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Acting conference minister introduces himself

Every number has a name. Every name has a story. Every story is worthy of celebration.

Phil Hodson - Acting Conference Minister

As you come to know me, you’ll hear these words come out of my mouth with regularity, so I thought in this time of introduction to flesh them out a little bit by telling you why I believe they matter. To me. To you. To the Pacific Northwest Conference and to the United Church of Christ.

I first started using that phrase 11 years ago, when I was a United Methodist pastor charged with planting a new congregation in a military town that already had seven UMC congregations.

The task was simple: start a new church targeting young families with children in a community where the average age of a congregant was 68 but the average age of a citizen was 34.

In three years, my spouse Joelle and I, along with our infant son Xane and his 3-year-old brother Xander, grew a congregation that started meeting on a golf course into a two building campaign community of 125 adults, average age 31, and 55 kids, average age 4.

In growing the congregation, we met people where they were and built an experience to connect with their technological styles and musical tastes. We featured loud rock music, used environmental projection technology in the worship space, and tried unconventional preaching and teaching styles. The average sermon was 40 minutes long in line with the evangelical background of many folks, In doing this, the church resonated with the community we sought to engage. It became their church.

Phil and Joelle Hodson with Xander, Xane, Xackary and Xavier.                                  Photo courtesy of Phil Hodson

It also contained a multi-racial, 85 percent active duty military coalition that was heavy on officers and their families and largely LGTBTQIA+, in which we proclaimed that God is love and the gospel is an invitation to a reality where “everyone is welcome, seriously, everyone.”

We met our community where they were and utilized the medium that resonated with them—see technology, rock-n-roll above—to share a message that knows no boundaries. We baptized babies, shared in discipleship experiences with folks from multiple and no faith backgrounds, blessed same-gendered relationships—don’t tell the Methodists, please—and walked with community members through addiction, PTSD and suicide attempts.

We were part of the good that God was doing in the transformation of hearts and lives.

I don’t offer these experiences as boasting or puffery, simply as a means of understanding how my mind and heart work, because while these remain my guiding principles in life and faith, the Methodists were less than enthused and, one day, invited me to leave the church that we founded because they deemed my faith to be so inclusive as to be heretical.

Then my phone rang. On the other end was a voice I’d never heard before, but a name I quickly recognized: “Phil, you don’t know me, but I’ve known you your entire life. My name is Alan Miller. I’m an old friend of your parents, a conference minister in the United Church of Christ, and I hear you think Jesus was a liberal.”

I was literally packing up my office that morning and had nothing left to lose, so in a moment of pure honesty I simply replied, “Yes, I do.”

Alan said, “So do I. Have you ever thought about joining the United Church of Christ? We could use someone with your particular skillset.”

In that moment I was offered the grace and new life I had promised others was theirs for the taking. It was an absolute revelation, my own lived reality that nothing is impossible with the help of God.

I came into the UCC as a Wesleyan entering into Calvinist pulpits and was called to two congregations in Wichita, Kansas, in 2017. Over our time together, these two became one, grew 40 percent by focusing on their specific demographic niche in their ministry context—progressive Christians 50 to 65. We built a digital production studio, and moved into a new building as COVID laid waste to our ability to gather together in-person.

Pastoring this community through the darkest days of the pandemic, through the murder of George Floyd, and political tumult, further strengthened my conviction that the gospel is for everyone and that the gospel is not just words we hear or say, but words we must embody with our very lives and the whole of our being every single day because nothing is impossible with the help of God.

My paternal grandfather was a United Methodist pastor.

When I was in seminary he told me, “Son, when you go into a church do the following: Set goals for your ministry. When you’ve achieved those goals ask God for new goals. If no new goals are discerned, it’s time to move on to the next task God has for you.”

Those words came back to me in the fall of 2020, as I came to see that we had accomplished what we were called to do in Wichita and I asked for new direction.

That direction came through my conference minister, who advised that it was time for me to consider the work of conference ministry, where I could engage my passions and administrative mind to be part of blessing others in the ways that I’ve found blessing in my own ministry.

That led to my time as conference minister in the South Central Conference of the UCC (Texas and Louisiana).

We sold our home in Kansas, packed our family into a 300-square-foot travel trailer, and set out for adventures on the Gulf Coast as we learned about this new community of faith.

In our time there, the conference became open & affirming, launched two church plants and grew numerically. We balanced a budget that had experienced a 20-year deficit and we let go of long-held property that was cherished.

There was joy and pain in this movement toward new life, and I am thankful for it. I’m thankful for the lives changed, for the ministries invigorated, for the churches that experienced resurrection because nothing is impossible with the help of God.

In every season of our ministry, we should be learning. Opening our minds and hearts to new revelation. Yes, I’m an evangelical liberal Christian which is why I speak and write this way and likely also why my sermons average 40 minutes.

I’m most thankful for what I’ve learned about myself in this most recent season: That I am called to interim ministry. To walk alongside a body for a season and do the hard work that no settled pastor should have to endure.

A settled pastor should come into a healthy organization that knows who God is calling them to be and is prepared to receive a partner in ministry in that grand undertaking.

An interim sets achievable goals, asks questions and moves a body through a process of transition that is tumultuous, sometimes painful and is the process by which our sacred story continues through every new generation to move once again from death to new life.

Which has led me to you in this moment.

It is my fervent hope that, during this season together, we will work to set goals for who the Pacific Northwest Conference is called to become, with God’s help.

That we will grieve our losses and celebrate the great things God is doing in our midst.

That we will reimagine ministry in this unique context—the least churched in the nation—to offer a voice in the wilderness that is unendingly hopeful, radically inclusive and unapologetically counter in the pews to the culture we see in the news.

All of this so that we can come to a place of celebration together and call that next conference minister who will walk alongside you as partner in ministry for the full living of these important decisions. Because nothing is impossible with the help of God.

In this season we have together, I will be inviting the Conference Board of Directors to consider the following questions, which I also invite you to consider in your own context:

What is our purpose? What is our plan? So that? … What is the outcome we endeavor to seek that we can celebrate together? What role will each participant play in shaping this new reality?

Which takes me back to the beginning.

Every number has a name. Every name has a story. Every story is worthy of celebration.

Now you know a bit of my story. I want to know yours. You can connect with me by making an appointment via Zoom or phone through my Calendly page.

I invite pastors, laity, congregations, search committees, leadership teams, all of you, to engage me as resource, coach, cheerleader and conversation partner. We won’t agree on everything, which is totally cool.

Take what blesses you and leave the rest. Because I believe our best days, with God’s help, lie ahead.

Blessings - Phil Hodson

 

Pacific Northwest United Church of Christ Conference News © April 2024

 

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