It seems hard to believe that 13 months have passed since I began my ministry with you. It seems shorter because the time since July 1st last year has FLOWN.
But on the other hand, it seems like we’ve been together for a while now, since my first service with you was over two years ago now (in June 2022).
We’ve accomplished some good things in this first official year…establishing action groups (which are now productive and flourishing), revamping our website, re-doing our logo.
As we all now have heard about from Karen, we may be on the road to engagement with our primary community ministry.
We are resurrecting plans for a Women’s Retreat in the fall (more to come soon about that!) and have new initiatives with our Dinner and a Movie and Pub Theology gatherings.
It’s safe to say that, at this point, we’ve rebuilt our foundation. Actually, our foundation has always been in place. You have always known who you are at base. That’s never wavered.
There was a period of discernment about whether or not to continue to exist …whether or not to remain grounded as you were founded, or to instead amalgamate yourselves and the church’s resources into other faith communities.
But, after careful consideration, that didn’t feel right to you.
I’ve heard it said numerous times that many of you wondered where you’d go if New Covenant closed its doors, because there’s not a local faith community whose foundation is shaped like ours.
I asked why folks wouldn’t just go to the Unitarian church here in town.
The answer was always the same…for a vast majority here at NCC, it’s not quite the right fit.
While some, like me, would say our theologies arevirtually identical, they are at least seriously similar…with the exception that there isn’t as much of a centering of the life of Jesus there. And that difference is significant.
We unapologetically centralize Jesus in our covenant statement, saying: We want to live like he did. We are Christians because His life is our guide on how to live in this world.
And while the shape our church’s foundation comes from a very similar blueprint as the UUs, the materials don’t come from the same exact company, and we like what we’re made of.
So, this makes us unique. Having been around for a minute or two by now, I too am convinced that one would have a hard time finding even one church with a foundation constructed like ours.
And with a real sense of that, once the hard questionsof continuing or folding were put on the table, you said, “We’re staying.”
You said, “We’re staying, and we’ll do what it takes, make the necessary adjustments, to sustain and accommodate this mindfully arrived-at decision.”
Then providence stepped in. Or, the Holy Spirit, or grace. Or even serendipity. Call it whatever you’d like… the sacred currents of Life flowed nonetheless.
And after a lovely Presbyterian interim minister said, “I have to go now, because I want more traditional Presbyterianism, and you guys are too UU for me.”…
After that along comes a minister who does espouse your theology. And we fell in love.
And now here we are, together, a little more than a year in.
You might recall the description of today’s service in this week’s newsletter. There’s a quote from George Bernard Shaw, which says, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
It fits for us, especially at this time in our history. We don’t need to find ourselves…we know who we are, what we stand for, what our theology is (unique as it may be).
Our foundation was poured 3 decades ago, and remains solid. I see us as a ranch house, sitting solidly atop that foundation. There have been different eras of décor in this house of worship, based on various ministers and membership.
In this past year you and I have added some of our new décor. And it’s looking good – our various rooms of worship and justice ministry and action groups.
You kept the family home, even after transferring it from the ‘Normal’ side of town to this other side (probably fitting, given our aforementioned abnormalities).
We could stay comfy cozy in our little house, content to enjoy who and what and where we are.
But if we don’t think about adding on to our house (i.e., growing our congregation), we run the distinct risk of slowly fading away.
A church always grows in one direction or another… it’s either going to grow old (eventually becoming diminished and unsustainable) or it’s going to grow in a prosperous way.
We don’t have to re-ask the question of continued existence….that’s been asked and answered.
And we’ve redecorated our existing house with our collaborations and revisions and revamping.
It’s now time to ask ourselves, do we want to grow? Do we want to add on to the house known as our congregation?
I’m not talking about the physical house of worship otherwise known as Grace Hall. I’m talking about the metaphorical house that comprises us…
the studs and sheet rock and wiring and plumbing made up of each of us, all sitting atop our concrete foundation of values.
Do we want our Community to grow? And if so, how do we want to grow?
– Expanded incoming revenue? – More people in more chairs on Sunday morning?
– More names in our membership book? – Spiritual growth,having nothing to do with numbers?
– Some combination thereof?
What does growth look like, and how do we get from point A (where we are here and now) to that aspired place of point B?
Such movement rarely happens by osmosis, but instead is a product of engagement and prioritization and fortitude.
Perhaps it would help us to consider what some obstacles to growth typically are. Here are some that churches often experience.
It’s a list of 10. The first five I’ll zip through because they are not operative for us.
1.Your church has ineffective leadership
2. Your church is suffering from doctrinal divisions
3. Your church culture is unwelcoming 4. Your church is dealing with financial constraints
5. Your congregation is aging
Now we start getting into the stuff to put our hands and heads into.
6. Your church has limited technology adoption /Your church doesn’t conduct much outreach
I put these two together because they both speak to publicity, marketing, getting our name out there.
This is vitally important, but when it’s done is also important.
Are we ready to launch into that? Yes, we’ve addressed it some with the logo change, getting t-shirts and window clings with that new logo.
But are we ready to go full scale into getting the word out? If the message is “Come to us, we are here!” where are we inviting them to come to?
If we see ourselves in a state of transition, is this the time to be focused on drawing others to us, or should that come after we have arrived in the place we consider home.
This brings us to the next growth barrier, which is…
In my conversations with you over these last couple of months I’ve come to understand that a majority of us don’t see our current location as ‘home’ as much as a good place to have transitioned to as we needed to move from the CRC.
And it has and is serving us well in that capacity. But is this a place that will draw others to us? When we imagine and plan for growth, is this part of our vision?
Another barrier to growth is that Your church isn’t meeting members’ needs.
In our case I don’t think it’s so much that NCC isn’t meeting the needs of our current membership, but rather would it offer what potential new members need/ want/ would be drawn to?
This consideration brings us to another barrier potentially relevant to our discernment, which is Your church has inadequate facilities.
Our current location is not inadequate for our current-day needs. The question is more about creating our future, and where we ultimately want to see ourselves.
For that we need to be forward thinking, with vision and purpose.
And that brings us to the last of the church-growth barriers… Your church lacks vision and purpose.
We don’t lack these things. We’re not a docile, aimless group. It is these very things that I am now encouraging us to engage in, creating a blueprint for adding on, making new room for growth.
Growth, future-creating won’t happen if we wait for the arrival of new people and then decide to accommodate their arrival.
I believe that the space must be readied. “If you build it, they will come.”
This place of which I speak isn’t a field of dreams, but instead a church of dreams, our dreams… not a place of transition, but a place to be anchored, a place we foresee to be home, a place we foresee to beckon others to.
I will share with you a poem entitled Whatever is Foreseen in Joy by Wendell Berry.
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.
And therefore, let us move forward with our visioning, done with joy. Let it be a part of our daily consciousness, visions of our future lifted up.
You have experienced 10,000 days of work to get to this point…while you’ve worked to survive and discerned what to be and whether to be,
your hands (and no doubt hearts) have known aching, your faces damp with the sweat produced by the unknown-ness that lie ahead.
We’re past those days…the question of survival is behind us.
Do we want to grow, and is so, how?
We’ve already decided to survive. Now, how do we thrive? How do we thrive, and how, like Jesus, do we help others to thrive?
What kinds of growth help us to live out of our Covenant Statement to continue His work?
I’m inviting us to mindfully move into our next stage. I don’t know what lies at the end of our processes, that’s something we’ll create together.
Let’s begin now, by sharing, if you’d like, how you feel/what you think about moving into a mindful process of discerning and then creating our future.
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