Bruce's Blog Archives

June 20, 2010

Church Communications

Last Harbinger, I wrote about someadministrative things,which I don’t normallydo, and this time I will do it again. I guess Bruce Beisner’s leaving leaves me thinking about how we will do things differently now. Before he left, he made a (long) list of all the things he did for us. He and I went over the list several times, and he lined up volunteers to carry on most of the tasks we can’t do without. We are now beginning the third week of the summer, running our office with volunteers, and it is going well. I will be hiring an office administrator later this summer. I’ll keep everyone posted as to progress, but it now looks as if we will remain on the volunteer plan at least for awhile.

As Bruce and I went over his duties list, a large number of them involved communications; so, I grouped all of them into one list. As we talked about how each of them was used, it became apparent to me that Bruce’s main job was communications, and the main benefit of having him as the central point of contact for all church activities was his ability to schedule, coordinate, and publicize all of them. With volunteers standing in (bless them!) it will be hard to maintain the level of coordination which we have been used to. Will you please bear with us during the summer months if a few things get out slowly or drop thru the proverbial cracks?

Reviewing the list of communications tasks Bruce performed, I created a spreadsheet to help analyze why we are doing what we are doing. (The engineer in me just loves spreadsheets.) Most of the “analysis” you see on it are my SWAGs, and I invite your input on it. With only a SWAG analysis it nevertheless became apparent we couldn’t keep up with all of these different ways of making announcements, etc. So, I recommended to the Board a couple of quick changes to help us this summer. We will make others over time in order to make our communications more effective and more efficient. Harbinger editor Sue Woodruff and her team asked me to tell you why we will go to one newsletter a month – at least temporarily. Our analysis told us what types of things the Harbinger does, and what it does best is to provide columns, articles and more detailed descriptions of opportunities. These things don’t come in most of our other communications vehicles. We need the Harbinger to continue doing that. What the Harbinger is less effective at is event scheduling - because our schedule changes daily.  Therefore the Harbinger calendar is always behind reality. Therefore, we will go to monthly publication of the Harbinger, which seems to be often enough for newsletter columns and articles.

We will still use email and phone for anything which needs to be communicated quickly. The most efficient scheduling tool we have is The NHF Calendar on our website. Especially while we are without an Administrator we will use it as the main central control point. It is a great tool for coordinating all events and announcements. We will be providing even more program content and details in The NHF Calendar in future. I encourage everyone to bookmark it onto your computer desktop and use it frequently.

I know this is a little technical for many people’s interests, and I promise to go back to normal, soon. In any case, if you have a comment, question or complaint about the Harbinger change or any other communications
issue, will you please let me know?

June 7, 2010

Leadership Transitions
Normally, I like to use my column to give a “mini-sermon,” (not quite sermon length and written rather than spoken) that is to talk about an issue of concern to the church or a new program and how it will affect our church
culture. I usually don’t talk about administrative things so much. However, with Bruce Beisner’s departure, administration is much on our minds, so I’m zigging in that direction today.

When Cece and I arrived here after driving cross country from Utah in the summer of 2007, there were no services at Northern Hills in July, and few people around the church, but Bruce was in the office to greet us. He and I immediately began what turned into a three year long conversation about how to make NHF work better administratively and as a system supporting its people. We worked together to solve problems and to propose policies to the Board of Trustees to keep us from falling in the same potholes the next time down the road. Bruce worked with volunteer leaders to improve communications; amongst other innovations, his revamp of the website has earned us much attention and praise. He is leaving to become a Chaplain Intern at Good Sam Hospital this summer, and the Intern Minister at Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church in the fall before completing his studies and other requirements for credentialing with the Unitarian Universalist Association thru the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. During his time here, he has given us a taste of his developing ministerial style, preaching from our pulpit, and creating what I could only call a pastoral presence in our office. His cheerful reception of all callers, visitors and emailers was welcoming and nurturing of us all. As Bruce moves into the next phase of his life and his ministry the long conversation will have to continue in a different form. We will miss him but look forward to hearing of his further successes for many years to come. Fare Thee Well Bruce B. !

Bruce did a great job lining up volunteers to cover key administrative functions for the summer - before he was offered the Heritage position which meant he would not return to us. We are now officially in an “Interim” period. We will be depending on everyone to do what they can to help out - and to be patient with us when we are less brilliantly organized than we were with Bruce B. at the helm. (In Navy parlance, I am still Officer of the Deck, but …I hope you can give me some slack without my right-hand man.) The Board has approved filling the position - as long as we stay within budget - with some leeway as to the hours, term of appointment, etc. I have already had several people express interest in the job even though we haven’t advertised one, yet. I will keep you informed as to our progress. Please note: It has
been our policy to fill permanent positions with people from outside - not NHF members. This is so relationships between members, volunteers
and paid staff can be clearly defined. In case we need to fill a position on a short-term or temporary basis, this policy may be bent.

May 16, 2010  About a month ago we re-oriented our sanctuary 90 degrees so we could see the spring flowers in our  Memorial Garden - and it feels like a very different place!Also, We have had several different kinds of worship services lately - one that was all-poetry reading, another in which we heard three different NHF families’ stories, and last Sunday the one put together by our Coming of Age class. It’s good to keep things interesting. 

I was sorry to have to miss the CoA service - I write this column in the library of St. Simeon’s, a residence for Seniors in Tulsa, where Cece and I are visiting her mom, Jean.  Cece and I were able to hear the CoA kids’ credos at their practice session, and we were awed by their depth of thought and by the authentic discernment they must have done to be able to articulate their spiritual lives they way they did.  I know the congregation was also duly impressed.  They provide a great example to us older folks for doing the work on ourselves it takes to grow in our faith.

When Cece and I were planning our trip, we looked for activities Tulsa to keep us busy between the visits we can make with her mother.  Her Alzheimer’s disease has progressed to the point she can only remain engaged with us for short periods at a time.  I had wanted to visit All Souls Unitarian Church, one of the largest UU churches, which now has a new, contemporary, praise-style service in addition to its more laid-back services. They were begun when the Rev. Carlton Pearson was invited to bring his followers to All Souls to preach his brand of Universalism after the high-profile pastor lost followers, his church building, money and prestige — especially among conservatives — after he started preaching his “gospel of inclusion” a few years ago - that the gates of heaven are open to everyone.  Alas, the Rev. Pearson has moved on to another congregation, so we have missed our chance to hear him preach in Tulsa.

So, Sunday morning at church time, we were in the Memory Center with the residents and staff.  The Activities Leader cheerfully described pictures from a large photo book on Oklahoma to a large roomful of people sitting in wheelchairs or comfortable armchairs. (Many seniors need arms on chairs to enable sitting and standing - we need some in our sanctuary.)  We all learned something - as much as our minds were able to absorb, or to remember something we knew about the beauty and wonders of the state.  What is more important, were able to transcend our quotidian lives and connect to something larger than ourselves.  I could never have had that experience in another place.  It may have taken a UU to have called this worship, but it was.   Cece and I of course felt love for her mom and her “congregation.”  there is a wonderful thing about Alzheimer’s - that helps balance the many not-good things, and that is that people smile at each other and say “I love you” to each other.  When a woman across the room noticed Cece, Jean, and me sitting together, holding hands and laughing at the stories, she told us we looked good together, and her smile made me smile.

That’s about all I can hope for out of worship on any given Sunday.  I hope you had as much.  When we see each other in church why don’t we see if we can “make” each other smile?

April 18, 2010: I was grateful to be able to attend our Heartland District (of the UUA) Meeting last week along with a great group of UUs from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and guests from Minnesota and Boston.  Our gracious hosts were the congregation and staff of the First UU Church of Ann Arbor, which is the largest church in our district.  As the worship coordinator for the Heartland UU Ministers Association chapter, I felt fortunate to work with many wonderful ministers, song leaders, singers, musicians, Heartland District staff and lay leaders to plan and create 4 inspiring worship services! (Going to a district meeting and doing lots of worship is like a busman’s holiday.) 

The Rev. Gail Geisenhainer, Ann Arbor’s senior minister is a great preacher, and the service Ann Arbor put on was full of joyful movement and music led by their young African American music director and accompanied by two drummers and piano.  I have a DVD of Gail’s preaching at General Assembly a few years ago if you’d like to borrow it and watch her deliver a very moving sermon.  (How about some or our Worship Associates getting together to watch and critique?) The Saturday afternoon service was the Installation of the Rev. Lisa Presley as our District Executive.  She is very competent and she is fired up and ready to go!  We look forward to a long and fruitful time under her leadership.

I attended several workshops, and my favorite was put on by several DREs on the topic of multi-generational activities.  There were ideas we could use in our YRUU group, Chalice Camp, worship services and more.  My favorite was to have an annual all-church weekend camp (or retreat for those not interested in sleeping on the ground).  I have shared the list I brought back with Brenda and will share them with the Worship Committee.  I also got ideas about making changes in a congregation go smoothly, inspiration for social action and updates on the state of Meadville Lombard and Andover Newton Theological Schools’ discussions of merger, the possibilities of changing General Assembly to every other year, and other UU gossip.  Will you please ask me if you are interested in learning more about any of these things?

Thank you for allowing me the time to go.  I feel these meetings with my colleagues and other highly motivated UUs from our Heartland District teach me a lot, maintain our connections to a strong network of UUs and UU resources, and benefit NHF, too.  I encourage you to consider attending a district event when you can.  (We would love to have a team of NHF leaders go to the Midwest Leadership School each year!)  By the way, Heartland District is putting on monthly “Webinars,” that is, training for UU leaders you can participate in at home on your computer.   Be sure to check these out on the Heartland District web site: www.heartlanduu.org

April 4, 2010: From time to time, this Great Recession of 2008 thru 2010 (we hope it ends this year) has gotten to me, gotten me down.  It is hard to pinch pennies and wonder if we’ll be alright.  I don’t have any financial advice today, but I thought you might feel better after reading about my amazing friend Leland, who I worked with for many years at the Tennessee Valley Authority.  Leland was a plant operator working rotating shifts at the Paradise, Kentucky electricity generating plant when his kidneys failed.  Leland was dealing with a life threatening disease, and he knew that he must take proper care of himself.  In spite of his diligent attempts, his health soon deteriorated because he could not adequately maintain the required regimen of diet and dialysis while working constantly changing hours and double shifts.
Humanely, TVA transferred Leland to a Monday thru Friday daytime job in my office in Chattanooga.  There, Leland was able to control his routine and to perform dialysis in his apartment on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  He also really watched his diet.  There were several foods he couldn’t eat because certain chemicals the kidneys normally remove would build up in his body.  Each Sunday he cooked his food for the entire week, weighed it out into specific sized servings, and placed them in baggies in the freezer.  Between dialysis days, he could only ingest 2 cups of liquid, including liquid in his food like gravy.  He was perpetually thirsty.  He felt pretty good on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the days immediately following dialysis days, but any more than about 24 hours past dialysis, the liquids and body wastes had built up and he usually felt pretty rough.  He learned he had to take it easier on those days.   This was the balance he reached trying to remain healthy while he waited for almost three years for a kidney transplant. 
Leland determined that on Saturday, the one day a week where he both felt well and was off from work, he was going to live life to the fullest extent he could.   On Saturdays Leland did things like fly the experimental self-launching glider airplane that he built.  He would guide its wing tips ever closer to the bluffs of Chilhowie Mountain to get the most out of the updraft there so he could soar longer.  He would go white water kayaking on the Ocoee River, site of the 1996 Olympic competition.  Once, I suggested that we go on a hike, and he turned it into a major event inviting about 40 friends along for a picnic.  Leland knew that his life would not be three score and ten, and that during much of it his activities might be limited.  Saturdays with Leland were big deals.  I learned an important lesson about life from Leland - which was to treat life as precious and to live it as fully as I possibly could.
So, as long as the Great Recession keeps our resources limited, let’s use it as an excuse to get everything out of what we have.  Don’t let it get you down or the (Wall Street) terrorists have won!

March 7, 2010: Here is an excerpt from Heartland District UUA Trustee, the Rev. Douglas Gallager’s report from the recent UUA Board meeting: At the January meeting we came to a general consensus, after years of studies and discussion at every level, that in order to ensure good governance, major reorganization needs to happen at the national (General Assembly), Board and District levels. Here’s the resolution that passed unanimously:
Because the next half-century of Unitarian Universalism requires excellence in governance, the UUA Board of Trustees will initiate a transformation of governance at the following levels: UUA Board, General Assembly and Districts and Regions.
The UUA Board will lead by working with other Association leaders in these initial ways: working with congregational delegates at General Assemblies in 2011 and 2012 to amend the UUA by-laws to significantly reduce the size of the UUA Board; inviting the President of the UUA, District Board Members, and District Presidents to continue our substantive discussion of the shift toward regionalization, during General Assembly 2010; holding some Board meetings in sites other than Boston to strengthen relationships with the Association's Member Congregations; and engaging youth and young adults and historically marginalized groups throughout Unitarian Universalism, to ensure that their voices are heard in our governance transformation as one of our Sources of Authority and Accountability.
This is the beginning of a wide ranging conversation. At this point I’d be particularly interested in suggestions as to how we might have more decision-making at the congregational level. In this time when we are electronically so connected there must be myriad issues that could be engaged at the congregational level rather than at GA or the Board. Looking ahead, between now and the April UUA Board meeting I will be offering to set up phone meetings of about an hour and a half in length with four Heartland congregations. These were selected randomly by the Linkage Working Group: All Souls in Grand Rapids, People’s in Ludington, and All Souls and UUI in Indianapolis.”
Since 2007, there has been ongoing work to find ways to make our annual meeting of all congregations, General Assembly, more democratic.  It seems the time has come to take action.  We should see more on this in the near future.  We need to inform ourselves on the issues so we can comment when the UUA asks for our opinions. For more information go to this online UUWorld article: http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/158307.shtml

February 21, 2010: A couple of months ago, in the midst of our annual Stewardship Campaign and budgeting process, I stated that the best way out of our budgetary shortfall was to add more members, and that the Board of Trustees was making growth a priority.    Accordingly, at the Trustees’ meeting last week we began to look at the “Big Picture” of church growth.  We started to outline all the areas which might change if and when we increase membership significantly such as:What are our goals for growth? How do we go about growing? What programs might we need to add or expand? What changes might be needed to our buildings and grounds? What will growth do to our finances? How would our church culture change, and what do we want it to become? Setting goals for growth and managing the transition from the size we are now to a slightly larger size will require lots of congregational participation.  Therefore it is important for all of us to learn something about what it takes to grow successfully. I invited Tom Lottman, who has been consulting with the Committee on Ministry on our implementation of Appreciative Inquiry processes, to our Board of Trustees meeting on growth, and in his typical proactive fashion he found an excellent free resource for us on the UUA website called “Congregational Growth in Unitarian Universalism.”  One chapter helps churches decide why they would want to grow.  Some of the reasons for growing we might list are: Serve our members better by filling CRE classes for each grade and being able to offer a more comprehensive Adult Education curriculum; We could have a stronger, healthier institution with financial stability; We could serve our community better with more opportunities for members to participate in social action projects.But the main reason the book gives is that “Healthy Congregations Grow.”  Now, we can deconstruct this statement in several ways.  We could say, we should grow if we want to be healthy, but I don’t think that’s what it means.  I think it means healthy congregations grow because people are attracted to them - and that’s an exciting prospect for us - to be both healthy and growing.  What’s more, we are healthy and growing!  So our first priority right now when it comes to growth is to continue to focus on congregational health and vitality.   (Yes guys, it really is all about relationships.)

January 3, 2010: As I sat down to write this, the # 3 Cincinnati Bearcats are getting ready to play the # 5 Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.  For most UC fans, this is the biggest football game in Cincinnati college football history. The Bearcats have gone undefeated throughout the regular season, and area fans are “Root, root, rooting for the Bearcats!” to win on national television on New Year’s Day.  I’ll have to admit that, even though I don’t consider myself much of a sports fan, I have been enjoying the festive atmosphere around Cincinnati these last few months as the team kept winning and climbing in the rankings.  Time out while I go into the other room to watch the game… Uh-Oh, the Bearcats lost the game.  It wasn’t pretty.  By the middle of the first half my expectant mood left me, and I was no longer optimistic about the chances for a win.  They did score a few times in the second half to prove they could play with the bigger boys on Florida’s team, but in the end, their showing was barely respectable considering they were ranked higher.   Maybe this isn’t anything new to long-suffering Bearcats fans who, prior to a few years ago knew many seasons of disappointment.  The hard fact of life as a sports participant or fan is that all teams lose games.  They will always provide us opportunities for learning how to deal with loss. Adults usually have coping mechanisms for dealing with loss (need I add – especially Reds fans?).  Maybe this Bearcats loss is a teachable moment for parents.   When young athletes agonize over the loss of a contest, parents often attempt to sooth them by repeating the age-old saying “It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game.”  This sentiment may help the child feel better, but that is probably due more to the parent’s show of concern for the child than to the child’s belief in the power of good behavior or of a strong effort on the field to remove the pain of losing a game.  They and we, at some level, all agree with golfer Tiger Woods who once said “Yup, winning is definitely better than losing.”  (This may be the last time I’ll quote him.)  I don’t want to negate the ethical implications of this adage; it does matter how we play the game, but that we’ll feel better if we played well and honorably is only part of what we can learn from experiencing loss. When we lose a game or fail to achieve one of our goals, we often learn to recognize one of our life’s limitations for the first time.  Receiving a rejection letter after applying for our ideal job may make us realize that we may need to look in another career direction.  The death of a friend or family member takes away opportunities for intimacy, and we have no choice but to look to others for companionship.  The Quakers call these “Way Closings,” and counsel that we should acknowledge the messages they can impart to us.  By doing so, we can at least be clear about what roads not to take as we map our future direction.  We can’t all be a Tim Tebow. (and very few of us can beat him, it seems.) The more we have invested of ourselves in a project or relationship, the more likely we are to feel humiliated if it doesn’t meet our expectations.  As painful as it seems at first, losses can bless us by teaching us about humility.  We learn humility when we understand that we are not superior beings, that we are a mix of strength and weakness, darkness and light.  Humility helps to “embrace the humanity we share with others.” Humility is essential to the spiritual life.  It brings us low, but eventually to a firmer sense of self from which we can grow our lives from the ground up. In humility there is freedom.  It gives us independence in the knowledge that our lives don’t depend on fulfilling our ambitions. So - Go Bearcats! But if they don’t win, let’s get together to celebrate anyway.  We can celebrate our connectedness and our humanity.  This is what the real Bearcats fans have learned.

December 6, 2009: I love this church!  I am grateful to the members of Northern Hills Fellowship for allowing me to serve as your minister during the year of 2009.  As we go through our third church program year together, I feel we know what to expect from each other, and things are running smoothly.  With the country in a deep recession for over a year now, we have managed to keep afloat financially, unfortunately having to use some of our precious reserves and working extra hard on fund raisers, but keeping our programs going and growing through the tough times.  More people than ever are involved in worship, Children’s Religious Education (CRE), social action work, and our Small Group Program.  The positive energy in the congregation is palpable!
At this year’s “Annual Meeting” of the membership, we will vote on moving the dates of the “Church Program Year” to begin and end in mid-summer to coincide more naturally with the cycle of our Worship and CRE programs which run from September through June with July and August at reduced levels of scheduling.  The Board continues to move toward a more policy-based style of governance in which we look at how well we are doing at accomplishing NHF’s mission, and in collaboration with the congregation set goals for our future.  With the Committee on Ministry leading the way, we have been learning how to use a process, new to us but one we feel is in harmony with UU values, called Appreciative Inquiry.  In our “Cottage Meetings” last spring members shared stories of NHF’s past, got to know each other better one-on-one, and began to lay out a vision for our future.  In our workshop on December 5th, using Appreciative Inquiry techniques, we created “Provocative Propositions” for the Beloved Community we hope NHF will become in the near future.  The excitement for these ideas was apparent by the commitment of folks to carry them out.
We are looking at another trying financial year starting out with a deficit budget.  We have had to postpone our plans for contributing to our employees’ healthcare and retirement, and we will have to cut some employee work hours in 2010.  The Board of Trustees and Staff remain committed to keeping the quality of children’s programming and worship high.   I believe we can support our current level of programming with the people we have, but we must get out of deficit spending mode soon.  The Board of Trustees just created a policy that we not allow our savings to go below what we need for 3 month of operations.  We are not at this low point, but we can’t continue spending our savings for non-emergency operations another year.  We need a focus on growing our congregation if we are to remain viable financially, and the Board of Trustees is going to put some work on growing our membership numbers soon.
Folks made a difference in several program areas this year.  The most exciting new program was “Chalice Camp” last summer, planned and run by moms and attended not only by our children but some from the neighborhood and neighboring UU churches.  In its first year, our Green Team has begun new initiatives in making our building and processes more environmentally friendly.  On the Social Action front, we stepped up our support for Valley Interfaith Food and Clothing, Prepare Affair, and the UU Service Committee.  In accordance with our Ethical Eating Congregational Study/Action Issue, we are now using and selling Fair Trade Coffee, and it tastes great!  We bought new “Singing the Journey” hymnals and have been learning lots of new songs.  Our DRE led a sprucing up of the RE Wing which included making the Trapezoid Room nice for our new monthly Children’s Chapel and Adult Ed classes.  New Small Groups were formed, and new leadership stepped up on committees and teams.  We have a lot to offer people looking for a church.  Our Office Administrator continued to improve our website, www.UUNHF.org.  I often hear from visitors how much they like it.  A couple of volunteers put us on Facebook, and we are using social networking to put our church on the web so people can find us.
Our congregation is a welcoming community where people find supportive relationships.  Our Committee on Ministry continues work on creation of a Covenant of Beloved Community for NHF which will articulate more why this is so and what we can do to make it a more loving and life giving place for us all.  Even though we are in a tight spot financially (and who isn’t right now?) I am excited about where we are going.  I believe we can all look forward to another good year at NHF!
On a more personal note, I want to thank everyone who has worked with me and evaluated me (Boards of Trustees, Committees on Ministry) to meet the requirements of the UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC).  In September, the MFC granted me “Final Fellowship” status with the UUA.  This comes nine years after I started on the path to UU ministry.  Whew!  

November 15, 2009: The latest issue of "Interconnections", the newsletter for UU congregational leaders, lists a good article on how Congregations  Strive, Survive As Recession Hangs On http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/leaderslibrary/interconnections/151592.shtml
Once again this year, early results from our Stewardship Campaign are encouraging in that most people are giving at the same or more than last year, but discouraging in that it doesn’t look like pledges and other projected income will cover projected expenses.  The final tally and budget will be out in time for the annual congregational meeting scheduled for December 6.  The Board of Trustees will work through our options and come up with a proposal for dealing with the shortfall.  Some of our options include: Cutting paid staff and /or our pledge to the UUA and District (probably causing them to cut staff); Having another fund raiser  - later in the year; Adding 10-15 members.  [This has to be our preferred option!} Can you think of others? But don’t worry, NHF is going to survive – and thrive.  I am optimistic about the number of members, children and visitors attending on Sundays, the quality of our programs, the quantity of small group programs (for a small church), the work we have done building our beloved community, and more.  The Board of Trustees is making strides at better governance, and our paid staff is top notch.  I know we can grow!  We intend to make a specific effort to do just that in the coming months.
How to grow a church is not a secret.  It really comes down to doing the basics well.  We can take a lesson from the Bengals and Bearcats who have (finally) learned to block and tackle.  If the Bengals can play defense, and the Bearcats can go to a bowl, we can grow our membership.  Remember, the number one best way to bring in new members - Invite a friend to church!
I am excited about the workshop sponsored by the Committee on Ministry on Building a Beloved Community on Saturday December 5. We’ll create Provocative Propositions that will build energy and enthusiasm for our future.  I hope to see you there!

October 4, 2009: On September 24, the Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City for three decades, died after three years battling cancer at the age of 61.  Many UUs know him through one or more of the twenty-five two books he wrote or edited including two during his final illness.  Most of us have read A (or Our) Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism, co-written with former UUA President John Buehrens.  His last book, The Cathedral of the World: A Universalist Theology, which represents the culmination of his spiritual thought, will be published in November by Beacon Press.  According to his church’s website tribute to him, he “transformed All Souls from a quiet congregation with a distinguished history into the nation’s most visible exponent of liberal religion” and one of our largest UU churches with over 1400 members.
          One of his first books was Father and Son: A Personal Biography of Senator Frank Church of Idaho by his Son.  You may remember Senator Church was one of the first to oppose the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and he chaired committees which conducted investigated extra-legal FBI and CIA intelligence-gathering and covert operations and laid the groundwork for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.  Forrest, his father’s namesake early on had to decide whether to follow him into politics.  No doubt he could have been a success in that arena, but we surely have been blessed by his decision to go into ministry.  In one of my favorite of his books, The American Creed, he combined his knowledge of American political and religious history to argue that “the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence are a natural extension of covenant theology from congregation to nation.” In that book, he shows how closely Jefferson’s language in the Declaration adheres to enlightenment ideals and the religious values of his (claimed) Unitarian faith. (Church also edited The Jefferson Bible.) Proximity to television network headquarters combined with his towering intellect made him a favorite “go-to guy” when national TV news wanted a comment from a liberal religionist’s viewpoint.  He was probably the most recognized UU personality, and in his last years, All Souls added “Minister of Public Theology” to his title.  He used his celebrity to become a prophetic voice for Unitarian Universalism. 
          You may have heard his interview on National Public Radio a little over a year ago in which he talked about what he believed at the time would be his last work, Love & DeathMy Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow.  In that interview, I heard one of his most often repeated quotes: “Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.”  Even close to his own death, he continued to minister to all of us by talking publicly about his experiences.  From the book:
“Death is central to my definition of religion.  Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.  We are not the animal with advanced language or tools as much as we are the religious animal.  Knowing that we must die, we question what life means.  The answers we arrive at may not be religious answers, but the questions death.”

September 6, 2009: Summer has been for my spirit.  For relaxation, I worked in our garden in the cool mornings and walked our dog Phoebe in the evenings. (and still gained weight!)  I spend part of my leave time each summer in study and preparation for the church program year, and I find attending General Assembly the best way to start my process of renewal.  Besides the conversations with colleagues and old friends, the moving worship and great lectures, I learn from workshops and the debates on actions of social witness and changes in our bylaws.  I also get to shop for UU bling.  This year I bought a book for use by small groups called “Heart to Heart” which offers meetings on topics such as Listening, Balance, Money, Nature, Sustainable Living, and more.  I get to browse the UUA Bookstore ideas to make into sermons, and I always buy as many books as I can carry home in my suitcase.  Ann McCracken wrote of learning about church governance at UU University programming given the first two days of GA.  At UUU, I attended a workshop on Theology, and I will incorporate some ideas from it in future sermons.  (Yes, I think UUs can have a theology.) Talk about a great minister’s holiday! 
At the UU Ministers Association meeting, which happens just before GA, I attended a half day workshop on “Non-Anxious Presence.”  This can also be part of what is called “Non-Violent Communication,” and I like to think of it as “Compassionate Communication.”  If you are interested, Google one of these terms – there is lots of info on them out there.  Our presenter gave us several techniques which can help keep a conversation from escalating into an argument and for dealing with someone in distress.  I am studying more about this and will be trying to put them into practice.  I am excited to introduce some of these concepts into our Covenant of Beloved Community process because I think they fit so well with what we are trying to do with that. 
Ann went to a workshop on marketing your church, and I went to one on the UUA’s use of the internet for marketing.  Boston is doing some very cool things which end up sending people to our church websites, and we are hearing that from visitors.  (Every visitor I talk to has checked us out on the web before they come to NHF for the first time!)  We both were moved to try some of the ideas at NHF as a way to reach out to our community and promote growth.  One idea was to use Facebook, Twitter, and anything else on the internet thru which we can tell others about us.  We are already on some social networking sites, and we are increasing our presence on them all the time.   Are you a member of the NHF Facebook group, yet?  It’s fun!  If you have ideas for marketing NHF– let us hear them!
Another part of GA that always inspires me is taking part in the social justice debates and actions.  This year, we continued working on the Congregational Study Action Issues (CSAIs) on Ethical Eating and Peacemaking.  Every year we have services dedicated to CSAIs, and I hope we can find more ways to participate in the process. Participants at this GA kicked off the UUA’s new social action campaign called “Standing on the Side of Love” with a rally in downtown Salt Lake City protesting a recent change in the Utah state law on immigration modeled after the awful one in Oklahoma.  Several church dignitaries attended, including our outgoing UUA president, Bill Sinkford, and candidates Laurel Hallman and Peter Morales (who won).  We made the TV news and the newspapers that week. “Standing on the Side of Love”  is a public advocacy campaign whose goals are to influence public attitudes about the worth and dignity of all and to mobilize quick and effective responses to incidents of exclusion, oppression, or violence based on intolerance of people base on their identity. (race, gender, citizenship, etc.)  Check out the brand new website, http://www.standingonthesideoflove.org/ (notice what my former Ogden church has done) and take the “Standing on the Side of Love” pledge.
GA delegates narrowly rejected the proposed revision of our Principles and Purposes.   I would be happy to talk to anyone about what happened and where the process may go from here.  I refer you to the article in the July 6 issue of UU World magazine for details of the debate and the objections people had to the new wording, (online at: http://www.uuworld.org/news/articles/144391.shtml)   Delegates approved a resolution that urged the UUA board to facilitate an ongoing conversation at all levels of the Association about the Principles and Purposes until another revision comes before a future GA.
All-in-all, GA provided me lots of stimulating ideas - what ministers call “sermon fodder,” a chance to catch up with many of my former UU Church of Ogden congregants, and inspiration for the new year.  I encourage you to think about joining me in attending the next GA in June 2010 in Minneapolis and so you can feel the excitement firsthand.

June 21, 2009: Thanx for another great Northern Hills Fellowship church program year! I am now officially on my summer schedule.  I leave Monday June 22nd for Salt Lake City to attend the annual UU Minister’s Association Center Days (Training) and the General Assembly (GA) of the UU Association of Congregations (UUA).  I encourage you take a look at the GA website which will have streaming video, blogs, and other UU news of the week.  You can find it from www.UUA.org Cece will join me in Salt Lake Friday, and next week we will drive thru the “Intermountain West,” the mountains of eastern Utah and western Colorado. We’ll be back in town on July 3rd.  I will be at home most of the summer splitting my time between vacation leave and study leave.  I will not be coming to the church for regular office hours in July and half of August, but I am available in an emergency or if you just need to talk.  Please don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.  (It gets pretty lonely without y’all.)  You may always call me on my cell phone wherever I am and whenever.
Have a good summer.  Have fun at Chalice Camp! Check out the services at St. John’s in July and back at Northern Hills in August.  Don’t forget to collect some water on your travels to bring to our Ingathering/Water Communion service on September 13th.

In April I received a call from Jim Gunning, a member of the UUA Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) asking me to attend the annual meeting of 5th/3rd Bank headquartered here in Cincinnati to read a statement in favor of a Shareholder Resolution submitted by the UUA.  The resolution requested a report from 5th/3rd describing their strategies to address the environmental and social impacts of 5th/3rd’s business, including strategies to address climate change.  I agreed to represent the UUA and went to my first corporate annual meeting down at the Duke Energy Convention Center.  I was ushered to a special seat and read the statement when my time came.  It was very interesting to hear 5th/3rd’s CEO explain the banking debacle of the last year (as much as I could understand) and paint a hopeful picture for the bank’s future.  It was a somewhat different perspective than I had been hearing on the news.

The statement sent to me by UUA Treasurer and CFO, Tim Brennan, read in part: “Our motivations for making this proposal are twofold:  first, the urgency to take action addressing the climate change crisis springs directly from our values as a religious denomination. … Second, we believe that the overwhelming evidence that climate change will drastically affect life on earth will soon lead to regulations limiting the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. …  When emitting these gasses is no longer free, the current lack of significant efforts on the part of our Company to evaluate loans and investments in light of these factors could have substantial adverse impacts on the Company’s finances and reputation. The report that we are requesting on behalf of all shareholders should include the Company’s definition of sustainability and a Company-wide review of policies, practices, and metrics related to long-term social and environmental sustainability.  We recommend Fifth Third use the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to prepare the report. GRI is an international standard for sustainability reporting developed through collaboration among the business, environmental, human rights and labor communities.”

Unfortunately, I had to report to Tim that less than 30% of shareholders’ voted for the resolution.  His email response to me said in part: “Actually, 30% is an OUTSTANDING response for a first-time resolution on this issue…. The real exercise here is to demonstrate that many of their biggest shareholders think that the climate change issue is material and that a sustainability report would enhance shareholder value.  I'm sure we got their attention.  We'll definitely be going back to them next year, first with an offer for dialogue, and then with a resolution if necessary.  Thanks very much for your help.  This is important work.  We'll keep you informed about the campaign.”

Shareholder Resolutions are just one of the tools the UUA uses to influence the policies of corporations on issues on which we have taken positions through our social justice processes.  I encourage you to learn more about how you can use your UU values in personal investing and how effective our Association is in its efforts to hold corporations to higher ethical standards by looking at the SRI pages on the UUA website: http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/responsibleinvesting/index.shtml

May 3, 2009: At a recent New UU class, a potential new member nervously asked, “Just what is expected of me if I join the church?”  This question is likely lurking in the minds of nearly all “church shoppers.”  This person followed up his question with a story of belonging to another church which seemed to care more for his money than for him.  He wanted assurances that would not be the case here at NHF.  Conversely, my column title can be turned around 180 degrees and turned into a question asked of the church: “What do people expect out of membership in NHF?”  I answer these two questions from new and potential members all the time. This is what I’ve been telling them:

We expect active members to participate in the church community: Our community gathers each Sunday for Worship, Children’s Religious Education, Adult Forum, and Coffee Hour.  Established members help new people to integrate into the congregation by participating in small groups, projects, committees, music and social events.  Members benefit from a myriad of resources by connecting with the Unitarian Universalist Association.
NHF provides an environment in which members can nurture their personal spiritual life:  Our Fellowship is a place which celebrates life, stimulates creativity and an exchange of diverse ideas, and fosters spiritual and intellectual exploration.  Members develop and follow their own religious beliefs, respecting and appreciating those of others.
NHF encourages members to practice their own personal ministry: We support responsible actions to preserve the ecology, to reduce oppression and promote compassionate justice in the world.  Besides looking inside for answers, peace, and happiness, members practice what they believe by helping others.  Members’ personal ministries may involve supporting their own families, and/or working in their larger communities.
We expect members to contribute time, talent, and resources to support church programs: Northern Hills Fellowship is an inclusive liberal religious community dedicated to the Unitarian Universalist principles.  We believe we have something important to offer, and it takes all of us to keep our church strong and available to people in the Cincinnati area.  Members support the work of the church by serving on committees, teaching a Religious Education class, participating in worship services, or by helping on one-time projects.  Members make responsible financial contributions commensurate with the needs of the church and their ability to give.

The good news is there is much joy and fulfillment to be had through active membership in Northern Hills Fellowship.  We welcome all who would join us.

March 16, 2009: What is a “Beloved Community,” and Why would I want one? This question was posed at (at least) one of the cottage meetings now in progress.  These meetings are sponsored by our Committee on Ministry (CoM) and Board of Trustees in order to collect every member’s ideas to help us build a lovegiving and lifegiving church community.  A second primary purpose of the meetings is for participants to experience the kind of affirming relationships we hope to foster.  We are using some techniques from an organization building process called “Appreciative Inquiry.”  Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has worked well in many businesses and is catching on in UU churches.  It’s premise, that approaching relationships with an attitude of appreciation for the other person’s ideas makes for a great organization, seems to resonate with our UU principles.
So – what is a “Beloved Community”?  Well, the term has been around for awhile and had some specific connotations when used by Martin Luther King, Jr. for example.  “The “beloved community” he was describing was based on nonviolent activism for peace and justice with the goal of a global community of caring where poverty, hunger and injustice are no more.” But what I mean by it is whatever definition Northern Hills people give it.  The concept of Beloved Community is idealistic to be sure, but not sentimental.  Our vision of community will include respectful and loving relationships, and it will recognize that conflict is natural and must be worked through.  Our desired community will include members of Northern Hills, and it will be welcoming to visitors and integrated with our wider community.  These are just some of my ideas; people at cottage meetings generated many more.  The CoM will compile the input from the meetings and bring the product back to the congregation for the next step in creating our covenant of beloved community.
AI is also useful as a visioning process?  Our Trustees are contemplating using it in the future as a means to communicate with the congregation about program direction.  At present, we think the Board might choose a program area (or two) each year to evaluate and set new goals.  A couple of our members have used AI in their work organizations, and we plan to learn more from them.  But I digress.
Why would I want a “Beloved Community”?  I want to be part of a community of people who live out Unitarian Universalist principles.    I want my church to both support me and challenge me spiritually.  I want a place where I can tell my story and hear the stories of others.  I want a place where we aren’t afraid to “go deep” – where we talk about the really important things of life.  I want a place where we can practice loving one another – not a surface or sentimental kind of love – but a long term, committed love.  All these things are important to my well being and, I believe, to the well-being of our congregation.  I’m sure if you think about it just a little, you can add your own wants to this list.
Before I became a minister my former jobs were interesting and rewarding, and I had close friends at my former workplaces, but I wouldn’t say we ever were a beloved community.  For that, I depended on my UU church.  And because it was, we were able to address life’s ultimate issues.  The UU church was where I found guidance on how to make my family, workplace and community more humane.  All of the UU churches with which I have been affiliated have been beloved communities in several significant ways, and each of them had areas on which they hoped to improve.  A UU church can be a living laboratory which experiments with living out UU values and learns from experience the skills of relationship.  Northern Hills is already a beloved community; we simply want to make it more so.  I hope you will join us in the attempt.  

February 16, 2009: At our Board of Trustees meeting the other night I had to brag on our recently formed Parent Covenant Group.  Members of the group are bonding, and they have lots of energy and ideas for projects.  It is one of the best things going at NHF.  Then, two nights later, one of the parents came to the Worship Committee meeting with some ideas generated by the group to help make worship work better for kids.  We talked about how to involve the children in rituals.  One idea we want to pursue is to have the congregation learn by heart a few simple, child friendly, opening hymns that we will use on a regular basis.  We and our children already know our Covenant:                      
Love is the spirit of this Fellowship,
And service is its law.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek the truth in love,
To help one another: 
This is our covenant.

And we sing our children on their way to RE with these familiar words: 
            Go in love, our hearts go with you.
            Go in joy, our hopes go too.
            Learn in love and grow in wisdom.
            Shine your light in all you do.

These kinds of rituals, symbolic and repetitive aesthetic actions which express our community’s story, engaging both our memory and vision, are highly appropriate experiences for both children and adults.  The rituals in our liturgy involve our subjective, experiential and intuitive modes of consciousness.  Children have a natural capacity for insight, imagination, understanding, and knowing, that does not have to develop into some higher form in order for them to have genuine religious experiences.  Religion is experienced before it is explained, and childhood experiences of the ultimate are quite real.
As we grow older, thoughts our childhood experiences of church, if we were churched as children, grow dim, but usually a few memories remain.  A song, a teacher’s smile, the smell of Angel Biscuits baking: sensory images are most often remembered.  A positive sense of what church means, experienced in childhood, can later be nurtured, even if lost for awhile.  If later in adulthood our children don’t remember all the words to our covenant and children’s recessional, I hope some things about peace, love, joy, wisdom and service stay with them.  These two little verses embody the essence of our Fellowship.  Love, learning and service are the central values, and creating a joyful, inclusive, beloved community is the ultimate goal.
Love is the key to personal relationships; 1-on-1, in our families, and in the larger community.  Love is the foundation for our Unitarian Universalist principles and for our identity in community.  I know the word love has been misused, can be a cliché, and makes some of our more rationalist members squirm.  Love comes with a lot of baggage, but because of the enormous importance it has on our relational lives it behooves us to get it right.  We make mistakes in relationships every day, but when we focus on love, as we work to perfect our actions, we make ourselves into the people we want to be.  The primary task of our church community is to cultivate love amidst all the tumult of our families, our work world, our schools and our congregational life.
Our children may or may not remember the words to our covenant, but I hope they experience at Northern Hills the kind of loving relationships and beloved community that nurtures them now and that creates in them a lifelong quest to become more loving people.  Regardless of how comfortable we are with the word love, regardless of how good we are at giving and receiving love, we are loving, relational beings at our core.  It is the goal of our church to help us stay in touch with the love at the center of our being.  May we and our children know more love.

Read Bruce's MOST RECENT BLOG entry.