Weekly Bulletin
Introducing
Reverend David Denoon
Candidate for Senior Minister of
The First Congregational Church of Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
December, 2007
To the Members of the First Congregational Church
of Evanston:
This brochure, prepared by the FCCE Search Team, introduces with joy the Rev. David Denoon, our enthusiastic selection to serve as the next Senior Minister for our congregation, beginning February 1, 2008. It also includes a brief description of our pastoral search process.
Our Transition and Search Process
Our search for a new senior pastor began with the work of the Transition Team in 2006 and early 2007. Under the guidance of Interim Minister Jim Roghair, this team conducted numerous small-group meetings with members to investigate the characteristics that define us as a faith community and develop a set of goals for church action. The comprehensive report of the transition team was released in early 2007.
The twelve members of the Pastoral Search team were elected during the church Annual Meeting on January 28th, 2007. Our team immediately began work on a detailed church profile to supplement and enhance the work of the Transition Team. The team conducted a survey of our theological beliefs and the demographics of our congregation as part of this process. We also defined the characteristics desired by the congregation in its next senior minister. We sought applicants with effective preaching skills, an ability to work effectively with children and youth, an understanding of the importance of music to our congregation, administrative and leadership skills, and a proven track record with church financial management.
We received over 40 profiles from candidates interested in our position. Each was reviewed carefully by the team and discussed during our meetings. We then narrowed the field to six semifinalists. Small groups of team members had preliminary interviews with those candidates and visited the ministers’ home churches to hear them preach. Four finalists were then invited to Evanston for in-depth personal interviews with the full Search Team. At the conclusion of this process, Rev. David Denoon emerged as our overwhelming and unequivocal choice.
Our Emphatic Recommendation
David learned about the pastoral opportunity at our church when, during the process of revising his pastoral profile, he saw our listing in The Christian Century and The United Church News. Having worked at First Congregational Church of Evanston from 1991 to 1993 as church secretary and having been ordained in our sanctuary, he had many happy memories of our church and its membership.
Though was not actively seeking a new position at the time, David gave our opportunity prayerful consideration and decided to send us his profile. As he puts it, “I have found that the Spirit sometimes blows unexpectedly. Having a history with your congregation with many happy memories, I decided to submit my credentials for you to consider.”
From the start, David’s profile excited and impressed us. His intellect, creativity and obvious high energy sparked our interest. Team members who visited his home church in Burlington, Wisconsin were impressed with his virtuosity as a speaker that combines both a lively spontaneity with an ability to connect closely with individual worshippers. We were impressed by his breadth of knowledge and obviously deep spirituality. His wit and theatricality, together with a heartwarming gift for engaging young children, endeared him to all of us.
Our review of his sermons on the Plymouth church website as well as his blog entries (David was our only pastoral candidate who has his own blog) only enhanced our enthusiasm for this candidate. Throughout this process we have been consistently impressed by Rev. Denoon’s spiritual depth, dynamic presence, and commitment to expressing faith through action in the church, the community and world.
A Biographical Overview
David Denoon is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ who has served several churches -- including ours -- in various capacities over the past twenty-five years. He began his first pastorate while still in college.
Dave grew up in Baltimore, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Evansville, Indiana. He attended the University of Evansville, graduating Cum Laude in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Pre-Ministry. He then came to the Chicago area where he attended Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, graduating with a Master of Divinity degree in 1991. It was at that time that David first became acquainted with the First Congregational Church of Evanston.
From 1991 to 1993, Dave served as our church secretary, working closely with Interim Pastor Nan Conser during the search process that ultimately led to the call of Ted Miller. In 1993, Dave completed his In-Care process with the Chicago Metropolitan Association (CMA) of the UCC, and was ordained on Father’s Day in the sanctuary of our church.
Dave’s early work included an affiliation with Young Christians for Global Justice and the formation of the University Christian Ministry at the University of Evansville. While in seminary, he served as an assistant house manager for Chicago House and Social Service Agency, a residence program for persons with AIDS.
Most recently, as Pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church of Burlington, Wisconsin, David has led a mission to recover housing for mentally ill area residents who lost their group home to a luxury condominium development. After five years, that effort will soon come to fruition with the construction of the Meadow Haven Group Home, scheduled to be completed in early 2008.
Dave considers his foremost achievement at Plymouth to be the congregation’s new understanding of Christian stewardship as generosity, and of Christian mission as the purpose of a church. Practical initiatives resulting of this new understanding have included the launch of an annual, free-to-the-public church dinner on Christmas Day and hosting a Burmese refugee family relocated to Burlington from a camp in Thailand.
Currently, David is composing a Bible survey entitled Step Into the Bible designed for pre-teens to adults.
Dave is married to Corinne Nisbett Denoon who works as a freelance stylist for advertising photo studios. Their fifteen month old daughter Gwendolyn is, in David’s words, “our greatest joy, and a force of nature in her own right.”
David’s Statement on Ministry:
“I began working in churches when I was still in college, in 1982. For two years, I served as the youth director of a church and for five years I worked as a church administration or as support staff. I have spent most of my time in pastoral ministry, leading people and tending to their spiritual needs, providing a face for churches in their communities, and administering staffs, offices, and handing the everyday life of churches with integrity and creativity.
I dearly love my work. The variety is constantly challenging and stimulating, and requires that I cultivate versatility and adaptability almost from moment to moment. Also, I know of no other profession in which people ask you to be with them at the extremes of joy and distress. And though it is the nature of the job of a pastor, I have always felt honored that the folk among whom I serve recognize in me someone whom they trust enough to share such times.
Beyond the expected roles of leadership and pastoral care, there are additional opportunities in pastoral ministry to be a teacher, researcher, spiritual director, and administrator. There are rarely enough hours in a week to do everything that needs doing while also being a responsible husband, father, family member, and friend, but I enjoy the challenge of making things fit... and I believe I succeed pretty well to ensure that no one feels neglected.
That said, I should state that I believe ministry is not only my job, but the work that the Church does. Pastoral ministry is the particular kind of ministry I engage. I help to maintain the general health and welfare of a church. I may enable a church’s ministry to expand to its fullest dimensions because people are strong and healthy as a result of my caring, but it is the people of the Church, all of us, who are called to minister with whatever resources we discover from within ourselves. Ministering together in the Holy Spirit, we build community and networks of caring action which endeavor to demonstrate that the realm of God is among us.
The Spirit binds us as mortar does bricks. In the Spirit the preacher touches hearts, the pastor offers guidance, the healer provides renewal, and the teacher broadens horizons. Outside the Spirit’s influence, we may speak, lead, bandage, or lecture, but we do so alone -- with no firm connection to associate our work with that of others whose labors are not of the same discipline. The Church is the one “place” in all Creation where people ought to be certain that God and humanity have indeed found union. Everything that we say about new life and life anew is summed up in the Church and in our ministry to those in need of us.
Finally, as clergy I am entrusted with the “priestly” functions of the Church. It is I, the minister among ministers, who am singled out to assume the primary leadership in worship, to perform rites and sacraments, to counsel and pray with others, and to bless on behalf of the Church. I have been handed the responsibility of reminding all of us of Christ’s sacrificial ministry, the Creator’s infinite depth of love, and the Spirit’s presence and guidance.”
Statements by Rev. Denoon on Various Aspects of Ministry:
On children and youth programs…
Success with children and youth programs starts by setting goals and aims befitting a Christian community aware of its eternal legacy -- namely, acquainting young people with God’s love and acceptance, introducing them to Jesus Christ and encouraging them toward an experience of the Holy. Because they are children and youth, the element of fun or play needs to accompany most lessons; and because the obligation of extending God’s blessings is a serious one, instilling in young people and modeling for them a sense of respect (even awe) for God and the church, is essential as well.
On leadership style…
My leadership style is collaborative. I seek to offer guidance either when it is requested or when I perceive that it may be needed, but the most important part of leadership is developing a working partnership with one’s co-workers -- both lay and staff.
On family ministry…
Family ministry means helping Christian households to be vital and vibrant, nurturing all their members, and reflecting God’s will. For a contemporary American church this must mean celebrating families or households in all their variety -- single-parent, divorced, or blended families, and LGBT parent(s), and so on, in addition to the conventional mother-father-children model. Childless households or resident communities should be included, too. Family ministry should also encourage effective spousal/partner communication and emotional intimacy, facilitate appropriate parenting, offer insights on communicating between generations, and create opportunities for families to interact with one another.
On adult education…
Adult education should nurture the relationship between people and God, and among the people themselves. The primary purpose of adult Christian education should be to broaden the spiritual perspective of the participants so that they find themselves encountering and interacting with God on a daily basis. I’m finding lately that this is often best done by placing an emphasis on the practices of faith -- embracing Sabbath, engaging conscientious and responsible stewardship, and educating oneself and one’s community about the issues and needs facing us as people of faith (social justice, prophetic witness).
On mission and outreach…
My byword lately is a quote from Emil Brunner -- “The church exists for mission as a fire exists for burning.” Though mission has a much wider purpose than just outreach, it is it usually outreach that mainline Christians mean when they refer to mission. We abuse our reason for existence as faith communities if the result of our praise for God is not to establish justice among ourselves and in the society around us. Sometimes, this just means band-aid fixes -- feeding, clothing, or offering other support to those nearby. But the witness of Christ and all the prophets and apostles has not been intended simply to bind wounds but to bring the world around to God’s will and God’s ways.
Outreach allows the church to comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and generate real change wherein the realm of God may be seen on earth. For a minister, training others for outreach usually means knowing how to network concerned, passionate members with specialists already engaged in the work, who can lead them to the practices, places and people they have come to care about.
On pastoral care…
Meaningful pastoral care is an avenue that makes it possible for people who feel isolated to understand that they are not alone. If I’m doing my job right (read, meaningfully), then my pastoral care will help people’s hearts find healing and allow them a sense of wholeness, of completeness, despite the broken this all around them.
On involving others in lay ministry…
Getting people involved in lay ministry means not only inviting them into that ministry, but training them in the skills they need, fostering the skills they already have, and then cultivating those skills to their greatest potential. It also means having a sense for when people don’t need training at all, but are simply ready to go. Of course, quite often lay members know what is needed and how to do it, so involving them in their ministries is simply a matter of stepping back and letting them do what God has called them to do.
On the role of lay leadership:
In a congregational setting, lay leadership is responsible for seeing to the accomplishment of the churches perceived direction in the Spirit. Put more simply, lay leaders should follow the goals and vision set by the Congregation. Along the way, consultation with, but not deference to, the Senior Minister is advisable.
On teaching:
As a teacher, I try to invite discussion rather than monologue. But I’ve found in recent years that most lay people consider themselves uninformed or inexperienced concerning the Bible. That’s my area of expertise, when it comes to teaching; so, I sometimes catch myself unintentionally lecturing. However, given that FCCE describes itself as an intellectual faith community and is willing to delve into faithful questioning, maybe there’s hope for me yet!
I mentor others by allowing them to be themselves, and by being honest, frank and open about my own experiences. A good mentor also recognizes his or her own limits, and is willing and able to point the mentee toward useful resources.
What His References Say:
David is an incredibly bright man who is focused on his own growth in scripture; a man of integrity. He’s also a breath of fresh air… funny, engaging and creative. David is also a real “people person” with a gift for bringing people together around important issues.
He’s a humble man of exceptional character. David is very intelligent, but he doesn’t wear that intelligence on his sleeve. He gets along well with everybody – kids, youth, seniors. He has so many good traits in one person! His enthusiasm is great. He’s also very talented. He’s a talented actor and has great musical skills. He’s also very good with the computer.
David is a minister with many gifts: he is a terrific preacher; he’s thoughtful and really knows scripture; he works well with everybody -- people in the congregation and staff -- and he has a real gift for pastoral care; He’s a good guy with great sense of humor. At the same time, he possesses excellent administrative skills that we’ve seen on display with boards and committees at church, with local associations, and with the church staff. He provided excellent leadership in ecumenical outreach to other faith communities, including local Muslim and Jewish groups. He also relates very well with young people. Kids like him, and he relates well to teens. He’s been very successful with our confirmation class.
David is a minister who is passionate for his ministry. He’s a compelling preacher who is quite good at introducing new ideas while remaining faithful to scriptural text. He has an excellent presence in the pulpit…. energetic. He’s also a man who is willing to put himself out there for what he believes in. He acts on his beliefs, and he’s committed to making the world a better place. He’s also an excellent and diplomatic administrator who is more than able to supervise.
David Denoon is a man of vision who shares that vision by engaging in issues of social justice. He communicates well, and because he has such a good grasp of the issues, he’s very effective in educating others about problems that need to be solved. He’s a collaborative person who works very well with others. I’ve been impressed by his gifts for pastoral care -- visiting the sick and the homebound, visiting people in hospitals. He also provides wonderful support and comfort to families during times of crisis or loss.
I’ve known David for fifteen years and think very highly of him. He’s a wonderful, creative and charismatic man with an engaging presence. He really listens to people and is dedicated to his working with his community as well as the greater community beyond the church. He’s always there, 100%. Even when he’s very busy he still takes time for people. He plays down his IQ, but he’s very smart. He has a good business sense and a great sense of humor. He’s a man of vision who is able to inspire others with his ideas. He’s also very practical and tough… he’s no pushover.
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 6, 2008