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Return Again: A Sermon Marking the End of Sabbatical
Reverend Brian J. Kiely, Unitarian Church of
Edmonton, Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006
“Return again, return again, return to the home of your soul.”
In the last few weeks I have been feeling a growing eagerness to
come back to UCE and resume my life here in the home of my soul.
My sabbatical was a wonderful break, refreshing and renewing, although
with two active toddlers, I can’t say it was always that restful!
I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity to pursue some
dreams of my own for awhile.
But while I was away, I also did some reading and reflecting about
what my ministry would look like when I returned. There is some
ministerial lore that gets passed on from generation to generation.
One piece of wisdom suggests that on return from sabbatical one
does not just pick up where one left off. Instead, the wisdom suggests
that a new and different ministry begins. Why? Well, church leaders
will have grown in their ability to manage their responsibilities.
Plans and programs have moved on without my input – or interference.
There are some new faces in the church for whom this will truly
be a new ministry and some of the relational dynamics between us
and among yourselves will have changed. And of course, I have been
changed by the break in ways I probably do not understand yet.
There is another factor that almost demands a new ministry be shaped
by us all. A year ago we dedicated this building, a project we began
with the explicit intention of allowing our congregation to grow.
From the day seven years ago when we began this enterprise it was
clear that the congregation didn’t make this choice just to
get bigger, but because the members believed that we have something
wonderful here that we wish to share more widely. We weren’t
so much interested in our growth as in the growth of the people
who might seek us out if we had space for them.
Well, we have the space, now, and the prospect of growth, but that
brings the new challenge. We are on the edge of what people in the
church systems biz call a size transition. Let me read a quote from
a book by Alice Mann that describes where we have been and then
one about what lies ahead:
“Pastoral-size church: A coalition of two or three family
and friendship networks unified around the person and role of the
pastor. Clergy time is largely taken up maintaining a direct pastoral
relationship with each member, coordinating the work of a small
leadership circle, personally conducting worship, and leading (most)
small group programs… The governing board usually operates
like a committee, arranging much of the day-to-day life of the congregation.
Members recognize each other’s faces, know most people’s
names, and will notice if someone new is present at worship.”
Now, not every point in the above description fits us exactly,
but enough of them do that most of you can probably see the core
truth of the framework. There isn’t much going on around here
that I don’t know about. In many instances people who have
the authority to make decisions, still run their ideas past me,
just to make sure. I don’t think it’s that am so wise
or insightful…it’s just the way things typically get
done in this size of congregation. I also get to greet most newcomers
and offer the orientation course for prospective members. For better
or worse, most of what goes on in our church runs through or by
my office.
But that is a model that does not work in a larger congregation.
The sheer size of numbers demand a different way of operating. No
one person nor even a handful of leaders can manage everything that
is happening or should be happening in our church. Frankly UCE is
already too large for the Board and me to handle well. There are
good ideas not being realized for lack of leadership. There are
possibilities for enriching and deepening the life of our community
that are being missed.
No matter what the denomination or where the congregation is located,
at just about the size we are now, things begin to change. Either
the congregation begins to manage its activities in a different
way, or else the membership and attendance numbers shrink back down
to a size where the pastoral model can continue to function.
Right now we are starting to move to the next size. Alice Mann
describes it this way:
“Program-size church: Known for the quality and variety of
its programs. Separate programs for children, youth, couples, seniors,
and other age and interest groups provide entry points for a wide
range of people. The pastor’s crucial role is to recruit,
equip, and inspire a small circle of key program leaders –
paid and unpaid. The ring of (program) leadership might include,
for example, the choir director, the (Director of Religious Education),
the youth group leader, the (pastoral care leader) and the head
(of the Membership Committee). Working as a team with the pastor,
they reach out and involve others as program participants and as
leaders. Decision making is broadly distributed within the wider
leadership circle (perhaps 50 people) and pastoral care is shared
by the laity.”
Sounds easy, perhaps even attractive. I love the idea of being
able to offer more diversified programs that reach out to a broader
range of interests. For too long our adult programs have been directed
at people in the first five years as Unitarians, and that leaves
a large group unserved. We need to provide another level of offerings
for our already experienced members. I love the idea of more people
in leadership. But all of those good things can be challenging to
achieve.
First off, there will be a number of us who are comfortable with
the church we have now. That includes me. I know how to be a minister
in a pastoral sized church. I’ve been doing it for 16 years.
And yes, I kind of like it that so much gets run past me. It feeds
my teeny tiny ego. This growth opportunity, though, will demand
new skills from me which will take me out of my comfort zone. That’s
a little scary.
As for the members of the congregation? I have already heard a
few expressions of concern that we may lose the feel of community
that we now have, that we may become too bureaucratic, that we are
or will become too focused on money. I have respect for these concerns,
and yet I can also assure you they are commonly expressed during
this kind of size transition. Sometimes those fears are realized,
sometimes they aren’t. It all depends on how well the congregation
manages the transition and how willing the members are to embrace…or
at least tolerate the stress of change. Change is always challenging
and frightening.
But I can also assure you from experience, that there are close
friendships to be had in the program sized church. There is an expanded
opportunity for the growth of community and of spirit. The program
sized church is every bit as much the ‘home of the soul’
as the pastoral sized one. In fact, there are more opportunities
for personal growth in diversified program offerings, in small group
activities and in expanded leadership opportunities. The best thing
about successfully navigating the size transitions is that it will
give us so many more opportunities to release our gifts for ministry
to one another, to the community around us and to the future Unitarians
who have not yet found their way to our Sanctuary. It was the richness
of life in a program sized church that inspired me to pursue the
ministry some 20 years ago.
As we move through this wilderness, we have to remember the things
that drive our religion, the seven Principles. They can guide us
and keep us from dong this work badly. If we remember to affirm
each other’s worth and dignity, if we remember to be fair
and compassionate with one another, if we keep our eyes on the prize
of encouraging each other’s spiritual growth and if we test
major decisions democratically, to make sure people are ready to
move ahead, we will successfully negotiate this transition.
Will there be conflict? Almost certainly. We all know how difficult
it is to go through change in home and work lives. Why should it
be any different here in this community of human beings? But the
conflict need not be harmful or more importantly hurtful. If we
keep the Principles before us, if we frequently ask ourselves what
good Unitarian practice would be, then I believe we will come through
just fine.
This congregation has been moving towards program size for some
time. Some of our major committees already function in that model.
Next weekend we will be having our second meeting of all Committee
Chairs, another feature of the next size up. That’s the beginning
of that expanded circle of program leadership mentioned in the description.
It’s a chance to develop programs that fit together well,
and a chance to share ideas and inspiration.
And the Long Range Planning team has been working hard to help
us articulate the vision that will pilot us through the transition
and set a course for our future.
In the smaller sized church, articulating the vision isn’t
quite so important. Why? Because the handful of leaders who most
shape the community all chat with each other at coffee hour or in
the hallways or at meetings. They all more or less know what they
are trying to build or preserve. But as we grow, it’s a little
harder to share that knowing by osmosis.
By articulating a clear vision, people coming in and people coming
into leadership roles know what this congregation wishes to be,
how we see ourselves, how we wish to proclaim our understanding
of the Unitarian religion. Believe me, if we approve a vision statement
at the Annual Meeting on May 7, I promise that it will become a
part of my preaching, a part of our visible documentation and a
guideline for our committees. It will not die a lingering death
in a filing cabinet. Why? Because it must become the goal we seek
to attain and the yardstick by which our achievements are measured.
So let’s think for a moment about this working document,
the thing that will define the character of the ‘home of our
souls”.
“The Unitarian Church of Edmonton – a liberal religious,
multi-generational congregation.”
“We celebrate a rich mosaic of free-thinking, spiritually-questing
individuals joined in common support and action. We welcome diversity,
pursue the common good, and work for justice. We believe in the
compassion of the individual heart, the warmth of community, and
the search for meaning in our lives.”
It’s a beautiful statement, for it describes much of what
we do, but leaves room for considerable new work as well. For example,
we’re not really multi-generational yet. With 25 children
in the RE program and no effective youth group, that term can only
be seen as an aspiration for the future. We have certainly made
ourselves more attractive to young families, for there are more
of them coming, but we will have to build on that good start.
I believe we do welcome a diversity of ideas, but I think we have
a job ahead of wrestling with what welcoming diversity can really
mean. Shall we choose to reach out to the poor and disenfranchised
who live not far from our urban church? Shall we attempt to become
more racially and economically diverse? What would we have to change
about worship and community practice to achieve that? Those are
directions we have to explore. The same goes for justice. What kinds
of programs might we envision that will encourage us to be justice
makers in our lives and in the world.
And finally, what do we need to do to truly live in community in
a church that holds more people than any of us can know comfortably?
How will we come together in ways that allow us to make meaningful
contact with at least some of our fellow Unitarians? How will we
manage it structurally, emotionally and financially? If we adopt
this Vision Statement, we will have to expand upon our present answers
for those questions as we recreate this home of our soul.
The new and more wisdely shared ministry we begin together this
Easter Sunday must be focused on that emerging vision. We will have
to work together, most likely in new ways, to create the reality
envisaged in that statement. It might not always be easy, but neither
was building this church. And we learned from the renovation how
gratifying it can be to work together to realize a shared dream.
This is the home of our soul. But how soulful and homey it will
be is in our hands. Let us not drift through this time of change.
Let us instead engage with it passionately, creatively and in a
principled manner. Do that and we cannot go far wrong.
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