May 15, 2025

By Rev. Rick King

When our joint Merger Steering Committee met on May 6, I remember being surprised when I realized that we were setting the date of the congregational vote to officially merge with New Life Presbyterian Church.

“Wow!” I said to the group: “We’re really doing this thing.” It’s going to happen July 13 in a special congregational meeting after worship. YES—we’re there! Or we will be, this summer.

For some in both our congregations, the coming vote may feel sudden. Even though we’ve been developing the Plan of Merger for several months, and have been involved in the overall discussion of merger for a year now (remember our unanimous congregational vote on May 18, 2024, in favor of pursuing a merger with New Life?).

For others, it may feel long overdue: “Finally, we’re going to vote on this. What took so long?” This merger has lots of moving parts to coordinate: the Plan, deciding what to do with facility spaces, possessions of both churches, merging worship and program life, governance, and more. AND, since we belong to denominations and are accountable to our members, there are three rounds of approval to this process:

• Approval by the Executive Board and New Life’s Session;
• Approval by the two congregations;
• Denominational affirmation by the Minnesota Conference UCC and approval by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area.

The deliberate slowness of each of these steps is in keeping with the thorough manner in which both our congregations discerned the merger path we eventually chose. It’s important to bring as many of our congregants along as possible, and to move as a group. (Think of how a good leader of a hike in the woods makes sure the group doesn’t leave anyone behind.)

The timetable going forward? Right now, we’re preparing for the vote. A Special Bulletin went out yesterday to all of you who get the TAB, and it includes all the details, along with the Plan of Union. Our Executive Board has a month to review it between its May 20 meeting and voting on the Plan at its June 17 meeting.

After having thoroughly considered the Plan of Union, each congregation holds a Special Congregational Meeting on Sunday, July 13, to approve it as a congregation. Up till now, we’ve been what you might call “merged in practice”; the vote will render us “merged in fact.”
 
After the July 13 vote, we inform the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ of the outcome, and the Minnesota Conference Board of Directors simply affirms our congregation’s vote at their regular meeting on Aug. 9. This is one of the differences between the way the UCC churches govern themselves and the way the Presbytery approves local church decisions. The Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area needs to approve New Life’s July 13 vote to approve our Plan of Merger when they meet September 11. They’ll actually be voting on two separate motions: one is the merger itself, the other is the sale of their building.
  
Throughout the fall, we’ll continue carrying out the Plan of  Union’s steps and tasks and, hopefully in January, we’ll celebrate the new church born of this merger.

The most important thing is that everyone looks at the Plan to be clear about what we’re doing in the months ahead. What questions do YOU have about the merger process? You can send them to [email protected].

Fifth in a series: Five disruptive church trends in 2025.

April 30, 2025

By Rev. Rick King

Carey Nieuwhof is the Canadian pastor and trend-spotter I read who annually publishes a list of “disruptive church trends” that he believes will affect churches of all types, even though he writes with a primarily evangelical audience in mind. I’m interested in how we can view this year’s five disruptive trends through the lens of our merger process. Each week, we’ll look at a different trend and see how it applies to us as we try to plant a new church out of a merger of two existing churches facing challenges. Source of the content is Nieuwhof’s blog, but the take on it is my own.

There was a lot of talk in clergy circles during the pandemic about clergy mental health.

During 2020-21, I so looked forward to the weekly Minnesota Conference UCC clergy support calls on Zoom. We shared what was going on in our churches and households, the struggles and victories and what we found helpful in coping with the stress and isolation of COVID.

Clergy mental health has rebounded somewhat from those days. And although the number of ministers who have experienced the impulse to quit full-time ministry has dropped from 42 percent in 2022 to 33 percent in 2023, according to Barna Group, a third of all U.S. pastors still think seriously of leaving ministry.

And get this: 18 percent of pastors have thought about suicide or self-harm in the past year, fueled by loneliness and isolation among lead pastors that is intensifying, not declining.

There’s been a precipitous drop in pastors who say they regularly get the personal support they need to thrive in their field, from 37 percent to 19 percent over the past 10 years! That means 81 percent are NOT getting regular support.

Personally, I’ve worked hard over 35 years of ministry to ensure I have the support I need. And while 21 percent of clergy over the age of 45 say they’re flourishing in their well-being, under the age of 45 only 7 percent say that.

Why does this matter to us, as we move toward a merger? Because the next generation of church leaders is not okay. Not only is there a leader shortage in the church, but those leaders of the next generation aren’t thriving.

Since the new church birthed by our possible merger with New Life will likely be looking for a next generation pastoral leader, this crisis will affect our church directly in the next few years. Economic challenges, global instability, and other factors will push church leaders in ways they’ve never been pushed.

People watching this trend in alarm admit there’s no “fix” for this generational mental health crisis. But as Easter people, we believe that God can bring life-giving wisdom out of death-dealing circumstances. We need to be looking for the new things God can do in the life of our churches and their leaders. Nieuwhof proposes a few:

It comes from the top – Senior leaders of churches can have a positive impact by modeling healthy practices and balanced lives, both in leadership and in their personal lives. Not only regularly taking time off, but cultivating healthy practices for mind, body, soul and spirit to be renewed. No one else can decide to do this, but churches can encourage leaders to do this and fund it in their budgets. Not to do so is short-sighted and a recipe for burnout.

Think of the team – Paid staff in churches need to be encouraged to practice healthy, balanced living, but so do lay leaders. Checking in with each other regularly has been important as our lay leaders go through life crises and other changes in their lives, as well as making sure we share the load with each other and regularly ask each other for help. The mission of the institution is never more important than caring for people.

Live today so you thrive tomorrow – Not survive, but thrive. And that goes for the church, not just the pastor.

What are YOUR thoughts about this? What are YOU seeing and hearing from friends in other churches?