Every summer, the UUCC Board meets for a retreat. The purposes are to get to know one other better, and to develop priorities for the upcoming year.
We met on August 10. Attending were Rev. Lisa Bovee Kemper, our new Interim Minister; Laurie Coltri; Lorien Haavik; Alex Horn; Valerie Hsu, our Executive Director; Steve Parr; Becky Reese; and Regina Verow. (Board members Pam Henry and Meagan Lopes were away and could not attend.) Rev. Lisa was a fount of very helpful information and advice, and Valerie was, as always, supportive in ways too numerous to count.
We talked, broke bread together, brainstormed, reflected, and deliberated. And in the morning, we played (with LEGO® bricks)! We also looked at the results of the spring’s Ends-Monitoring Survey, and we considered really valuable communications we received from our wonderful staff.
After lunch, we reflected on how the congregation communicates its values. We learned that UUCC explicitly communicates with the words it uses in worship and at our website, but we also communicate indirectly, by what we offer and do (for example, worship services are multiplatform), and by what we DON’T do (for example, services don’t offer an American Sign Language Interpreter). This exercise helped us better understand how we might more authentically fulfill our mission.
Next, we daydreamed a wishlist about “the perfect Board year beyond our wildest dreams.” The wishlist included becoming more of a “congregation without walls” (having more interchange with the community); establishing a curriculum for better intercultural sensitivity and humility; supporting subcommunities within the UUCC community; creating so much excitement that the congregation is crawling with eager volunteers; fully funding our needs; making staff compensation more fair; having patience with the interim ministry process; and many other hopes and dreams.
When we looked at the wishlist from our daydreams, two distinct, yet interlocking issues stood out: Community-building and Stewardship.
We discussed how vital it is to grow our community toward healthy relationships – direct, honest, curious, humble, and compassionate. We also acknowledged that often these goals are not met, and that we sometimes need to feel uncomfortable to grow. We on the Board realized that when UUCC congregants disagree or experience conflict, value is often left on the table – these moments can be reframed as opportunities to grow as individuals and as a community. And we recognized that growing healthy relationships is not a solo responsibility – we want to encourage people to reach out to support each other in these growth paths. This, in our understanding, is the essence of Community-Building: Each of us needs each of us to thrive.
We also identified Stewardship as a crucial objective – the care of our congregation, and the world beyond. The Stewardship Council said it really well in its vision – to foster “a culture of generosity that enables UUCC to thrive and achieve its mission,” and “to encourage and facilitate joyful giving and the sharing of our faith, presence, and resources.” Yes, we mean money. But we also mean participation, volunteership, and leadership. We mean “Spiritual Stewardship,” the care and nurturance of what we have together.
You can read the exact words of the priorities here. I feel humbled and grateful to be able to focus attention on these goals over the upcoming church year. To me, personally, they speak to the essence of my own spirit. Like the warp and weft of a tapestry, Community-Building and Stewardship are the foundation of what it means to me to be a part of a religious congregation, and more largely, part of the human family.
Go in joy, and seek justice in love, people of UUCC!
2 Comments
Becky Reese
I thought it might be helpful to share the story associated with the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® model in the photo.
This model was created by taking concepts from each individual model built by board members at the retreat and incorporating them into a collective story representing our view of relatedness and stewardship at UUCC.
On the left side of the model is a gray on-ramp into the UUCC community. It leads to pink and blue structures that represent various ways to engage with the community. These structures are a bit delicately balanced with minimal support below them. Underneath the green structure is the tippy top of a haphazardly arranged stewardship tower, which falls just short of reaching the structures it is intended to support. The red bridge from the green structure to the elongated piece to the right represents a bridge between the growth opportunities that we may overlook in our environment on the right and the sprouts of growth and connection of community that bloom on the left hand side. The red and leafy portion of the flame-topped chalice tower on the far left spins and jiggles a bit, representing adaptability and flexibility of ways to live our UU values. It is in close proximity to the flowering community element that links our UUCC internal community to the structures in the surrounding community, which is represented by the brown staircase. The small brown figure carrying a chalice flame up the stairs toward the bridge at the top represents the idea of a mama cougar training her cubs to take the safe path under a highway bridge. Metaphorically, this represents our community members conveying our values into the community in ways that transfer culture and knowledge across communities and generations.
Norman Hazzard
I thought that the union service a few months ago with Christ United Methodist was such a positive experience that I would like us to consider doing that again sometime. Several of us know and interact with some of their members socially, but actually worshiping together gave me the feeling of genuine fellowship with them. I see that as a way of reaching out to a wider community.