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Creating
Good Vibrations First Unitarian Church of Des Moines 1/26/03
Chalice Lighting A
unison reading of the mission statement of the
First Unitarian Church of Des Moines: “As an inclusive accepting Unitarian Universalist congregation, our mission is to nurture the intellectual and spiritual growth of our adults and children, to provide a safe and vibrant community of support and renewal, and to be a force for ethical, social and environmental responsibility in our community and our world.”
Meditation for 1/26/03 Creative Spirit, Spirit of Life That which is greater than all but present in each. This week we have been reminded that January is a winter month, A time of biting cold, of crisp mornings and frigid nights. Somehow
the cold and bluster seem more stinging
Some of us have been reminded this week that our lives can slap us around now and then, too, With
winds of change and turmoil In
these times, may we remember
We
keep a place in our hearts this day for our
brothers and sisters who are hungry for work, for
shelter, or for meaning.
We
keep a place in our hearts this day
And
in these days as our nation prepares for war,
As we settle into the heart of winter, whether we are ready or not, May
we remember that our lives, just like the seasons, May we be aware of those who may be feeling the chill this winter more than others, And may we do what we can to share our warmth with those who need it most. Amen.
Reading Adapted
words of the Rev. David E. Bumbaugh, from his “Charge
to the Congregation” delivered at the
installation of Jennifer Schnayer;
Take my word for it, Churches are curious institutions. We come to them seeking we know not what. We come bringing all the baggage of our past --the things we affirm --the things we are trying to escape --the joys and triumphs which have shaped us --the fears and agonies we still flee --the hurts which never cease. We come, seeking to change our lives --looking for help in creating new patterns --looking for aid in developing new goals --looking for support for new life-styles. At the same time, we come seeking affirmation of ourselves, just as we are, with all our warts and blemishes showing. We come because the world is in deep trouble and we would be part of the process by which creative solutions may be found. But we do not want to be held responsible for the evils we see around us, and we want solutions which will not require deep changes in our own lives. We come to church seeking authority strong enough to validate our lives, our choices, our dreams, while resenting any authority strong enough to lend our lives validity. In churches people struggle for insight and fight against it; seek to be loved and cared for, while insisting upon personal independence; demand that the institution be responsible while we be free to do our own things. All the ambiguities and ambivalence of our times-- attraction-revulsion, love-hate, dependence-independence, certainty-uncertainty, clarity-confusion come to focus in the church. It is the most human of all institutions; the place where we see what we really are: innocent, scheming, naive, hopeful, despairing, cynical creatures who create ourselves and our institutions one decision at a time. Churches are curious institutions which invite us not to take ourselves too seriously-- a place where we can laugh at ourselves and each other-- not with derision, but with insight into the peculiar qualities of this institution which seeks to build permanence on the shifting sands of human perceptions.
…Because churches have been part of the landscape for so long, we sometimes fail to see what peculiar institutions they are, and what a bundle of irreconcilable dreams they represent…
[That’s why we should ]…Remember, in good times and bad, when [we] are elated and hopeful and when [we] are frustrated and despairing, when everything seems possible and nothing seems probable, remember that… [we need each others’ support, encouragement, and compassion. And we need to laugh together] at the absurdity of this undertaking, and share…the sacred imperative it represents. [For when we] work…together, [who knows, we]…may just accomplish the impossible.
Reflection “State of the Church” address Bob Henderson
I first came to this church with my wife, Carol, This was during a time of great social upheaval (even in Des Moines) with the struggle for racial equality, the increasing opposition to the Vietnam war, and the movement of the drug culture into mainstream America. We were young parents struggling not only with what to teach a young child, but struggling ourselves to make sense of the changes going on in our society during the mid 60’s.
At First Unitarian, we found a welcoming community that shared many of our values and challenged us to examine our beliefs and act on them. Unitarian Universalism has sustained us over the years as we have moved to different communities, helped our kids to grow into responsible adults, and continued our own religious journey.
When we returned to Des Moines in 1994, we were excited about coming back to this church. While it was great to see some familiar faces, I was surprised to find that many of the people we had known had drifted away.
Both Carol and I quickly threw ourselves into the activities of the church and met many new and interesting people. We learned, however, that were many challenges: · there was NEVER enough money to provide the programs the congregation and staff hoped to have. · it was still hard to find volunteers to take on the business of the church · There were fewer active members than in the 60’s · And the roof still leaked!
It looked like First Unitarian was going to drift into the new millennium virtually unchanged
Today, if I were to walk into this church after being away for many years, I would find an entirely different atmosphere, what Mark has called ‘Good Vibrations’. So what’s changed? Why is there an aura of excitement and energy around here that I haven’t seen since the era of Vietnam and Selma.
To understand this change, we need to look back about 3 years. It all started with Annie, the Reverend Annie Holmes, our Interim Minister from the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2001. As a major part of her Interim Ministry role, Annie encouraged us assess our past and try to look into our future.
The first step was to establish a Long Range Planning Committee. While we had tried to do long range planning in the past, we had never been very successful in articulating where we wanted to go. Annie forced us to do two things; first, to establish a coherent, understandable plan and second, to identify measurable, doable goals.
One goal became clear early on; in order to support the range and quality of the programs we envisioned, both from a financial as well as a volunteer resource basis, we would need to significantly increase our membership.
While we had been averaging 15-20 new members each year, the total membership had floated somewhere between 250 and 300. Where had all the people gone? Sure, some of them had moved, but that didn’t account for all the attrition. Why were they leaving our community?
The congregation was involved in every step of the Planning process along the way; lots of meetings, discussions, and communications culminating in the adoption of our long range plan at our 2000 annual meeting. While there were concerns expressed about the impact of growth on our congregation, most members felt that an influx of additional members would bring new life to our community. Conversely, if we didn’t grow, the long term survival of our church was at risk. And so the congregation agreed to a growth-based strategy.
The first two steps we took were at that same annual meeting and were significant. First, we agreed to significantly increase our minister’s compensation as we began our search to replace Annie, our interim, and second we approved a ‘growth’ budget that was over 20 higher than our previous year,. We also began our commitment to becoming a ‘Fair Compensation Practices’ congregation in order to attract good staff. These steps were not without some trepidation, but there was a lot of support from the congregation.
We hired a full time Administrator, and in the fall of 2001, we installed our new minister, Mark Stringer. In 2002, we implemented the third and fourth steps of our plan; we went from a part time to a full time Director of Religious Education and hired a part time Music Director. We are now in the planning phase of a broad Religious Education program to serve all members of our church community. And our next step is to examine our facility to determine what needs to be done to bring it up to the level that will support our goals. This week you will all have the opportunity to meet with the UUA Consultant, Martha Easter Wells, who will be here working with our Building Review Committee.
All of these efforts have created high expectations among the congregation. And now some new challenges have been identified. Through a variety of resource materials, and discussions with other churches and our District staff, we have learned that much of what we have to do over the near future will require a significant cultural transformation of our congregation. A church with 350 – 500 members must operate differently than a church of 250. The roles of the minister, the staff, lay leaders, and members will all need to be re-defined. The course here is not as clear as our previous steps.
At our August Board of Trustees Retreat, we utilized information from a book, Raising the Roof, a Guide for Pastoral to Program Church Transformation, to identify the barriers we felt were inhibiting our movement. We chose the following as the most critical to barriers to work on:
· First, as a religious organization, we are unclear whether we have a vocation to make room for more of our neighbors in order to serve a growing community (so what does that mean?) · The following phrases might help characterize this barrier
· Most of our activities are inwardly focused
· We have little involvement or presence as a church in community activities
· We lack ‘fire in the belly’ (in our effort to respect all beliefs, we are reluctant to share our excitement about our own religious perspective) · Let me cite an example: a few years ago I attended a Prairie Star District seminar on Outreach, at which the leader exhorted us to ‘spread the news’ about liberal religion. I dubbed our Des Moines contingent ‘The Good News Gang’, and suggested ‘This Little Liberal Light of Mine’ as our theme song. Well… there was sure a fair amount of discomfort with that idea !
· Second, our process for new member incorporation is not a ‘whole church’ effort, we rely on a small committee and our staff to help newcomers find a place in our community
· Third, our approach to involving members in church activities is focused more on filling ‘slots’ on an organization chart rather than discovering people’s interests and motivations for serving the church. This leads to what one consultant calls ‘The Church of the Twisted Arms’ which results in misplaced expectations and volunteer burnout.
As a result of our retreat, we have created Board-led ad hoc committees to begin to address each of these barriers. These are not simple challenges; overcoming them will require discussions and participation by many of you as we move ahead. In her book, Raising the Roof, Alice Mann made the following comment; ‘ ‘The critical characteristic of a vital congregation is its strong sense of vocation to reach out and serve those outside the church’. …’to reach out and serve those outside the church’.
I’ve thought about what that means. Was she talking about serving meals at our local shelter? Was she talking about knocking on doors with pamphlets to recruit new members? Maybe we should do a radio broadcast, or drive a car with a blasting sound system through neighborhoods extolling our message.
I think what Alice Mann was talking about was first to communicating the excitement of our religious community to those we meet under various circumstances; our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers. Studies show that the primary entrance to a church is still through personal invitation.
And second, for us to really communicate to newcomers who come to our church what this church stands for and why it is important to each of us.
We have much to offer people in this community; thoughtful, energizing Sunday services, a strong Religious Education program for children, interesting and challenging Forums, and, most importantly, opportunities to interact with other people with similar values through a variety of small group and one on one interactions.
Just as in the 60’s and 70’s, our society is going through another transformation. We face an unpopular war; the economic situation is precarious for an increasing number of people, and individual rights are being threatened in the name of homeland security. I believe we have an opportunity to again be a place for people who are struggling with the changes that are occurring. Our history of inquiry and openness, our willingness to doubt and to disagree, can provide an environment to help people find meaning in their lives.
The staff and leadership of this church are engaged in exploring ways this church can be a welcoming home to those seeking a more enlightened religious experience. But the most we can do is to try to establish a framework.
This church is more than the building, marvelous as it is; it’s more than the staff, as great as they are, and it’s more than the leadership, as hard as we work. The real church is each of you.
Each of you has the ability to take an active role in shaping the direction of this church. The role this church plays in your life, the sustenance you gain from this community, the ways in which this church impacts your day to day activities, are all part of what you can share with others.
If we really hope to become a presence in this community (and I think we should), we must be willing to communicate the importance of this church to others by acting on our values and beliefs. If we truly find meaning here, we ought to be willing to share that with others who also might find their own meaning here.
I think we, the family of First Unitarian, have an opportunity to provide significant benefits to this community, as a place for individual growth and enlightenment as well as a place to work together for change.
Be proud and excited to ‘let your liberal light shine’. Just maybe someone else will be drawn in by its warmth and illumination, and want to pass it on.
Reflection “Creating Good Vibrations” Rev. Stringer
First of all, let me say thanks to Bob Henderson for his words this morning and for his continued leadership of our board of trustees. I am grateful for his vision and his commitment to this church. Now is also a good time for me to publicly express my gratitude for the other members of our current board. As I read your name, I invite you to stand and to remain standing so that you can be acknowledged. Bill Paxson, Mark Wilke-Metz, Teva Dawson, Ron Bowerman, Mary Ellen Neal, Secretary David Rasey, Treasurer Doug Hoffman, and Vice President Harvey Harrison. At each board meeting and in their work with committees, these volunteers seek to represent us all, carefully asking questions and making decisions that they hope will reflect the best interests of our church. I continue to be impressed with their willingness to step forward and do the work that needs to be done and I applaud their leadership and commitment. Let’s offer them our thanks with a round of applause.
Back in August, at a retreat where the board looked to set some goals for the next twelve months, member Bill Paxson said something I knew would find its way into a sermon some day. He said, “Every year we create a church.” A rather simple statement, really. But so important to remember.
“Every year we create a church.”
Each year offers new challenges, challenges that require new commitments, and each year, even though the faces may change, the church remains. This morning, I suggest we take Bill’s idea even further. I contend that we are creating this church on a weekly basis, if not daily.
For each time we attend a Sunday forum or religious service or Small Group Ministry meeting or potluck and we find ourselves open to a new idea or reminded of an old idea we had forgotten, we are creating a church.
Each time we help each other through a difficult time, each time we visit a shut-in or write a card or offer words of support to another, we are creating a church.
Each
decision we make about our programming, or
staffing, or budget,
Each time we welcome a new member, each time we open our doors wide enough so that a person can find a home with us, and discover within herself the courage to add her voice to the mix that already exists, we are creating a church.
Each time a child joins our religious education program, a child who will grow with us and share his ever-emerging observations and understandings of life with us, we are creating a church.
Each time members decide to speak up in a class or a discussion group, each time members offer their time and money, their gifts and abilities to the work of this community by teaching a class, singing in the choir, or serving on a committee, we are creating a church.
Perhaps you get my point: we are always creating a church. I believe that much like our liberal view of religion, which insists that revelation is never sealed, but is always emerging, our vision of what this church is here to do and to be should always be evolving as well. This is not to say that we bid farewell to all that brought us to this point, as if we even could… that we forget the contributions of members past and present and all of the history of this church…a church that has been meeting for more than 125 years. Indeed, this church continues to exist because some dedicated people over the past century laid the foundations to insure that it would. We cannot and should not ignore these foundations. But the existence of good foundations does not mean that there is no room for growth…for new developments and ideas and vision.
The investments that Bob described, the dedicated efforts undertaken by many of you over the past few years to re-energize this community, to increase the likelihood that the church would grow and thrive for another 100 years are already paying dividends. As I look out from this pulpit each Sunday and see the faces of people who were not here when I began my ministry 16 months ago, people who have told me that they have found here a homecoming, I know that the work you have done to become more welcoming was worth it. Each time I look at the ever-growing number of children who are being nurtured in our religious education program, now up to nearly 140 children, I know the effort that was made to increase the DRE position to full-time was worth it. Each time I see the important administrative work being done by Jeanne, I know that the decision to increase the administrator position to full-time was worth it. Each time we hear the choir sing, or are treated to a performance by a guest musician or a member of our own community, I know that the plan to create a director of music position was worth it. Each time someone tells me how much they appreciate the Small Group Ministry program, how it has enabled them to get to know people they otherwise would not have known, I know the time the implementation team spent putting that program together was worth it. Each time that I look out my office window and see the beautiful memorial garden, I know that the patience and persistence of those with a good idea does indeed pay off.
I gratefully accepted the call to this church almost two years ago because I believed in it. I believed in you. I saw in the leadership a commitment to growth…not just for growth’s sake, but because the good word of Unitarian Universalism is worth sharing. Because there needs to be a strong liberal religious voice in central Iowa. Because, I believed there is much that the members of this church could do for each other and for the community. I gratefully accepted the call to this church because I wanted to be a part of that growth. I wanted to work with you to continue the good work you began with Annie. I wanted to see more lives touched by Unitarian Universalism the way mine was and so many of yours have been. Perhaps it is obvious to you, but I’ll tell you anyway. I am still grateful I accepted the call to be your minister. And I still believe in you, even more than I did that first week I spent with you nearly two years ago.
One of my favorite lines in the church mission statement is that we seek to “provide a…vibrant community.” A vibrant community. I like the word vibrant because it doesn’t imply a particular destination, as though there is a promised land toward which we are always working, some final resting point where no more effort or commitment will be needed. A vibrant community is one that is energized and awake, forever pulsating with activity and possibility. A vibrant community is one that welcomes diversity of opinion and belief, that allows itself to be constantly challenged by new ideas and new perspectives. A vibrant community is one that is open to disagreement but not paralyzed by it. A vibrant community is one that can face difficult choices with commitment and concern, but also with laughter.
As I consider all that is happening at our church, I see the signs of a vibrant community. I feel good vibrations around here and they are getting stronger all the time. The Lifespan Religious Education Program is beginning to take shape, with a restructuring of the RE committee into a more efficient RE council. Hopefully many of you will agree to serve on one of the small working groups being created.
Small Group Ministry and Circle Suppers continue to connect us, helping us get to know each other outside of Sunday morning, and the next round of enrollment in Small Group Ministry will begin in mid-March.
The board is engaged in not only acknowledging the barriers to growth that we face, but in taking the necessary steps to help us overcome those barriers.
The Second Saturday coffee shop is starting to take hold.
We are seeing the foundations being laid for a year-round canvass committee that will encourage us to keep up our financial commitments to this church that is so important to so many of us.
The youth group seems even more energized this year with a push to attend General Assembly in Boston this June.
We have a young adult group that is now meeting twice a month.
There is a new Christian affinity group that has emerged, a group that offers a place for people to explore Christian scripture and belief.
Our men’s and women’s groups seem to be stronger than ever.
Our seasonal celebrations group continues to offer those with interests in pagan rituals a chance to gather.
The choir is now rehearsing every week and growing in numbers and quality.
There are plans for an open adult discussion group that will meet during the 11:00 hour on Sunday.
The UUs in Action committee continues to offer opportunities for our members to put our UU principles into action.
There are several people who are beginning to form an Interweave chapter here at the church. Interweave is a group with ties to the UUA that exists to support Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered folks and their allies.
There are nearly a dozen church members who have been developing our relationship to AMOS, a local coalition of churches seeking to build relational power and establish a community-wide voice across barriers of class, race, politics and religion.
There are at least seven people who will be representing our church at the Mid-sized church conference being held in Kansas City in March. They will attend workshops and meet other UUs from across the country who are facing some of the same challenges we are facing as we continue to grow.
And March 2, a Sunday when we will welcome the next batch of new members to the church, we will see more than a dozen people join.
There is a lot going on here. The good vibrations are strong and they are getting stronger all the time.
One of the most exciting and vibrant things I see on the horizon is the prospect of a capital improvements campaign. I’ve been told that the church has been considering a capital campaign for years, but decided to hold off so that it wouldn’t happen in my first year of ministry with you. I’m thankful that you waited. Not just because it would have made my first year more difficult, but also because the church seems even more poised this year to make the commitments necessary to have a truly successful campaign. The good vibrations around here are strong and getting stronger all the time. A Building Review committee has been created to help us determine whether or not the time is right for a campaign and how we should proceed. Next weekend is one of the first big steps of this process. A UUA consultant Marta Easter-Wells will be here to facilitate several discussions among church members. Then she will make some conclusions based on what she has heard, she will present that information to the board and they will determine the next step. This is an open process and I urge you to attend at least one of these initial meetings. They are listed in your order of service. Bring your concerns and doubts. Bring your hopes and dreams for what this church could be. And share them, even if others disagree, even if you are afraid you are the only one who feels the way you do. We really do need everyone to weigh in on this so that the church leadership can be certain that they are moving in a direction that speaks to the needs of as many of us as possible. These are simply introductory meetings. You can be sure that as the process unfolds each of us will have more opportunities to openly contribute our ideas…and to create even more good vibrations.
As we talked about this service, Bob and I agreed that it would be good to give you an opportunity to share your comments on the current state of the church. What are some of the good vibrations you are feeling? Where might there be room for more good vibrations? I invite those of you who wish to share to come forward and speak into the microphone so that all can hear. As we have a limited time for sharing, I ask that you be as concise as possible so that others who wish to speak will have a chance to share.
(Sharing)
Thanks to all for your comments. I share with you again the words of David Bumbaugh:
[we should ]…Remember, in good times and bad, when [we] are elated and hopeful and when [we] are frustrated and despairing, when everything seems possible and nothing seems probable, remember that… [we need each others’ support, encouragement, and compassion. And we need to laugh together] at the absurdity of this undertaking, and share…the sacred imperative it represents. [For when we] work…together, [who knows, we]…may just accomplish the impossible.
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