Look for this trend in 2023 all over North America:
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I personally prefer my wisdom to be hard-hitting and insightful, but then, I like to get things done.
"Open and affirming" is UCC code language for churches that have gone all in on the LGTBAIQAWTFBBQ schism. My childhood UCC church, bleh, hasn't had a male pastor in maybe 20 years. All the pastors for the last ~10 years have been gay.
The last time I set foot in that building was for a Christmas service some years ago. The pastor did not say the word "God" or "Jesus" the ENTIRE service. The (lesbian) co-pastor actually did, so, there's that..
The UCC is a church primarily for wealthy, highly educated, useless white people. The majority of the members are in the mid-Atlantic and northeast. I believe the majority of members have masters or PhD degrees.
They have been hemorrhaging membership, but finances are actually pretty good (again, wealthy members).
I hate the UCC and everything it stands for.
I grew up in a perpetually small church, 50 attending was a huge service. We were near a college but rarely attracted any students. We were established, well positioned in the middle of town, etc. When I was about 20 a new church popped up out in the country, well beyond where anyone would accidentally find it. They had money. Huge building, sprawling parking lot.
I was invited by a girl I was dating to go there once, because her friend loved it. First surprise, the parking lot was full. Next, the music was from a CD, all contemporary stuff I'd never heard before. The speaker told a story about fishing... maybe, in my desire to figure out where he was going with the message I didn't absorb a single detail, because it turns out, there was no message. It was just an anecdote with no moral concern at all, much less related to Christianity in any way. The whole thing was strange and creepy to me, I was trying to understand what was appealing about this. I noticed finally there wasn't a single mention of God, Jesus, Sin, or even Heaven. But 'Love' yeah, he said 'love' a LOT. By the end I was looking in the corners and light-fixtures for cameras and microphones like it was a cult indoctrination front.
I described this later to someone older and he called it a "user friendly" church. I'd never heard that term, but it was one churches like it had been bandying in previous decades that signaled "there are no hard things here, only soft, positive, fun things. Come enjoy!"
It was a shocking moment for me, that such a thing would exist, that people would be attracted to it, that it would know wild success beyond what a small group of dedicated and serious people would ever know. And everywhere I've moved in my life since, I've always found that church. It's been easy to find. It's the big one with the sprawling parking lot that has to rent cops to direct traffic on Sundays.
We have those, too. Literally as far away geographically as you can get from the East Coast of the US, but yet, the same phenom exists here…
Incredible, ain’t it?
I was convinced to go to one, once, by a girl, too. Similarly weird vibes. But infinitely popular among my age group…
It made me really, really uncomfortable, though. So when she stopped going, I definitely didn’t go back, lol.
My childhood UCC church was like that. A small congregation that naturally swelled around Easter and Christmas. My grandparents were involved in moving the church to its current building, designing the sanctuary, picking out the organ, etc. It was a special place to me.
It was only as I grew older that I realized how weird UCC-ism was, and it went through an an acceleration into deviant Christianity in the early 2000s. That’s the time when the UCC church went all out into LGBTQ ministry etc.
I haven’t been back in many years, but I check up on things there every now and then.
Naturally as a group that is EXTREMELY Covid scared, they went remote for a long time.
I watched one Zoom sermon, and they had a section where the youth pastor (who appeared possibly non-binary) was putting on a puppet show of some Bible story. Naturally they had same sex couples, etc.
Regarding the big churches, some neighbors of mine kept trying to get my family to go to a megachurch—one of those that has multiple campuses, the contemporary music, people rocking out with guitars and lightning effects that would put most event venues to shame. Don’t see the appeal.
So, I consider myself a Christian, but I haven’t even set foot in a church building in maybe 4-5 years now. Pretty shallow Christian I guess.
Guyven smashing post ,,
Don't know anything about that church's history, but perusing their website I find a section dedicated to "Justice" and it is obviously neo-Marxist critical social justice.
That explains the Fag Flag and the BLM sign on the edifice.
PS./Edit:
What's that bit in the good book about serving god and mammon?
The United Church of Christ traces its history in a straightline back to the congregationalist Puritans. People like Jonathan Edwards who wrote “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
Today, I doubt the majority of UCC members or pastors would even acknowledge the concept of sin.
It and the UU (Unitarian Universalists) are pretty much the official churches of woke SJWism.
If wisdom is open and affirming, it isn’t wisdom.
That’s called coddling.
The Lord culls the lukewarm pretenders before He works against the enemies. I personally look forward to seeing these people pruned.
Here's an archive link. https://archive.ph/K2aQl
Laughing at the usual NPC noise. Gotta keep up that bullshit that BLM is about equality and not just putting niggers on a pedestal and funneling money to the DNC.
I know everyone here hates Candace Owens, but her expose of BLM is definitely worth watching.
I like her.