I wanted to share with you that our resident "steeplejacker" decided to surface again and take another stab at his agenda at our annual meeting.

To fill you in, *** has been a clergykiller for decades...my predecessor  says she was persecuted by him for years and he tried multiple times to use "blackmail tactics" (her words) to get her fired or removed.  He has been just as persistent with me for over a decade. Though all pastors have been a target, the 2 females have been more so.  On top of all of his layers of prejudice against women, "colored people" and gays, he has a very strong anti-UCC agenda.  He claims he "never became UCC, he opposed the merger and stayed E & R."  So, he has been angry for over 50 years.  In 2005, after the Marriage Equality Act, he worked furiously to get us to pull out of the UCC but I stood firm against him and so did the leadership.  He surfaced again this January and started up the same agenda, but he now realizes he has to get me fired first.  It is all classic textbook stuff, as per your "Steeplejacker" book (yes, I did read it!  Thanks for your work!).  

** was bold enough to make the mistake of alerting the Conference Minister of his agenda at the beginning of January--only the part about getting me fired, he neglected to share with her his ongoing agenda to pull out of the UCC.  She notified me and I began an immediate plan of strategy with a very mobilized Consistory, an excellent Consistory President and a group of past Consistory presidents, and a strong base of supporters in the congregation.  Consistory President & I kept in contact with the Conference Minister and I notified the Church and Ministry Chair.  
I kept a timeline of "responses to dealing with a congregational abuser", in case you'd ever want to see it.  ** thought he could "win" with a secret phone campaign...but I know how to strategize too.

I think a very influential piece that lay people organized was to "visualize support"...they had an email campaign to ask supporters to wear red shirts to church on Sunday.  Of course many of them wore the red UCC God is Still Speaking shirts.  The sanctuary was a sea of red...and some supporters who didn't get "the memo" went home to change and others just held red UCC hymnals.  When *** walked in the door for the meeting (he never attends worship, just the meetings where he can fight), with his agenda to fire the pastor, fire the music director, denounce the Consistory leadership as "illegal", disputing their election (and next goal, pull the church out of the UCC)--it was clear that there was overwhelming support for me, the leadership and the denomination.  Might be a helpful thing to pass along to other churches in that situation--wear red in support, it has a powerful visualize impact.

Another important strategy was to require people to use a microphone to speak--no shouting from the pews.  We had 224 in attendance, the most ** could muster was about 25 people (including inactives who had not been to church in the 11+ years I've served).   In short, the "red shirts" stood to speak in support of our ministry and passed the budget.  Consistory President asked at the beginning of the meeting, and after the budget vote, for other agenda items to be presented, but ** did not speak up.  

The Consistory President spent about 5 minutes urging people to come forward with their comments, questions, suggestions, anything they were mad or unhappy about.  ** did not come forward, or anyone else from his group.  He sat in the back pews and spewed nasty comments loud enough for others to hear, but he did not have the courage or honesty to stand up for his position and come forward to speak at the mic.  Just before the meeting closed, a "red shirt" stood and spoke in support of me and the congregation gave a standing ovation (except for *** and his small group).  The "red shirt" spoke in support of the music director and said "we are UCC" and again there was a standing ovation, then meeting adjourned.  

*** snarled "ra ra" and stormed out, and I am sure will continue his campaign behind the scenes, because that is the only place he has power.  He is not smart enough to know about the IRD, but he is deluded enough to think that as a long-time insurance salesman in town he has enough support to "take back his church" (his words).  A sweet little old lady called me to tell me that after the meeting she saw *** on the sidewalk still spewing nasty comments and another little old lady walked up to him and shook a finger in his face and said "we don't want to listen to anything you have to say anymore!"  

The meeting was a watershed moment for the congregation, I think, because for years they have tolerated congregational bullies at the meetings and "the sane rational people" simply stayed away and others just shrugged off **'s constant negative debate.  This time, however, they decided to stand up to him and to strategize and to show support for the church.  So, as much as I will continue to be under personalized attack from **, I think the laity have seen what power they have to be a positive strength against those who would divide.  And the meeting gave a good dose of momentum to folks in the pews to step up and show support by increasing giving and supporting programs with volunteering and visioning.  In a way, ****'s efforts had the opposite effect he intended;  he stirred up the people to work in support of the pastor/leadership/church/UCC, not against.