But in many churches, we find pastors willing to be coached, willing to defend their congregation from external aggressors and internal malcontents, and willing to muster enough courage to stand up in order to protect and preserve the integrity, the heritage, and the health of their church. And what always happens when they do this is they empower a host of allies in their church who come to the aid of their pastor and their congregation, and who help silence, remove, or defeat those intent on destruction or disaffiliation.

Rev. Dan Wilson, pastor of Ivy Chapel United Church of Christ in Chesterfield, MO is the perfect example of this. Last July, members of his church began to conspire to orchestrate an attack. Remembering a pamphlet we circulated two years earlier that listed the early warning signs of an attack, and a request to involve the Conference Office as soon as any of the early signs were detected, Dan called my office asking for advice about how to deal with the attack.

Members of his church, including one man on the Council of the church, had been having clandestine meetings and talking about resolutions to bring to the council, who would then call for a vote of the entire church. Dan was able to name the attack, and the men involved. He was coached to do a number of things, each of which he did: name to the council the players involved; name this as an attack on their church; stand in the pulpit and talk about his clear commitment to the United Church of Christ, its mission and vision; and state with the clearest possible conviction that if this congregation ever votes to leave the UCC, the church of his heart, they would have to find a new pastor.

The reaction was immediate. I remember Dan's wife calling me the day after he preached that sermon. She asked what I told him - that she had never seen him speak that way before. She was so proud of him. Almost as one, members of the church and the council voiced their support of Dan and his ministry, and their full support of the denomination.

Rick Meyer is the pastor of Carondolet UCC in South St. Louis city. I have been to his church a number of times in the past year to help him as his church has been under attack. Rick is another great example of a pastor willing to do whatever it takes to protect his church. Rick is in constant conversation with our office about the actions and machinations of those members who have threatened to remove him and remove the church. He has responded to every invitation we have offered him to defend his church.

At the end of last summer, Rick was getting a number of harassing phone calls from one particularly abusive member of his church, who was also working behind the scenes to stir up controversy among the members of the church around the UCC's openness to homosexuals. Rick was sick about this, and at a loss as to what to do. He was coached to name the behavior at the next Council meeting. As this man was on the Council, it would mean doing that with him present. He was coached to speak out loud the nature of the abuse he was receiving at the hands of this man, and to say to him in front of all the others that while he might not like what the pastor thinks or says, that kind of abuse would never be tolerated in this church. Rick won the immediate support of his council, and so enraged the gentleman that he resigned his membership on the spot and left the church.

Dan and Rick are both humble, gentle, quiet spirits. They are pastors in the fullest sense of the word. Entering the fray of battle and conflict is not something they do with ease, with comfort, or with any kind of bravado. Doing this kind of work causes them great stress and anxiety - it takes them far out of their comfort zones.

But when asked to stand up and defend their churches, they did it without hesitation. I know how incredibly difficult that was for them, but they counted not the cost to their own psyche and soul and spirit. Their love for their church, and for the integrity of the congregation they were called to serve, compelled them to honor their baptismal vows and ordination promises by standing in the fray in order to protect their church. In both cases, they did it not knowing who stood by them or what the result would be. And in both cases they were relieved to know that they had a good deal of support; that their members were proud of them for doing so; and that they had empowered others join them in the defense of their church.

One last word about this: both of these churches quieted down for some months after this initial attack. Both churches in recent days have reported new attacks. Both pastors have returned to my office to report the attacks, and both have been coached again on strategies to defend their church. When does this end?

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