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Brother's Keeper

What kind of bed is in this picture from "Walk Thru the Bible?" It’s an O-bed, reminding us of the Book of “O-bed-iah,” or Obadiah. In the background are two brothers, and one is holding a key to remind you that the key phrase of Obadiah is Brother’s Keeper. Here’s the story: Edom and Judah should have existed in brotherly harmony as neighbors. After all, they were in the same family: Edom was descended from Esau, and Judah from Jacob. But the fighting and feuding between their ancestors leads to national enmity between these two nations. In a moment of urgent need, with Israel’s enemies knocking at the gates of Jerusalem, the Edomites rush in to help . . . the enemy! As a result, God sends His prophet Obadiah to predict extinction for the arrogant Edomites for their unwillingness to serve as their brother’s keeper. In contrast, He promises that His people will ultimately destroy their enemies and live in peace.

THE REDLANDS DAILY FACTS ARTICLE: First Congregational Church of Redlands shares story of finding new pastor

THE REDLANDS DAILY FACTS ARTICLE: First Congregational Church of Redlands shares story of finding new pastor

Trustees chairman Tim Farris, left, reads the charge to the Rev. Steven Davis, second from left, at his installation. Also in the photo are the Rev. Lowell Linden, third from left, and the Rev. Peter St. Don, at right. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONTE STUCK.

 By John Berry

His voice cracking, Zachary Tucker read the retirement letter announcing that Senior Pastor Lowell Linden was stepping down after 38 years at the First Congregational Church of Redlands.

“I’m 76 years old — that’s why,” Linden later told the Redlands Daily Facts about his announcement in May 2014. “It’s just time.”

Linden had a history of health issues, so news of his retirement was somewhat expected. Still, the church, which hadn’t experienced a pastoral search since the American bicentennial, grappled with the next step.

“We knew this was coming,” Tucker said a year later. “We just didn’t know when.”

Tucker, a local hospital administrator and community leader, was the congregation’s choice to lead a search committee. Despite his experience leading volunteer groups, Tucker said he was caught off guard by the process and its demands.

“We didn’t have a transition plan in place,” Tucker said. “We didn’t have a plan of succession of any form.”

By September 2014, the church had elected a search committee, a group of a dozen members who represented a variety of viewpoints and ages.

The church sought guidance from the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, an advisory group for its 351 member churches.

NACCC Executive Director Michael Chittum explained in October that his organization is not a search service but it can facilitate information for free among the Congregational churches and pastoral candidates.

The First Congregational Church in Redlands, one of the larger churches in the NACCC, has about 550 total members, with about 250 in the pews on most Sundays.

“We would be able to contact (pastors) who were already familiar with our tradition,” Chittum said.

Chittum said finding pastors is an acute problem for Congregationalist churches because, unlike other mainstream Protestant churches, Congregational churches don’t have a seminary to draw from. Instead, Congregational churchesattract pastors from other Protestant faiths.

Congregationalist churches in the United States are divided into the United Church of Christ and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference as well as the NACCC, which estimates it membership at 40,330.

The major difference separating Congregationalist churches from other Protestant mainline churches is its history and government, Chittum said.

Today’s Congregationalists can trace their roots from the rebel Separatists in England, who were sometimes burned at the stake for smuggling English-language Bibles into 16th-century Catholic England.

They were known as the Pilgrims when they migrated into the New World on the Mayflower in the 17th century. They were known as Congregationalists when they spread throughout Colonial America in the 18th century.

Other mainline Protest faiths belong and answer to a church hierarchy. Congregationalist churches answer to themselves with the senior pastor being held accountable by the congregation.

Overall, more than 50 percent of the new pastors to NACCC-affiliated churches originate from non-Congregational churches. The average tenure for a Congregationalist pastor is about five years.

By the fall of 2014, the First Congregational Church decided to go with a search service so it could cast a wide net for pastoral candidates.

The church settled on Jeff Jernigan, senior vice president for Houston-based Faith Search Partners.

Faith Search Partners held small-group discussions in the fall of 2014 to get a better idea of what the membership wanted.

The church solicited surveys and got 171 back — about 65 percent of active members.

Tucker said the surveys played a bigger role in the search process than first imagined.

“I wouldn’t do this without a survey, period,” Tucker said. “You can’t let us loud-talking folks in the room be the only ones you hear.”

Surveys were collected anonymously on paper and online. Opinions were also collected via letters and small groups. The survey focused on the needs and preferences of the congregation.

The rising tide of social concerns — ranging from gay marriage to abortion and the role of the church — was voiced in small-group discussions.

One of the survey’s most salient points was how the congregation wanted to follow in the footsteps of Lowell Linden by finding a biblically steeped pastor delivering stirring sermons. Congregants wanted to maintain their traditional service.

The Bible is the inspired or actual word of God, according to 82 percent of members, with fewer than 2 percent regarding the Bible as merely a valuable book written by good people or primarily an ancient book of history and legends.

The survey also revealed that 80 percent of members were married, with 48 percent educated beyond the bachelor’s degree, 47 percent retired and 75 percent resident in the Redlands area for at least 20 years.

The survey also revealed attitudes that strongly favored history and traditions over contemporary ideas.

By the spring, First Congregational had received nearly 40 applications. The church interviewed three candidates. The search committee recommended Steven Davis, the first candidate they interviewed and the only one who preached before the congregation.

“Choosing the first guy was a hard decision,” Tucker said. “I know in my heart that Steve was the right candidate.”

Davis was highly qualified and matched membership priorities, Tucker said. Davis gave a biblically based sermon that was as inspiring as it was informative.

In a church vote, Davis received 95 percent approval.

Davis said he learned about the First Congregational Church opening through Jernigan, whom he had met several years before. Otherwise, as a Presbyterian pastor, Davis said he never would have learned of the opening.

Davis said he had another offer on the table, but chose the Redlands church because he wanted to live near his four adult children in Southern California. Before his hiring, Davis served nine years as the senior pastor and head of staff for the First Presbyterian Church in Manasquan, N.J.

In August, more than a year after the church council meeting, Tucker reflected on the experience and said he was pleased with the hiring process — but recalled that it wasn’t pain-free.

He said lessons learned include having a transition plan in place, collecting surveys from the congregation, hearing all opinions and hiring a search firm.

“We can have strong opinions on some things,” Tucker said. “But on Sunday, we can all get into the same building and worship God.”

John F. Berry has attended the First Congregational Church of Redlands with his wife, Sharilyn, and his son, Marshall, since 2007. He has served as a deacon and is the current Church Council Publicity Chairman.

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A moose

In this picture from "Walk Thru the Bible," we see a moose, so the prophet would be “A-moose,” or Amos. And the key word for the Book of Amos is Plumbline. Times are good in Israel. The nation is basking in prosperity, peace, strength, and security. Then, along comes Amos. At God’s direction, this prophet holds up the carpenter’s plumbline to measure the nation against God’s perfect standard . . . and finds only crookedness. Amos breaks through the people’s facade of respectability to expose the rotten core of immorality, injustice, and shallow piety. The people have grown soft and lax in luxurious living, so Amos—a country farmer turned prophet—declares God’s terrible warning, issuing His last call to repentance. But once again, the people fail to respond, and Amos announces God’s coming discipline.