Beginning a New Ministry
As I complete one month with this congregation, I have been thinking a lot about our expectations of one another. It’s been fortunate to have such an appropriate Soul Matters theme in September to jump-start conversations with one another about the hopes and dreams that you have for our years together. I plan to hear more from you in the coming month, about who you connect with here, why this congregation is important to you, and what you find inspiring about this gathered community. I hope if I haven’t met you yet, that you will feel welcome to reach out to me and let me know what’s on your mind or in your heart.
I also want to honor the value of moving beyond our expectations and living into the unknown, because that’s what we will be doing together as we grow into this new ministry. You have had the Reverend Joan Sabatino here with you for many years, and you have grown accustomed to one another, beautifully able to work together because you knew your roles, and the rhythms of the weekly and yearly cycles of ministry together. It was like a beautiful dance with both knowing their parts. I don’t yet have that practice in being with you, so if I miss something or step on toes, I hope that there will be room for an apology. I expect there may also be new cycles to begin, and learning for us all.
“Whatever you have come in anticipating, whatever you expect or worry for our world, for the future, for our lives – let it go. Make space in your heart to be surprised. Make room in your soul for a new story to take shape. Let astonishment be possible at this life that remains a miracle.”
–Rev. Gretchen Haley
And I want to share with you that thus far in my time here, you have failed to meet my expectations. Failed in the best of ways, where assumptions I had about small congregations and rural areas have fallen away at the reality of who this congregation is choosing to be. I caught glimpses of this in the congregational record that I read, and it’s a the main reason I decided to send my ministerial record to your Search Team. In those paragraphs and stories, there was a story of a congregation who was refusing to do the expected. A congregation where the energy exceeded the numbers, and whose values and ethics guided them as Unitarian Universalists.
I hoped that the Search team would be an accurate reflection of the congregation, and yet I was still surprised by the friendliness of your welcome, by the admiring way that people speak about the congregation in town, by the way that children and adults in this congregation find time in the week to see one another because you just like each other and want to hang out. That’s a church beyond my expectations, and one that is ready to reach for the stars in our shared future.
To help shape that future, I am pleased to announce that we will be having our regional staff contact, Pastor Sunshine Wolfe, with us for the weekend of Oct. 18th-20th to work with our Board and with the congregation. Some parts of this weekend will be geared toward just the Board or specific committees, but I expect that we will have some parts of the weekend open to most or all members and friends of the congregation, and it would be wonderful to have you with us. Look for more specific information about times and agenda coming out this week, and come help set expectations together for a shared ministry that truly brings to life the mission of this congregation to Inspire, Care, and Act!
