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Date: 2/19/2020
EAST LONGMEADOW – Reverend Carrie Bail sat in her office on the top floor of First Congregational Church, overlooking Center Square, surrounded by books and photos of her family and travels. She talked about her ideas for the future of the church and religion as a whole. While Bail is considered a “designated term pastor,” the title she has chosen for herself is “dreamer-in-chief.”
Trained in transitional ministry, Bail has worked at six different churches during her career. She said she grew up in the church, but left for about 10 years. Bail said she found her way back, was ordained in 1987 and began her career in a small church in Hawaii.
This isn’t the reverend’s first time in East Longmeadow. Bail served as interim pastor in town in the spring of 2014 and stayed for about a year–and–a–half. She then worked in a three–year interim position in Vermont while her husband taught at the University of Vermont.
After her husband retired, the couple planned to move to their home in the Berkshires, but when he suffered a stroke, the couple realized their home was too far from medical staff and institutions.
Bail saw that the First Congregational Church had an interim position open again, and decided to take it. The job included a house and was closer to medical resources for her husband. The part–time hours are also advantageous.
“It’s an interesting time in the ministry,” Bail said. “Many of us believe that something new is being born out of it. Exactly what it will look like, no one can say.” In her role as dreamer–in–chief, Bail wants to invite people to dream about what the church could become. That process requires asking some hard questions.
“One question is what we do with our buildings?” Bail said, noting many churches have too much property to maintain. Another question she said the church has to ask is, “Are there other activities we can do to attract [new members]?”
She said they could also look at moving service times, using different music or language, and ways to emphasize mission and make worship less of a focus.
During Bail’s three–year contract, she said, her task is either to bring in new people, to enter into a conversation with another church to consolidate and save on overhead or become a “Legacy Church,” and essentially close.
“Hopefully by the end of three years, one of those options will become apparent,” Bail said.
The United Church of Christ is independent in terms of the decisions made, the reverend said. There are no Bishops or hierarchy and the church is owned by the parish.
“We are only a church as long as we are members of the church,” Bail said.
She called the church “a vital part of this community since 1829,” and said the members are what make it special. “They're just really good people. They have a heart for mission.”
Bail described how the parish has partnered with the Kensington School in Springfield, which has many refugee children. She said the people donate groceries, hats and mittens and backpacks and helped to open a food pantry in the school.
The parish also participates in the Loaves and Fishes program, in which they serve once a month at the Springfield Congregational Church.
The First Congregational Church only sees between 70 and 80 worshipers on a Sunday, Bail said. There is also an issue of the congregation aging without younger members joining. She said it is a problem not limited to their church, or even East Longmeadow.
“Mainstream churches aren’t growing,” Bail lamented, and wondered, “Are people doing their spiritual seeking on the internet? Are people simply too busy with working two jobs?”
Bail said Springfield once had about half a dozen churches in the United Church of Christ’s denomination. There are three left open, she said and added that while people have a need to give and share with their community, “these institutions have worked for 200 years are no longer working.”
The United Church of Christ has a large educational workshop scheduled in March that will take place at Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham. Bail plans to source ideas from the other attendees.
“I’m hoping to form a team to figure out how to move forward,” said Bail.
Bail said Christianity has always reinvented itself. She quoted author and religion professor Phyllis Tickle as saying “about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale.” Bail said it’s been about 500 years since the Protestant Reformation.
Whichever path the church follows, Bail said, “to reinforce what it means to have faith is to say that I know that I believe in a God who has come to us to tell us to believe in love.”