I know I've been a slacker blogger lately. But blogging is a lot like my my work, and my work in a church which seems to have burst through another size category has been pretty intense lately. We're planning for a third service, probably a contemporary-style service, and it does seem that all the "ways we do things" don't work very well at the moment. I tell myself there are worse problems, but re-thinking church from the ground up is a lot of work. Ergo, no blogging.
I am taking care of myself, however, enjoying weaving in my spare time. Check it out!
5 comments:
We Universalists are a forgiving lot, so no worries about your abscence from the Blogosphere. And FUCA is still growing? At this rate, might as well experiment, since it seems impossible to go down in size, and the worst outcome of slowed growth looks like it may well be a pleasant respite.
As for re-thinking, it's what the faith is asking of us today, as evidenced by the current situation with YRUU.
In faith
Yes we're up to 730 members at the moment...that over 50% growth since 2001. Makes one dizzy!
As to YRUU, it's always hard when things change, and hard when things one has benefited from are somehow declared to be lacking for others. I'd be angry, too, I think, if I had been a happy YRUU'er. (I wasn't of course. Nor was I a happy LRY'er. I went straight from sunday school to the adult choir, gladly passing the LRY group which was into sex and dope in my neck of the woods..and most other places.
More in my next post.
Despite my high involvement (or because of?), I can say that I was discontent with YRUU, but that I differentiated between district level and the local youth group, with which I rarely encountered trouble, whose activities seem the least vulnerable from this new development. And certainly, YRUU had some of the same failings of LRY, and it is very tricky to balance the good of continental community with degeneration into activities threatening to both the church image, the church community, and the participants themselves. Reform is good; the frustration stems from the perceived heavy-handedness and from the disempowering notions that entails. But, I say too much, and I've already said more on the other post.
Thanks for the thought into the issue, and for the time from the busy life as minister to a UU megachurch (or are we scared of that moniker)?
In faith
What does a "contemporary service" look like?
Good question, Kim. I'll post about what I've learned.
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