"I think the most disappointing thing about poor leadership is that everyone thinks its ok to act that that way too."-Something I said in 2017
I had the best conversation with the Worship Team for Summer Institute. I am serving as their worship associate this year as I did last year. But, I do a little more than just act as a worship associate.
It's kinda like coordinating all the parts of service. . . But it is every single day for a week. It is the most joyous thing that I have done at SI outside of vulnerably singing my heart out. And, just so you know, it was at SI that I was convinced that I would like to be a Commissioned Lay Minister.
We are planning worship around how to model communicating our values in our world. How do we do it when we interact with folks who are not UU's? This is so important at this time in our world. And it is a challenge for all of us.
But we are made for these times.
It always seems that as soon as I say yes to one thing, life brings in some of the opposite to make sure that I really mean it. So, I signed the book to be a member of First Unitarian Church around 1998, and I've been growing pretty steadily spiritually, if not in other ways.
Then, people asked me what church I attended and I just said so and went about my business. Perhaps, people had questions. Maybe I had questions...mostly those questions were solved by the time I decided to sign the book, though.
My alter ego, kept asking questions as usual though.
You sure? These folks don't look like you? But, they think like me.
You sure? What will your closest friends and family think about you going to church with these folks?
Eventually, I asked my biggest supporters to join me at church. My aunt and my mentor visited me and we attended church together.
My High School Mentor and National Honor Society Advisor:
Well, it was a service during Black History month that we attended. She was impressed. My mentor, known for speaking out and speaking up, also made a great impression on the interim minister at the time. When I asked the interim minister if she had met my mentor, her eyes widened and she shook her said and said YEEESSSS!
My Aunt:
My aunt, a community worker like me, often said of our family church that they never did anything for poor people. She came to church with me once when she was visiting, I was a young adult then and gave her the full tour of what I did. . . church service and the usual visit with the folks in the young adult group. She said to me later in a phone call, I need to get me a church like that. So, she, too, was okay with my choice of church and community.
So, I thought, alright, I'm cool.
My mother and my father?
Well, taking the easier answer first, I told my father that I found a church and that when they talked about Jesus, they talked about what Jesus taught. My father answered affirmatively.
His affirmation meant a lot to me. You, see, my father never ceased to run to the front door before any of my family members when people came by proselytizing the "gospel." My dad had a lot to say to them...lots of arguing and chasing people away.
It was something I never understood until recently, when I found out that the father I lived with ....who I never saw go to church...was a Sunday school teacher in his family's Baptist Church!
My mother.....wellll. . .
My mother was saved in her family's Pentecostal Church. So one holiday season, I told her that I was spending Christmas Eve with a homeless family staying at our church. My mother said, she couldn't be doing that. I don't know what she meant. It could mean anything.
But what matters most is what I think and what I say about what Unitarian Universalism. What does it mean to me.
What do we tell people when they ask who we are?
I had some time to think about this and talk about it, recently. One of the exercises, my mentor in the Commissioned-Lay Ministry program had me do, involved writing this out and talking about it.
Ok, so it was a sermon that I did with her and her congregation. I got to kinda test the waters...
Here's the point, I am going all UU full-time...just like Rev. Tim talked about in one of his sermons. And if you might be interested in figuring out how you can tell folks who you are -- who your religious community is, you might be interested in attended Summer Institute this year.
The theme is about Communicating our UU values.
I bet you are wondering...
When is she gonna speak from our pulpit? Where is she with worship at First Toledo?
Well, I'm working on it. And I will be asking for your help. So to get ready to work with me. And look into Summer Institute this year.
