"The Dishonest Church"

Taken from the article by Lynda Zimmer in The News Gazette Friday, October, 31 2003.

Members of the Comunity UCC are proud to have copies of "The Dishonest Church" in their Champaign church library. The author is the Rev. A.J. "Jack" Good -- their pastor for 15 years, until his retirement in 2001. Several members of the congregation have donated copies of it to the church library, which is named for Good.

The title has nothing to do with criminal dereliction. A synopsis explains: "Two distinct styles of faith characterize the mainline Protestant churches in the U.S. One is the faith of the academy, theologically informed but arid and intellectual. The other is popular Christianity, an energetic mixture of tradition and superstition that provides fellowship and comfort, but cannot answer the challenges posed by historical and scientific knowledge. Mainline pastors tend to hold an academic faith, but, lest they scandalize the laity, preach a popular one. Meanwhile, those who seek a faith adequate to the modern world are silently disappearing from the pews." "People who are committed enough to remain in such churches are encouraged to move backward in their mental development and prodded into cognitive dissonance," Good wrote.

Early in his ministerial career, Good had the courage to be honest and start a sermon series with the theme "Things I Do NOT Believe." He wanted to encourage his New York congregation -- a group he described as "a typical slice of small-town middle America" -- to examine, then take ownership of their own beliefs. "I approached the series with anxiety that stopped just short of panic," Good wrote. "I would not greet the congregation following the service in the normal fashion but would, instead, station myself in a room near the sanctuary where anyone with questions, concerns, or anger could see me in relative privacy. I followed this procedure for three of the six Sundays in the series. No one sought me out."

Good disagrees with "liberal" and "conservative" labels on religion, preferring instead to talk about "a progressive style of faith" and "a popular style of faith." "Progressive Christianity results when the depth of acedmic faith is added to the energy of popular faith," he wrote.

In the book Good thanks members of two congregations with whom he has had extended relationships, United Church of Christ in Sherburne, N.Y., and CUCC in Champaign. "The people of these two quite different congregations consistently justified my faith in lay people. They encouraged me to encourage them to think new thoughts and envision their faith in creative ways."