Why Parkway? I think there were two reasons. This is only speculation (unfortunately, the attackers are never available to interview after such an event occurs), but it is founded on some pretty good instincts.

The first reason is that the Pastor of almost twenty years was soon to retire. It has become apparent that in the UCC, times of pastoral transition are viewed as prime time for attack. An average pastoral search takes over 18 months, and infiltration can proceed at a pretty rapid pace during the time after which a pastor announces his retirement/resignation and before which a new pastor arrives. This is viewed as a vulnerable time in the life of a church, and an opportunity for new leaders and voices to emerge to help redefine the life and mission of a church.

The second reason, I believe, is that our Conference Minister was a member at that church. It is my contention that they wanted this church in order to brag that they took out the church of the Missouri Mid-South Conference Minister - what a recruiting boon that would be.

Here is what happened in the two years prior to my arrival that prepared this church for a takeover.

A key lay person arrived on the scene from a church which had already left the UCC some five years earlier (a fact he did not disclose to the membership of the church. I know this because I had the current pastor and secretary check the membership rolls to see from which church he transferred his membership: none was listed), and whose pastor is one of the key leaders in the takeover movement throughout the Midwest.

Within a year of his arrival, he was elected to the church council. A year later he was made vice-president of the Council, a position that meant he was also chair of the personnel committee.

Here is what happened during his brief two and a half year stint on the council:
·    A motion was passed through the Council saying that in the search for a new pastor, if a suitable one could not be found then it was permissible to look outside the UCC for a pastor (this was in clear violation of their by-laws).
·    A motion was passed saying that human sexuality was inappropriate subject matter for even adults to study at Parkway UCC (an Eden Seminary professor who was a member of the church was teaching such a class at the time, and was therefore asked to desist such teaching).
·    The Music Director, an ordained UCC minister and lesbian woman - extremely talented and deeply loved, was forced to resign her position because of what she perceived to be a climate in which she no longer felt safe.
·    The Associate Pastor, who had served the church for over eight years, was called home from her sabbatical in Central America by the Chair of the Personnel Committee (the operative sent in to lead this attack) after less than a month because he had deemed her mission work in Central America not to be worthy of a sabbatical. She had to cut her trip short by almost 2 months, and return home with now no plans for her sabbatical. Because of that, the same Chair told her since she was now doing nothing, she should come back to the church and continue her work, thereby completely aborting her sabbatical. Shortly thereafter, she resigned. (Thus, within two years of this man's arrival, the entire pastoral staff was gone).
·    A resolution, passed by the Council, and presented to the congregation in May of 2003 at their annual meeting, called for the church to support a request to ban homosexuals from serving in the Boy Scouts.

This is where things began to change. All of this occurred in a fairly short period of time, and much of this was going on under the radar - in other words, the full membership of the church was somewhat oblivious. But some things can't be ignored: when the Senior Pastor announced his retirement; then the Associate Pastor announced her resignation; then a much loved seminary professor is forced to leave and join another church because the council is censoring his material; and a month later the music director announced her resignation saying she no longer felt safe there - people began to ask questions and demand answers.

It was at about this time that I arrived on the scene in the St. Louis office and was able to name for them some of what was going on. This is not to suggest in any way that I played a key role in helping to save this church from takeover - that is simply not the case. I did provide some information to help contextualize what was happening in their church. But it was some very strong lay leaders who rose up and stopped this from progressing any further.

The key moment occurred at the Annual Meeting. The Boy Scout resolution was put on the floor for discussion when a gentleman stood up and forcefully announced that this was not the kind of church Parkway had ever been, and in his opinion never should be. He named the things that were going on, and there was almost universal recognition of the dynamic. The vote that followed made it unmistakably clear that the informed membership of this church was not going to tolerate any further attacks.

The resolution went down to almost universal defeat. One of the minions of the attack was also defeated in her reelection to the council. As the meeting closed, she was seen leaving the church announcing that she would not return - and she has not. The gentleman who had come in two years earlier to lead the attack saw the handwriting on the wall: he left the very same day and has not returned.

In November of 2003, Redeemer UCC in south St. Louis voted to leave the United Church of Christ. By November, Parkway in West County St. Louis had reaffirmed its strong history and commitment to the UCC. What happened in both churches, attacked at the same time and in roughly the same area, gave us a lot of information about the dynamics of a takeover. Parkway serves as an example of the role of key lay leaders in an attack standing up and reclaiming the right to hold on to their history and heritage. That remains to this day one of the most significant elements in protecting a church from a hostile takeover.