News
In focus: Good Shepherd United Church of Christ
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| Pastor Randy Mayer |
By Mary Ann Linforth, Special to the Green Valley News
Pastor Randy Mayer talked about the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in a question-and-answer interview.
His comments:
Question: How long has The Good Shepherd United Church of Christ been active in Green Valley?
Answer: The first gathering of the Good Shepherd was in September of 1993. The congregation met at a variety of different place, including the Pima Savings and Loan, the Green Valley Post Office and for three years, we were invited to meet at the Temple Beth Shalom. The congregation purchased land, and in 1998, the congregation moved into our present building on La Canada in Sahuarita.
Q: How long have you been leader of the congregation?
A: When I began to look for a new ministry position, my wife, Norma, and I said we wanted to live close to the U.S./Mexico border — we decided 40 miles wasn’t too bad. I have been lead pastor of the Good Shepherd for the past 9 1/2 years. It has been exciting to see how the church has been able to grow and get involved in community affairs.
Q: Historically, how far back does your religion go?
A: The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 as a result of a union of two Protestant denominations — the Evangelical and the Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches.
We pride ourselves that our story as a church is the nation’s story. We are people of the Mayflower, more than 600 of our 5,700 churches were founded before 1776. Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of the United Church of Christ predecessor bodies.
We have a long history as a denomination of engaging in public and sometimes controversial ministries. In fact, our first churches were called “Meeting Houses,” because that is where the community gathered to discuss community issues as well as worship.
From the Pilgrims who left the persecution of the Old World to have freedom of religion in the New World, to inspiring the first act of civil disobedience in U.S. history-the “Boston Tea Party” we have been a people that have engaged our faith in the public square.
In addition, we were the first mainline church to ordain an African-American (1785), a woman (1853) and an openly gay pastor (1972). We take seriously the idea that “God is Still Speaking” and we need to listen.
So it is probably no surprise that we have been a leader on the borderlands in speaking up for our migrant sisters and brothers as well as providing Humanitarian Aid to people in need. It is probably no coincidence that the controversial pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is a United Church of Christ minister.
We strongly believe in the freedom of the pulpit and we affirm the individual conscience of our members to agree, disagree and wrestle with life’s biggest questions in a spirit of love.
Q: Where are you from originally and where did you take your training?
A: I grew up in Montana, went to Rocky Mountain College where I had a double major in Psychology and Christian Thought and received my Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School outside of Boston. I also spent a year studying at Seminario Biblico in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Q: Does the Good Shepherd’s church attendance fluctuate with our seasonal guests?
A: Over the years, as we were building our membership, we did see some difference, but not anymore. Our church pulls families from Green Valley, Sahurarita, Tubac, Tucson and small towns in between here and the border.
Q: Do you have outreach programs that Good Shepherd sponsors?
A: Yes, we are a church that is always looking outward. We are involved with the Community Food Bank, Green Valley Assistance Services, the Sahuarita S.T.O.P. Committee, Borderlinks, Humane Borders, and we are the host church for the GV/Sahuarita Samaritans. We also have become active in KIVA, a group that gives loans throughout the world.
Additionally, we sponsor Boy Scout Troop #301, provide space for Alcoholics Anonymous, the Sahuarita Community Justice Board and a whole lot more.
Q: Do your Sunday worship services follow a set pattern? And would you explain the meaning the emblem that the UCC uses?
A: The UCC emblem is based on the ancient Christian symbol known as the Cross Triumphant. It signifies the kingship of the Risen Christ over the entire world. The orb is divided into three parts to signify Jesus’ command to his disciples to spread the word to the ends of the earth. In recent years we have used a comma as our symbol, coming from Gracie Allen’s quote to husband George Burns, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.” We believe that God is still speaking, even today.
As for our worship service, we have communion the first Sunday of each month. The bread and cup are blessed and symbolize nourishing our spirit. Our general service begins with announcements, there is a children’s message, and then a call to worship. We say a prayer for all the people. During parts of the service our wonderful choir matches hymns and songs to what our theme is for that particular Sunday. Even our altar is choreographed to the Sunday’s theme. My sermon is usually focused on the scripture using the Old and the New Testament; always seeking to make the stories of scripture come alive, make them relevant for our lives today.
Q: Does a central or regional church govern you?
A: No, we strongly believe that each church is autonomous. They make decisions as a congregation on how they want to govern themselves, what kind of ministries and mission they want to be involved in, even how they will worship and what they believe. We do covenant to work with other churches in our region, the Southwest Conference, but neither the national church nor our regional body speaks for us. As a congregation we decided at our very first worship service that if we expected our members to tithe, than the church must tithe as well — so we do give 10 percent of our budget to our regional body.
Q: How do you reach out for new members?
A: Word of mouth is always the best way to reach out to people. Our goal is to have strong programs that fit people’s needs while also appealing to a broad base of independent thinkers. We recognize the diversity in human nature to be part of God’s creation and are committed to being inclusive of all persons regardless of age, race, gender, cultural background, sexual orientation, gender identity, political affiliation, etc. In fact, we did a very intense study program this year to educate ourselves on diversity and actually voted on an Open and Affirming statement that states our openness as a congregation.
Q: Is there anything special that Good Shepherd does in the Green Valley community?
A: It is hard to pick out just one. We are very proud of our Sahuarita Community Justice Board that meets at the church. It is a great program organized with the Pima County Attorney’s office that reaches out to young people who have gotten in trouble with the law. They admit their offense and want to work to make amends with the community.
We also feel very good about our work on the border with migrants. As people of faith we believe we are all migrants, and that all people should be treated with dignity and respect. We have helped start two of the migrant humanitarian groups, Humane Borders and Samaritans. We look forward to the day that immigration reform can be put in place and root causes can be addressed.
Q: Does the Good Shepherd church relate to issues that are particular to the older demographics of Green Valley?
A: Yes, we have a number of support groups including a Good Grief Group, an occasional Care Givers Support group, and a Care Committee that reaches out to the homebound and hospitalized. In addition, we have forums and talks that address issues regarding Living Wills, end of life decisions etc. This past year we even had a forum called, “Finishing Well: Living with Terminal Illness” by the Rev. Hal Fray, a retired pastor in our congregation who has terminal cancer.
Q: What is on your night stand?
A: “Three Cups of Tea,” by Greg Mortenson and a whole lot of magazines and newspapers.
Mary Ann Linforth is a Green Valley freelance writer. Contact her at maryannlinforth@aol.com.
His comments:
We pride ourselves that our story as a church is the nation’s story. We are people of the Mayflower, more than 600 of our 5,700 churches were founded before 1776. Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of the United Church of Christ predecessor bodies.
We have a long history as a denomination of engaging in public and sometimes controversial ministries. In fact, our first churches were called “Meeting Houses,” because that is where the community gathered to discuss community issues as well as worship.
From the Pilgrims who left the persecution of the Old World to have freedom of religion in the New World, to inspiring the first act of civil disobedience in U.S. history-the “Boston Tea Party” we have been a people that have engaged our faith in the public square.
In addition, we were the first mainline church to ordain an African-American (1785), a woman (1853) and an openly gay pastor (1972). We take seriously the idea that “God is Still Speaking” and we need to listen.
So it is probably no surprise that we have been a leader on the borderlands in speaking up for our migrant sisters and brothers as well as providing Humanitarian Aid to people in need. It is probably no coincidence that the controversial pastor the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is a United Church of Christ minister.
We strongly believe in the freedom of the pulpit and we affirm the individual conscience of our members to agree, disagree and wrestle with life’s biggest questions in a spirit of love.
A: Yes, we are a church that is always looking outward. We are involved with the Community Food Bank, Green Valley Assistance Services, the Sahuarita S.T.O.P. Committee, Borderlinks, Humane Borders, and we are the host church for the GV/Sahuarita Samaritans. We also have become active in KIVA, a group that gives loans throughout the world.
Additionally, we sponsor Boy Scout Troop #301, provide space for Alcoholics Anonymous, the Sahuarita Community Justice Board and a whole lot more.
As for our worship service, we have communion the first Sunday of each month. The bread and cup are blessed and symbolize nourishing our spirit. Our general service begins with announcements, there is a children’s message, and then a call to worship. We say a prayer for all the people. During parts of the service our wonderful choir matches hymns and songs to what our theme is for that particular Sunday. Even our altar is choreographed to the Sunday’s theme. My sermon is usually focused on the scripture using the Old and the New Testament; always seeking to make the stories of scripture come alive, make them relevant for our lives today.
We also feel very good about our work on the border with migrants. As people of faith we believe we are all migrants, and that all people should be treated with dignity and respect. We have helped start two of the migrant humanitarian groups, Humane Borders and Samaritans. We look forward to the day that immigration reform can be put in place and root causes can be addressed.
Mary Ann Linforth is a Green Valley freelance writer. Contact her at maryannlinforth@aol.com.
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