Conference Minister's Corner - 10/21/2025
- Rev. Linda Hirst
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
“You’ve got spunk” is a classic line spoken by newsroom editor Lou Grant to Mary Richards as she interviewed for a job at WJM-TV, channel 12, in Minneapolis. Mary Richards, star of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore show, takes this as a compliment. To which Lou Grant replies: “I hate spunk”. Mary got the job anyway.
I just returned from the Maine Conference UCC’s Annual Meeting held at Pilgrim Lodge where instead of the 600 people who used to attend 20 years ago there were 174 of us. We acknowledged that our churches are declining, in number and in parishioners. We are doing a new thing as churches and a conference though we’re not sure what that is yet. And the world sometimes feels like it’s spinning out of control. Help!
After this difficult reality check we then heard and spoke words of hope. Hope because our small churches are doing good and important ministry. Hope because our larger churches are making a difference in their cities and towns. Hope that God is making a path in the wilderness and streams in the desert. We left hopeful. And aware that being the church today takes spunk. It takes spunk: courage, bravery, persistence to do the right thing, to walk with God, to love Jesus and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It takes spunk to trust and hope and be faithful as best we can. It takes spunk to people of God. Always has. Always will.
You’ve got spunk. Never doubt that. And that’s a good thing.
See you Saturday,
Rev. Linda Hirst