Women united

BY DAVID EWART

I have never been a member of a United Church Women’s group, but throughout my ministry I have long admired and appreciated their work. Each unit had its own focus. Some emphasized support for world missions, some prayer, others study and still others local needs. All contributed to welcoming newcomers and building up friendships. And who could number all the teas, dinners and other fundraisers that supported the congregation financially and brought people together in community?

At its founding in 1962, the UCW had 260,000 members. This represented 30 percent of the denomination’s total membership at the time, making the UCW the largest adult organization within the United Church.

While membership has declined by 80 percent to 52,000, the UCW is still a significant presence. In 2012, 80 percent of pastoral charges had UCW groups. The average size of each group was 18, and the threshold to be among the largest 10 percent was 54. And together, these women raised $13.7 million for their congregations, and $1.7 million for the Mission and Service Fund.

Over their 50 years, the total amount raised — adjusted for inflation — is $1.5 billion for congregations, and $340 million for the M&S fund.² Wow. Wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow bring these women — the living and the dead — all together, all at once, and say thank you?

A study of the UCW would reveal much about how Canadian culture has affected the United Church. Those changes that opened greater opportunities for women are to be celebrated. Perhaps not so welcome are the changes that now require all adults to work where they can, when they can. What kind of world we are headed for when too many of us no longer have the time or energy to meet together to study, pray, change the world and form life-long friendships. A church where 30 percent of its members still did this would rock the foundations of our world.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the July/August 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. And make that a double "Wow." As of 2025, the UCW has raised — adjusted for inflation — $2.2 billion (that is not a typo, yes, it is "billion" not "million") for communities of faith; and $476 million for the M&S Fund.

Missing children

BY DAVID EWART

September means back to school, as well as the start of a new cycle of church programs for all ages. But September is also the month when church elders once again tell younger members about the good old days of flourishing Sunday schools, and offer puzzled anxiety — or accusations — about what’s gone wrong.

In the United Church, Sunday school membership rose with the post-war baby boom and peaked at 757,000 in 1961 as the first of that generation graduated from Grade 6. The decline that followed was not because Canadians stopped having babies. From 1965 to the present, births have hovered around 375,000 per year.

By 2012, Sunday school membership had declined by 90 percent to 61,000, with half of all Sunday schools having 25 children or fewer. The threshold to be among the 10 percent of largest Sunday schools was 60. And 20 percent of pastoral charges were already facing a future without any children in Sunday school.³

Adults can bring energy, curiosity and enthusiasm to church. Adults can learn, play and grow. We don’t need children for these. And churches, like other volunteer groups, can thrive as adult-only organizations.

But we know in our hearts that a church community doesn’t feel right if all generations aren’t fully present. Children embody – in a way that only children can – the conviction that all are precious in God’s sight; that the world is created to be good; that everyone has a place at the table; that all should be treated with justice; and that we need to build healthy bonds with others if we want these values to be realized.

If there are no children, we are missing the truth that Jesus saw: “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Adults need children to show us how to enter the state of grace that Jesus called God’s kingdom. A church just can’t really be a church without children.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the September 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The title of this column was chosen before the non-Indigenous population of Canada finally became aware of the unmarked graves in residential schools. Don't read this post without pausing to reflect on the impact of these missing children.
      
2. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
3. By 2025, Sunday School membership had declined from 61,000 in 2012 to 17,000, a vanishingly small remnant of 1957's 757,000. And of the 2,350 communities of faith, 1,400 (60%) had no Sunday School.

The cash-flow crutch

BY DAVID EWART

From 1965 to the present, statistics tracking United Church people have all trended downward. Whether you look at membership, Sunday attendance or baptisms, the numbers are dropping off like Granddad after turkey dinner (exhausted from so much cooking and cleaning, of course). And yet, the denomination’s overall income — called the “total amount raised for all purposes” — has not dropped significantly (see the green line). In 2012, the total amount raised was $399 million.

The total amount raised is the sum of congregational givings (red line), United Church Women’s fundraising (blue line), and “other” income (yellow line).

Congregational givings followed a pattern similar to the total amount raised between the mid-1960s and mid-70s. Then it dropped by 27 percent. The amount raised by the UCW also declined significantly during this period. And yet the overall total amount held steady. How come?

The difference is being made up by “other” income, which has grown from $33 million in 1965 to $132 million in 2012, a 300 percent increase. “Other” is a large category that includes community suppers, choir concerts and thrift sales, as well as rental and investment income.

And while there is good news in having extra income to support our ministries, the danger is that it masks the loss of people participating in congregational life while giving a false sense of security that at least the bills are being paid. Donations from participants accounted for 81 percent of the total amount raised in 1965; by 2012, that had fallen to 64 percent.²

Are we heading for a future of empty buildings paid for by rentals and investments?

Left unexamined, “other” income can be a sedative that allow us to stagnate while the culture around us radically transforms. The task facing the church today is finding ways to connect with new neighbours and younger generations.

Buildings, investments and fundraisers are distractions, not solutions.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the October 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 41. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. Adjusting historic financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI:
   Congregational givings have declined by 60% from 1965, and are now 58% of the total raised.
   "Other" income has increased by 300% from 1965, and is now 40% of the total raised.
   The total raised has declined by 40% from 1965.
      
3. Adjusting historical financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI, and rounding to nearest million dollars:
   Congregational givings have declined from $487 to 202 million.
   "Other" income has increased from $45 to 141 million.
   The total raised has declined from $599 to 349 million.
      
4. Adjusting historical financial data for inflation based on the 2025 CPI:
   Identified givers to communities of faith have declined by 75% from 520,000 in 1965 to 140,000 in 2025. But the amount given by each person has increased by 50% from $940 in 1965 to $1,440 in 1925.

Showing our age

BY DAVID EWART

The crisis facing our church is people, not budgets. And the people crisis is not that we are becoming fewer, but that those of us in the pews no longer look like our communities.

Of the many differences we might consider, one of the easiest to identify — and the most critical for us — is age. The United Church doesn’t keep records of participants’ ages, but the chart shows the latest Statistics Canada figures for each of the six living generations. The youngest of the Baby Boom generation are now 50; the oldest are entering retirement. Gen Xers are solidly middle aged, 35-49. And Millennials, aged 15-34, now have bragging rights as the largest generation ever at 27 percent of the population.

Want to know how your congregation is doing compared to Canada as a whole? On Sunday morning, ask all those under 35 to raise their hands. Counting children, they should be at least 40 percent of those present. Those over 65 should be about 10 percent.²

Personally, I am glad that I have been able grow older in good health. As my friends joke, “Given the alternative, growing older is better.” But for those of us who love our denomination, the church growing older is not better. We want our church to be young and vibrant.

But trying to “stay young” is an old person’s concern. My 20-something kids aren’t staying young; they are young. And although we live in the same city, we live in different realities. Homes? Cars? Kids? Careers? Marriage? All of these markers of adult stability are illusive for them. And so my kids don’t need my congregation to be more youthful. They need a whole new way of congregating. One that is flexible and mobile, and that connects using multiple platforms. One that assumes that debt, under-employment, self-employment and transience are normal. One that is also authentic, substantive and personal.

I wonder if our congregations have the courage to abandon old wine skins for the sake of the culture that is already upon us?

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the November 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 43. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. Gen Alpha and Gen Beta have now (2026) become the youngest generations: those 2-13 and those 0-1; and are 12% and 1% of the total Canadian population.
   Millennials are now 30-45; Gen Z is 14-29; and are 22% and 19% of the population.
   Boomers are now 62-80 and 21% of the population.
   Including children, more than 50% of Canada's population is under 45.
   A bit more than 25% is over 60.

Giving as God gives

BY DAVID EWART

Of all the statistics in the Year Book, perhaps the most important ones are about identified givers to local expenses and to Mission and Service. Because giving is at the heart of God. “For God so loved the world that God gave . . .” And learning how to give — with no thought of return, with no conditions attached, with no hesitation — is the core spiritual exercise of practising how to love as we have been loved by God.

The United Church began tracking identified givers (everyone who receives a tax receipt) in 1962. Like most of our statistics, the number of givers to local expenses declined for a decade. But unlike most of our statistics, it increased by 50,000 or 12 percent from 1971 to 1986.

Then, between 1986 and 2012, the number declined by almost 50 percent from 466,000 to 240,000.² Today, the threshold to be among the 10 percent of pastoral charges with the most local givers is 225. Half of pastoral charges have 93 or fewer givers to local expenses.

Generosity and empathy are built-in human instincts. But translating these instincts into daily practices requires nurture. Where can we learn to give as God gives, to love as God loves? This kind of giving is becoming a counter-cultural way of life.

For most of my ministry, I was always a bit embarrassed to preach the annual stewardship sermon. My salary, housing and travel were noticeably large bits of the budget. It looked like I was preaching for my supper. And so one year, I shocked my poor finance committee by saying, “We don’t want your money. Give it to someone else. We want your hearts. We want you to discover the joy, the exhilarating freedom from worry that comes from giving as God gives and loving and God loves, and from doing that every day in every way.”

This is the blessing of being an identified giver. It is the blessing we celebrate at Christmas as we welcome the birth of the child — a gift to us all from the original Identified Giver.

Rev. David Ewart is a United Church minister in Vancouver.

Published in the December, 2014 issue of The United Church Observer, page 44. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.

Reality Check Revisited.

In 2014 I wrote a series of articles for The United Church Observer magazine called "Reality Check." They were based on projecting what the United Church would look like in 2025, its 100th Anniversary. Given that we are now engaged in Toward 2035, I wondered if what I said then might have relevance for where we are now.

------

Notes:

1. The graphic was copied from The United Church Observer. The Observer now operates as Broadview magazine.
      
2. By 2025, the number of givers to local expenses had further declined from 240,000 in 2012 to 141,00.

What Does God Do with a Dead Terrorist

 Why Going to Heaven Will Feel Like Hell

Written after the September 11, 2001 Attacks on the World Trade Centre, NYC and the Pentagon, Washington, DC.

Since I believe that God is present in every moment of existence, and is the God of all creation, the question must be asked:

What is God going to do with the terrorists who died on September 11?

I also believe that God is both wholly just and wholly merciful, and that nothing can thwart God’s purposes. So the question cannot be avoided:

What does God do with a dead terrorist?

I do not know the mind of God of course, but offer the following act of imagination as a personal response.

I imagine that God will greet each terrorist, and, in a gentle, loving way, walk with him through every moment of his life. But with one critical difference.

Instead of seeing his life through his own perspective, the terrorist will now see his life from God’s perspective, through God’s eyes; through the eyes of love.

Each terrorist will now see each person on the plane, each person in the buildings, each police officer, fire fighter and rescue worker as God sees them; infinitely precious and dear to God’s own heart.

The terrorist’s own heart will now be filled with the same love for these people as is in God’s own heart. He will see them going about the morning business. He will experience, one by one, what each one felt and experienced that morning, moment by moment. Not as an outside observer; but as one living through the experience itself. He will live through 3,000 deaths.

And then God will also have him live through the experience of the survivors. The husbands, the wives, the daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, mothers and fathers, friends – everyone. Even the feelings of those of us who only watched on TV.

In other words, the terrorist will live through hell. Seeing what he has done. Feeling it. Living it. Stripped of all justifications, hatred, ideology, and indoctrination, he will be totally responsible and totally vulnerable for all he has done. He will see it, live it, know it, regret it, and be able to do nothing about it.

Surely, the terrorist would want to fling himself into the eternal torment of hell itself than continue in relation with God; continue to see things through the eyes of God, through the eyes of love. Better to live in isolation, darkness and brokenness. He will beg for the pain to stop.

But there is more.

For while the terrorist has been living through the pain and horror he has caused, those who were killed have been experiencing an amazing healing, forgiveness and restoration. In a way that God alone can do, God has healed their memories and hearts of all pain, all suffering, all terror, all wrong-doing. He has wiped away every tear from their eye. He has brought them to himself. And they too now see the world as God sees it, through the eyes of love. They see through the eyes of love the lives of the terrorists: their birth, childhood, adulthood; their humanity and hopes. How did some mother's baby grow to become a terrorist? They see as God sees the connections between their lives and the lives of those who killed them. Through the eyes of love.

And so, just when the terrorist has lived through the hell of experiencing all the pain and horror he has caused; just when he thinks his soul can endure no more and live; just when he thinks he would rather curse God and die eternally; just at this point, God brings him to meet, one by one, the souls of all those who died. But not souls as they were on the morning of September 11. He meets them now as souls healed, forgiven and transformed by the power of God’s love.

What does the terrorist see in the faces of those souls? What does he expect them to say to him? To do to him?

This is when the last shred of his old self is torn away. For his old self knows about hate. His old self knows about revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. These are things his old self understands.

Face to face with the souls of those whom he has killed, the terrorist would understand revenge – would even welcome it, for that at least is familiar. That would confirm his old beliefs. Leave a shred of self-justification intact.

But God, and the souls of the blessed, have no mercy for self-justification, lies and evil. There is no place in heaven for hate.

And so, one by one, as the terrorist meets each soul and looks into each face, he hears, “Father, forgive him, for he knew not what he was doing.”

One by one, the terrorist is left utterly defenceless. One by one, the possibility of continuing the old story: I hurt you, you hurt me back, is put to an end. One by one, the terrorist is left with no excuses, no place to run to.

But he is not left with no one to run to.

For those of us still grieving, it may be hard to hear this, but even a terrorist is not left by God with no one to turn to.

And so while my imagination fails at this point – for I can’t imagine how God pulls this off – my faith tells me that God’s love is such that after living through the hell I have described, something new will happen. I don’t know what, I don’t know how. Perhaps it will be as corny as overhearing someone sing, “Just As I Am.” I don’t know, but I believe that somehow something moves in us, when all hope is gone, something causes us to turn.

Jesus told a parable about someone like this – the Prodigal Son. I trust Jesus. And I trust that when I die, and when God meets me and walks with me through my life, and helps me to see my life through God's eyes, through the eyes of love; and when my defences are stripped away and I am left without excuses, I trust something will move in me, will cause me to turn to the only one to whom I can turn for healing, and forgiveness and welcome when none of these are deserved nor can be expected. And I trust that I will be greeted just as the terrorist was on that day so long ago – by a loving Father, who says to his disgruntled older son, “Why are you upset. For this my child was lost and now is found. Was dead, and now is alive.” And God will invite me in to a marvellous feast in my honour. And there – and I don’t know how God does this – will be the souls of all those who died that day – including the terrorists – rejoicing and praising God. For there is no hate in heaven. Only love. God’s love. And there are no terrorists in heaven. Only God’s children, each one of whom is precious in God’s sight.

 

© David Ewart,

www.davidewart.ca

Originally written September, 2001. Revised November 11, 2001. Second Revision May 28, 2004

Permission to reproduce by any means is granted for non-profit use provided authorship is acknowledged.

Why Are There No Dinosaurs? (This is a serious question.)

Bullet Points About Systemic / Cultural / Deep Change

Except for birds, why are there no dinosaurs? 

They didn't go extinct because they didn't try really hard. Had no vision. Didn't try new things. Had the wrong beliefs.

They went extinct because the world changed, and their way of being in the world no longer worked.

What is the church's way of being in the world?

Congregating.

Same place. Same time. Same routine. In person. Every week. Till you die.

So to thrive, the church's way of being in the world needs a lot of people who:
- have spare time;
- have spare cash;
- can go offline and show up in person;
- can make a commitment to be somewhere at a specific time time next week, or the week after that, or the week after that, or ... till they die.

Here's the catch. The church exists to be for people with no spare cash or time. But. The church - in its present form - can't exist without people who have spare cash and time.

As the global climate crisis and the global impoverishment crisis is eliminating people with spare cash and time, what new form must the church assume in order to flourish?

What does it look like for impoverished people living in chaos to be the church?

And do it without any external support from the benevolence of those who do have spare time and cash.