the challenges of a mainline church

My Toastmasters group meets at the Menifee United Church of Christ (UCC). We’re not affiliated with them; we simply rent the space. They’re a friendly group of people, and it’s a nice place to be.

One week as I approached the building I saw a sign for a New Birth Church situated beneath the Menifee UCC sign. When I drove into the parking lot I saw that a sign pointing New Life to the sanctuary and Menifee UCC to the fellowship hall had covered up the message board.

Menifee UCC is a something of a maverick congregation. They are a liberal church in a very conservative community. The pastor is socially progressive. He decided to go into the ministry after 9/11, and the church displays the rainbow flag rather than the United Church of Christ symbol. They have a dedicated core group of volunteers if the people we see on Thursday is any indication, but it seems that they don’t have a large enough congregation to maintain the facility on their own.

I applaud them for sticking to their values, and if renting their sanctuary to another congregation helps keep them afloat, they are doing the right thing.