired NBA player came out as gay and NBA players lined up to say on camera it’s no big deal.  It is tempting to say that by staying in the UCC, we are actively participating in this cultural acquiescence.  (On the other hand, the player who said, “I hate gays” was equally wrong.)

By staying in the UCC, we are staying on the front lines of the culture war.  If we retreat to a comfortable place, we are yielding significant and important ground.  The resources of this denomination - and they are considerable - will only be used increasingly on the other side of front lines.  We may not feel we are making a difference, but I believe we are.  Every time we are at the table of conversation or even in the room, ours is a voice that needs to be heard.  If we leave the table, we simply yield more ground.

(7)  Faithful and Welcoming.  This brings me to the organization that I helped to create.  I am the national President of Faithful and Welcoming Churches of the UCC, and Linda is on the board.  The purpose of this group is to encourage ECOTs (those who consider themselves evangelical, conservative, orthodox, or traditional) to stay in the UCC.   One key way we do so is by offering a way to clarify our UCC identity.  Here at Corinth, every publication that identifies us as UCC also labels us as a Faithful and Welcoming congregation of the UCC.

There will always be ECOT churches, pastors, and members who choose to stay, and FWC has been created for them, whether or not we are among them.  If we leave the UCC, I will not regret the time and energy I invested in it.  ECOTs need encouragement, they need visibility, and they need resources.  There are many, many such churches and pastors still in the UCC - but in many cases they simply don’t have the individual or corporate strength to do anything but handle survival.  They sit back and hope things will change.

FWC is also connecting with a lot of people who felt very alone in the past.  I am convinced that if we had been able to do what we are now doing years ago, many of those churches would never have left and they might have had a greater impact.  I do not know, and cannot promise, what impact FWC will have.  But we are trying, and we are finding a collective voice we did not have before.  Cleveland is at least paying attention.  They sent several representatives to our national gathering in August.  The UCC President, John Thomas, is committed to our 2008 national gathering.  We have a resolution going to General Synod this summer that asks the Synod to reaffirm the historic faith in order to encourage our ECOT churches to stay.

Our workshops this spring will focus on the theme of “healthy churches.”  Many of our churches just do not trust the materials coming out of the denominational headquarters.  They refuse to use those materials, and as a result do not have any resources at all.  FWC wants healthy ECOT churches and pastors to help struggling churches regain a sense of vitality and mission in the cause of making disciples of Jesus Christ.  It’s another way to serve.

(8)  Biblical and historical. I mentioned under “reasons to leave” that there is certainly biblical and historical precedence for separation.  But there is also biblical support for staying in.

My favorite model is probably Elijah, who was a prophet to Israel when wicked King Ahab was on the throne.  Meanwhile, the southern kingdom of Judah was experiencing some of its strongest years, spiritually speaking, under a godly king, Asa and his son, Jehoshaphat.  It would have been so easy for Elijah to go to Judah and be around people who shared his faith and values.  But God called him to Israel.

It was combative at times, it was lonely at times, it was costly at times, it was risky at times.  But that’s where God put him, and at one of his lowest moments the Lord said to him, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel - all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18).

               I could point to many others who remained faithful to the Lord and stayed in the hard place without visible effect or reward.  We know the name of Martin Luther, who, by the way, never sought to leave the Catholic Church.  They kicked him out.  But what of would-be reformers before him, like John Wycliffe and John Hus, who were persecuted for saying and doing the same things as Luther - and died without seeing any visible change in the church?  The point is not whether you are “making a difference” - it’s speaking the truth and being faithful where God has called you.