Under Mize, Glenview Community Church became 'intentionally loving'

Caught Monday as he was driving off into the sunset with his wife, Jeanie, the Rev. Dr. Charles Mize was one day removed from his last day as senior pastor at Glenview Community Church.

Some 275 people attended Mize's final day of service Sunday at 1000 Elm St., after 41 years in the ministry.

It capped a somewhat improbable career given that, growing up around St. Louis, with a father he said worked in an oil refinery, Mize may have been expected to follow that path.

He entered Elmhurst College intending to major in chemistry.

“Except God got in the way,” said Mize, 66, known as Chuck.

Ordained in 1980 at his home church in Wood River, Illinois, he's followed the divine to three Illinois pastorates, one in St. Louis and another in a long stint in Green Bay, Wisconsin, before arriving at Glenview Community Church in 2013.

Now, Mize said, “it is that time” to turn over leadership.

Rev. Dr. Kent Ulery, an Indiana native, started Monday as the church's interim senior pastor. Among other positions, Ulery served as minister of the Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ and most recently as associate conference minister of the Wisconsin UCC. For several years in between he was president of the Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine.

“He's got deep and varied experiences,” Mize said of Ulery, who lives in Arlington Heights.

Ulery will continue pastoral leadership during a period when Mize believes the church overall is on an unsteady surface.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut Glenview Community Church doors, Mize said Sunday attendance would be between 300-350 people. Since it reopened in January the average attendance has been about half that.

Mize, who received both his master's and doctorate of divinity degrees at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, rattled off stats such as a loss of 1.3 million members of the United Church of Christ since he started in 1980, or a decrease of 1 million people in the Presbyterian Church between 2005-15.

“In general, the church at one time was a cornerstone of our society. And that's not true any longer,” Mize said.

“People really believed there had to be a church, you had to belong to a church, and you needed to attend church if you were a respectable citizen. Church does not have that same effect any longer, so the church is trying to find its way,” he said.

Glenview Community Church, with roots dating to 1897, does aspire to lead and attract those citizens.

As an Open and Affirming church in the United Church of Christ, it promotes social justice, disavows systemic racism, and welcomes all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions. Several times earlier this year, a Progress-Pride flag Mize posted outside the church was vandalized.

Mize takes pride that under his watch Glenview Community has attempted to evolve from a “transactional church to a transformational church” — one that places greater emphasis on service than on programming.

“How do we express our faith in the world?” he asks rhetorically. “The church has a very active social concerns committee that has engaged in the issues of the day. It means we have gotten more hands-on in our mission.”

He said greater devotion to mission parallels changes to the church's organizational hierarchy. He oversaw the reorganization from 13 independent boards to five ministry groups, producing a more coordinated effort.

“The church has really, I think, become more harmonious and intentionally loving,” Mize said.

A $4 million capital project, which in 2018 updated building infrastructure and accessibility, was the greatest effort during his tenure, he said. But Mize also relished the simple act of participating in incoming ministers' ordination ceremonies.

“That's an honor,” he said.

As he and his wife, Jeanie Bond, headed into their future on Monday — Chuck will officially retire after a sabbatical lasting until April 2022, because the capital project delayed his scheduled sabbatical — he said he'd like to travel, maybe do some writing on history and on his time at the church.

At least in the short term, he said, the couple, who have one child, will remain in Glenview.

“It's what feels right and comfortable,” Mize said.

“It's been a great ride,” he said. “I've served six congregations in five different locations. Each one was different, and certainly the church with the greatest potential has been the Glenview Community Church.

“However, I am still a Packers fan. Eighteen years in Green Bay isn't going to go away.”