Last month, Christy and I traveled to Indianapolis for the 2026 National Gathering of The Fellowship Community (TFC). We came home encouraged, challenged, and convinced that The United Church is well positioned for the days ahead.
This is the first in a series of articles I’ll be sharing over the coming months. Together, they’ll take us through our theological convictions, an honest look at where our denominations are today, and what the road ahead looks like for The United Church. I hope you’ll read along.
Before I tell you about the gathering, let me take you back. Way back. Because to understand where we are, it helps to understand how we got here.
The First Baptist Church of Canandaigua was founded in 1835. First Presbyterian came along in 1870. For decades, these two congregations worshiped separately on the same small-town landscape, each with its own history, tradition, and denominational identity.
Then, on December 13, 1942, the Baptist church building on Main Street was destroyed by fire. The Presbyterians responded by opening their doors. What began as a temporary arrangement slowly became more permanent, and by 1961, the two congregations officially merged. They took on a new name: The United Church.
The founding document that governs us, the Covenant Union, captures the spirit of the church beautifully: “We represent two denominations, but are one people of God, united in love and service, to God and to each other through Jesus Christ.”
That was not a small thing to say in 1961. Denominational identity was serious business. People were Baptists, or they were Presbyterians. These labels carried theological weight, cultural meaning, and deep loyalty. To choose to be simply United was a countercultural act of faith.
Over the past six decades, the denominational landscape in America has shifted dramatically, and our own congregation has shifted along with it. Both of our parent denominations have experienced significant decline. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) counted over 4 million members at its peak in the mid-1960s. Today that number is just above 1 million and is still falling. The American Baptist Churches USA has declined by more than 20% since 2000. These are not unique dynamics. Virtually every mainline denomination in America is declining.
What’s behind the numbers? It is more than people simply losing interest in faith. The culture that once supported strong denominational identity has quietly shifted. And in turn, these organizations have responded. Denominational publishers that once supplied Sunday school curriculum have closed or been absorbed. Mission programs that once sent hundreds of supported co-workers overseas have been dramatically scaled back, and the PC(USA) recently laid off nearly its entire missionary workforce. Regional structures that once actively resourced local congregations have grown thinner. The denominations we joined in 1961 are not the same institutions they were then.
One of the most telling signs of this shift can be found in our own membership rolls. When we look at how our members affiliate, a growing majority now identify simply as United. They are neither Presbyterian nor Baptist, but members of The United Church. The name our founders chose has become, in a very real sense, who we are.
Families move to Canandaigua and find their way to us from outside our denominational traditions. People come to faith here without a prior church background. Children grow up in the congregation and many join as adults without a strong pull toward either the Presbyterian or Baptist identity. This reflects something happening across the country. People are increasingly choosing churches based on community, worship, and mission rather than denominational name. Our founders were ahead of their time.
Back to Indianapolis.
The Fellowship Community (TFC) is a network of Gospel-centered congregations within the PC(USA). Its purpose is not to replace the denomination, but to provide a place of support for churches within our denomination. Churches within this community come together to encourage one another, think together about mission, and pray.
The conversations felt honest and grounded. There was a deep commitment to doing the work of Jesus in the way of Jesus, and a genuine joy in doing it together.
One of the passages I found myself reading during those days in Indianapolis was 1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” That is the church. Not an institution, not a brand, but a people called by God, belonging to God, and sent by God.
This is the posture The United Church has always held, even if we haven’t always named it that way.
Our relationship with the PC(USA) and the ABCUSA has never been primarily about institutional allegiance. It has been about connection to something larger than ourselves: a shared theological heritage, accountability to the broader Body of Christ, and access to resources and relationships beyond our small city. TFC helps us hold that connection while staying true to who we are. To be clear: none of this is an indication that we are planning to leave either denomination. We remain committed members of both, and we value what that connection means for our life together.
At the same time, we are increasingly a congregation that defines itself by the Gospel rather than by denominational affiliation. This is not a failure of loyalty. It is, perhaps, a fulfillment of what our founders were reaching for when they chose to be United rather than simply Baptist or Presbyterian.
I came home from Indianapolis thinking about what it means to be a church in this day and time. We take our theological roots seriously. We are genuinely connected to the wider Body of Christ through TFC and both of our denominations. And we are, at the same time, increasingly our own thing: a congregation formed by its community, its history, and its shared commitment to following Jesus.
That is a complicated identity. But it is an honest one. And it is worth celebrating.
I’m grateful to have been in Indianapolis among this community. And I am grateful to come home to you to serve alongside you in the work of the Kingdom of God.
Wade
