I have long been an advocate for the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the life of the Christian church, and have been privileged to be a part of three Open and Affirming (ONA) congregations in the United Church of Christ (UCC):
- Naples United Church of Christ – Naples, FL
- Fort Myers Congregational United Church of Christ – Ft. Myers, FL
- Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ – Dallas, TX
Note: According to the denomination: ONA is the UCC’s designation for congregations, campus ministries, and other bodies in the UCC which make a public covenant of welcome into their full life and ministry to persons of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions.
New Research
In November 2019, the UCC Center for Analytics, Research and Data published a brief report showing that the denomination’s ONA congregations outperformed all congregations in the categories typically associated with measuring congregational performance:
- average membership: +31.2%
- average worship attendance: +32.7%
- total local church budget: ONA congregations significantly outperformed all congregations (this statistic was shown for each percentile – at the 50th percentile all congregations had an average of $112,604, ONA congregations had an average income of $205,425, and non-ONA congregations had an average income of $82,955)
While the above focuses on comparison at a point in time (2018), the report also provided data from 2014. From the period of 2014 to 2018 ONA congregations grew from 24% to 31% of all congregations, and had more positive trends in average membership and average worship attendance.
So What?
In the United Church of Christ, congregations and other ministry settings choose to become ONA. I’m thankful that more than 1,500 congregations have chosen to become ONA, and certain that the number will continue to grow.
I’d welcome hearing about your experiences in open and affirming congregations in the United Church of Christ or in other Mainline Protestant denominations. And, I welcome your thoughts as to why you think these congregations – at least in the UCC – seem to outperform non-ONA congregations.