Today was Pentecost, and the service was about the influence of the Holy Spirit within us, both personally and as a force for change in the church. Twenty people were present at Forward Chats, where the topic was change.
OPENING QUESTION:
What are the qualities in this church that would we want to preserve for our children and grandchildren? The idea behind the question was that we can preserve the values that are important to us, but still find new ways to express them.
WARM WELCOME, CARING COMMUNITY
Warmth and welcoming atmosphere especially for new folks (5-6 people dittoed this)
Spirit of community, a caring community
A church that reaches out to others unconditionally
Feeling of being at home
Growth toward being REALLY Open and affirming
BUILDING
Building in good shape, in use, light on spire, looks cared for, gives a good impression
If we can’t grow the congregation and keep the building, then use the building as a cultural center
YOUNG PEOPLE
Active Sunday School
A church that is still relevant, still capable of drawing people into faith and worship
SERVICE
Culture of service to others
FAITH
Diversity of belief and theology
STYLE
Participatory music (not just music that is listened to)
Music that is more varied, broad, comes from other musical and religious traditions (folk, taizé, hymns in Spanish, etc.)
HOW DO WE MAKE THIS CHURCH ATTRACTIVE TO OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, AND YOUNG PEOPLE LIKE THEM?
Maybe we don’t need this building
Maybe it’s the people who are the real church – you can feel at home as long as our church family is still together
Maybe we’d be out doing more, being closer to the community, if we didn’t consider the building so important a part of our identity
If we had no building, we might meet in people’s homes, as house churches, which builds closer relationships than is possible at church
If the building were too much to take care of, we could sell it and rent back the Sanctuary for services
Note also the idea mentioned earlier that we might feel good about the building having a second life as a cultural center
This was a difficult conversation with a lot of silences, but people did try to engage with the concept
Need to go out and do, not just talk about our values – walk the walk
Gail mentioned a church that visits laundromats, hands out snacks and quarters and chats in a friendly way
Going out into the community seems hard because people are not sure what to do. They don’t believe in proselytizing like Jehovah’s Witnesses. So how do we live the faith outside the walls?
o Set a good example? Yes, but people asked, how? And how are others going to connect your good example with this church?
o It helps when we have leaders pushing us, the way Tara encouraged us to join the Gay Pride march, etc. But we have had only spotty leadership for quite a while. Can we make up for that with Working Teams?
Maybe we need a younger pastor
to attract a younger congregation – someone who shares younger people’s styles
Andrea said that we need to know where we want to go as a church BEFORE we try to choose a pastor
Dale Miller-Bouton talked about using a recruiting agency like Shepherd’s Staff - she explained how it worked – some people expressed concern that they might send us candidates that are too conservative (they’re in Texas)
We will want to know where the candidates have been trained
Essex UU had an entire weekend of social events to get to know proposed pastor, not just a sermon and then a vote
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
June 16 – we will not meet because of Fred’s send-off party
June 23 – discussion of where we’d like to see the church go in the sh