Just In Time - A Reflection from SCNC UCC Conference Minister Rev. Rachael Pryor

In November 2024, I had an unexpected conversation with a long-time UCC colleague, the Rev. Dr. Courtney Stange-Tregear, who just began her term this month as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the Disciples Church Extension Fund. This is a well-earned honor and comes as no surprise to those who, like me, have crossed paths with Courtney in a variety of church spaces over the years. Her previous position was with the Cornerstone Fund; and as I write this reflection, I am in Denver for my first meeting as I join the Fund’s Board of Directors.

A year and half ago, I was a still-new Conference Minister in the Southern California Nevada Conference (SCNC), and Courtney was Vice President and Chief Relationship Officer at Cornerstone. She was in the final stages of building what would become the Cornerstone Fund’s new Disaster Care Investment and Loan Program, and the SCNC was her first contact because we hold the dubious honor of being the “most disaster-prone Conference,” according to the metrics of insurance and natural disaster statistics. “Would you be interested in seeding this new fund?” she asked. She was looking for 10 Conferences to pledge $100,000 each, accepting a slightly lower rate of return in order to finance affordable disaster recovery loans that would help churches bridge the gap between insurance coverage and actual rebuilding costs.

“How about a million dollars?” I countered.

The SCNC had recently become the recipient of a generous legacy gift from Community Congregational Church of Pacific Beach, through the sale of their property at the close of their ministry. Becoming the founding investor for this fund seemed like a bold way to honor this legacy with a clear commitment to environmental justice and support for churches in need, whenever and wherever that might be.

We could never have imagined that, two short months later, greater Los Angeles would be facing one of the biggest wildfire disasters in recent history. Along with dozens of other houses of worship, our beautiful Altadena Community Church burned to the ground. Members lost their homes or suffered severe toxic damage due to smoke and ash. The entire city will never be the same. Thanks to the Insurance Board of the UCC, along with generous donations from partners around the globe, Altadena Community Church will rebuild and continue their ministry in new ways. The Conference is able to provide significant funding for a new pastor to help a church in Altadena rebuild because of the legacy of a sister church in Pacific Beach.

In the season of Lent, we make room for the grief and the blessing of our mortality, reminding ourselves of this gift with a cross of ash. Like humans, our churches are not immortal. What is a church, but a gathering of people in the name of Christ, seeking to follow his teachings and practice love and justice in, with, and for the community? As people change, as communities change, churches must change, too. The Church itself lives on, renewing and rebirthing, to serve communities in vibrant and dynamic ways. But individual church buildings outgrow their purpose; and the particular grouping of Christians which we call “congregations” are changing all the time as members are born and die, move in or move away, join or depart.

There is a part of our hearts that breaks a little bit every time a church closes. But we remind ourselves that these physical spaces alone are not truly the Church. Many of our congregations are now in their second or third location and facility, having rebuilt over the centuries as the needs of the community shifted. We think back to the generations who founded our churches, and perhaps we are tempted to label church closings as “failures,” as if we have somehow fallen short in carrying forward the ministries they began.

But here we are, living through a time of unimaginable crises in our church and in the world. The models and methods that enabled us to serve as disciples of Jesus in the 1650s or 1850s are not the models that will work in 2050 – thanks be to God! The Church is thriving and growing in spaces where we are free to imagine new forms of ministry, outreach, and formation. Our seminaries are leading the way in experimentally preparing leaders for roles that have never existed before. And all of this is made possible as we reallocate and reinvest the careful stewardship built up over generations in our local congregations.

It is a challenging and often disheartening time to be in ministry. It is an exciting and innovative time. Above all, it is an uncertain and unpredictable time for the Church. But who knows? Maybe it was for such a time as this, that earlier generations gathered and tended the resources that will now support new life, rising from the ashes.

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Rev. Rachael Pryor serves as Conference Minister of the Southern California Nevada Conference, United Church of Christ. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is currently a student in the Doctor of Ministry program at Pacific School of Religion. Rachael has previously served in local churches and campus settings across multiple denominations, while also working in statewide interfaith legislative advocacy. Most recently, she served as an Associate Conference Minister in Kansas-Oklahoma and with the Tri-Conference partnership in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. Rachael and her spouse live in Ventura, CA with their four young children and two cats.