Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Century of Church

 This summer, I had the extraordinary privilege of preaching my way through 100 years of the United Church of Canada. Ten sermons. Ten decades. Ten stories of courage, creativity, justice, and grace. It felt less like writing a series and more like walking a pilgrimage, stepping into the footprints of those who came before us while daring to imagine the road ahead.

I cannot overstate my pride in being a minister in this denomination. Proud that we were born from a bold vision of unity. Proud that we have faced hard questions about justice and reconciliation and refused to look away. Proud that we have stood with the marginalized, opened our doors wider, and proclaimed a Gospel that actually looks like good news. This is not a church content with comfort or nostalgia. It is a church that chooses, again and again, to risk love in a complicated world.

Preaching through our history taught me more than I expected. Each decade reminded me that the Spirit has always been restless in our midst. In the dust and despair of the 1930s. In the upheavals of the 1960s. In the cries for marriage equality in the 2000s. And in the voices today calling us toward reconciliation, climate justice, and radical inclusion. I finished the series with my heart burning, grateful, humbled, and more committed than ever to this church I call home.

That fire was fanned again when I served as a chaplain volunteer at General Council. To sit in the room where our church makes decisions, to walk alongside commissioners in prayer and care, to witness the passion of youth and elders alike renewed my faith that the United Church is alive and daring enough to keep listening to God’s call. What I saw there was not bureaucracy or decline. It was hope. Real, Spirit-drenched hope.

The other morning I sat in my big comfy chair with my coffee cup in hand, steam rising into the late summer light. I felt a deep sense of gratitude wash over me. Gratitude for those who dreamed this church into being. I am grateful that I get to stand in a pulpit shaped by their vision. Gratitude that my own daughter’s generation will inherit a church that is still growing, still questioning, still reaching toward God’s dream of justice and love.

I do not take lightly the call to ministry in this denomination. It is the honour of my life to serve a church that is not perfect but is still brave enough to try. To be part of a community that insists God’s love is for everyone. To tell and retell the story of a church that is not finished, because God is not finished with us yet.

I am proud to be a United Church minister. Proud to be one voice in this 100-year-old choir. Proud to stand in a pulpit that not only looks back with gratitude but forward with courage. And proud to say, with all my heart, that the best is still to come.

With bittersweetness, I find myself a little sad that this summer series has come to an end. Yet there is so much joy as I look ahead to the fall, when our whole congregation will gather back from summer travels and routines to begin a new season together. To mark this milestone, I will be publishing a booklet of the ten sermons, a way of holding this journey in our hands and remembering the gift of being part of a story that continues to unfold. 

Blessings 

Rev. Kim 

Comments

  1. DianeAugust 28, 2025 at 6:54 PM

    Kim, you have a big heart and care for each and every member of our church. We are as lucky to have you as our pastor as you are to have us as your Followers
    God bless, Diane Roberts

    ReplyDelete

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