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CCD took a bold step during its meeting in Spokane. While continuing to fund more new church starts than
ever before (current funding extends to six new church starts), church revitalization has been moved to the other
"front burner." Based on a proposal submitted by the Rev. Terry L. Bascom, the division approved major funding for
the revitalization of Grace United Congregational Church in Farmington, CT.
Grace United was selected after significant research identified the church as a revitalization candidate. It is
located in a stable and growing community with positive demographic change. The buildings are adequate and located
on a major road. Most importantly, the small congregation is not "willing to change"_ they are eager for change.
Their first "change" will come as the Rev. Bascom becomes the church's first full time pastor in a number of years.
 Grace United is located a few miles from Hartford Seminary. Several of the seminary's
faculty are involved in church revitalization research—including Carl Dudley, Speed Leas
and David Roozen. Dr. Roozen is currently doing research on a project titled, "Organizing
Religious Work," which is a study of emerging forms of partnership among congregations,
denominations, and other religious organizations at local, regional, and national levels. The
new three-way partnership between CCD, Grace United and Rev. Bascom may find its way
into such research as Rev. Bascom is entering Hartford's DMin. program and will gain access
to the seminary's faculty and church life resources.
The goals of this partnership are:
· To restore a fading church to community influence and organizational vitality
· To map out a duplicable methodology of revitalizing and restarting churches
· To test and refine the component tools of the methodology
· To identify and articulate a framework for teaching others how to use this methodology in their own settings
· To articulate a cost-effective way to employ CCD funds in the revitalization of individual
NACCC churches and, consequentially, the Association.
In his proposal, the Rev. Bascom writes; "I believe the church of the future will house multiple worship
services, each targeted toward a specific interest group (or `niche')—the way we now provide multiple discussion
groups and Bible studies focused on different populations (such as working women, young fathers, or the recently
divorced or bereaved).
"My goal is to produce a `turnkey' system for church renewal, revitalization and restart. The ability to open
one manual and find everything needed—from survey instruments to detailed leader's guides and scripts, to
interpretive aids… The specific
solutions each church arrives at will be unique to that church, but the
methodology will be repeatable. A process that can be duplicated …can free church leaders and clergy from frustrating work
experiences, and produce…a more satisfying church work experiences for everyone."
CCD is excited about the possibilities of this three to four year revitalization project and the revitalization
model that will emerge. Moreover, we are thankful for the financial contributions from our NA church membership
which enabled its beginning and will, we trust, sustain this revitalization effort to completion.
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