What’s Next

            I often find when I have people saying, “What’s taking so long to get going?” and “Why so soon?” in about equal numbers that I’ve found the right timing!  (Of course, sometimes just calendar issues make a difference, but we are all used to that!)

            So I believe we are in about the right spot to be having our all-church conversations as part of this “time between.”  But I’ve had a couple of questions about practical matters.

            To reiterate: our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            We will have a refreshment and conversation time after worship as usual, and then we will gather downstairs in the fellowship hall for a light lunch.  Part of the idea of that is to refuel so we can work for a while, but just as much to enjoy each other’s company, visit, and have a fellowship time in fellowship hall.  In fact, if you have other Sunday plans, stay for lunch even if you have to leave right afterward.  Even if you have no interest in the working session, come for lunch anyhow.  And if there are recent arrivals or first time attenders, invite them downstairs anyhow, especially!  I’ve heard lots about how enjoyable such communal meals have been here over the years, and encourage everyone to show up for that part at least.  Children are not merely welcome but encouraged to attend!  We can work out rides, too.

            Another set of questions have been about whether you have to be at all of them.  Nope!  They are connected, to be sure, but each should be valuable and interesting (and even some fun) in its own right.  We hope to be able to record some way or another (if you have ideas or video or audio equipment to help with that, let me or the office know), and we will have notes about the sessions both to catch people up if they could not be there and to preserve the ideas for the search committee we will be electing later.

            And folks have asked me, “How is this different than what we did before?”  First, being mildly impatient and easily bored myself, I like to keep it kind of compressed and tightly spaced, hence the packed schedule in October and November.  It’s also in order to be done before Thanksgiving and Advent and Christmas.  I try to keep it moving and interesting and fun.  But the biggest difference is that I keep the focus on the end product: the search for the next pastor.  We can do this partly because the good work done with the Gathering process last time gives us a head start on the data and vision parts of the process.  But our focus will be on understanding the history and processes and makeup of the congregation and how they relate to the pastoral relationship.  Sure, we have to refresh and reaffirm the vision we have of First Congregational Church, but my push will be toward understanding how that vision and the way this congregation functions will inform the search for a next pastor.  The goal of all this is a strong, productive, healthy partnership between pulpit and pew into the future.  That goal will drive the conversations and keep us on track.  The product is not a good study experience or a statement of mission, but a call extended to the right person to work with you to accomplish that mission.

            If you know people who have not felt good about the church for a while (or are one), please encourage them to join the all-church conversations.  The atmosphere will be honest, but I want to make it non-threatening and comfortable so people can share if they want.  It’s a chance to see how we got where we are and find out where God wants us next.  Please participate!

            This Sunday we have a group of guest singers from a Cornell Glee Club joining our choir, so I hope you can make it to worship.  Somehow, the combination of a “glee” club and the joy of God’s love in Christ Jesus amuses me.  Hope to see you Sunday at 10 am.

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible          Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15
      From the Epistles                  1 Timothy 6:6-19
      From the Gospels                  Luke 16:19-31

Ecclesiastical Parbuckling

            It probably says too much about me that I have been entranced watching the work around the Costa Concordia off the coast of Sicily.  Lots of things about it make really good illustrations about all sorts of topics, even if they are not going to make it into a sermon ever.  But it can make it into a Weekly Word!

            We are about to begin the all-church self-study events in preparation for calling a search committee which will prepare a church profile and then seek candidates for the pastorate here.  This fall there will be four lunch meetings after church on a series of topics and a survey about church participation to which everyone— member, friend, new arrival, long-time hand, happy, disappointed, confused, younger, older, middler— is invited.

            This is a pretty early stage in the parbuckling, refloating, refitting, and resailing of First Congregational.  (Notice the difference there with the Costa Concordia, which will decidedly not cruise again.  FCCI will.  Period.)

            Many months ago, the Concordia wreck got stabilized, and then the divers and engineers started to figure out what they had to work with.  Then they spent a long time developing plans, testing scenarios, getting things thought out.  Another long period of time was building the equipment needed and getting it in place.  Finally, only last week, 20 months after the ship scraped bottom and capsized, did they get to the first big salvage effort.  Now that they have it upright, the have a lot to do for the next stage of effort.

            In terms of my gimmicky parallel, First Congregational and the people who love it want it not just upright and salvaged, but sailing the seas of the gospel. Now that things are more stable, it is time to see what we have to work with. At this point, that is all we are doing in the first conversations.  From there we will develop plans of action to undertake the pastoral search, then marshal the resources and people to do it.  But right now, we are learning about where we are and what has happened.  Then we can work on the engineering and the tasks of making it happen.

            Our first two conversations will be introducing the process and developing together a timeline of the events, seasons, and people in the last fifty or sixty years of First Congregational’s life.  Those will be October 6 and 13.  We will look at the community and our context in Ithaca and Tompkins County on October 27.  Then on November 3 we will look at ourselves in the mirror and talk about the valuable missions and ministries done for God and neighbor by the congregation.  On November 17 we will use part of the worship time to fill out the excellent US Congregational Life Survey, one of the very few normed across the nation and the denominational spectrum.

            In all of this, your participation… your honest, gracious participation… is key.

            We will gather for an informal lunch and working time after worship those four Sundays.  There will be activities and care for children so they can join in.  Older children and youth can sit in on the conversation.  If you can’t make a session or have to leave early, don’t worry; although they build on each other, each session should be interesting and valuable on its own.  We can help with rides and other things to help you attend.  Even if you don’t know what you might contribute, I would really appreciate you showing up!  And if you can’t stay for the meeting, at least stay for lunch and to visit with folks.

            It is my intention to keep the conversation lively and honest, to share some information on church dynamics that will be helpful understanding where we need to go next, not to drag things out, but to keep very focused on the overall purpose: discovering God’s direction for First Congregational and preparing for a healthy and productive partnership with a pastor in the near future.

            Are you with me? (I hope so.)

            And maybe on Sunday you’ll find out how this all fits with the scripture lessons!

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
      From the Hebrew Bible        Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
      From the Epistles                1 Timothy 2:1-7
      From the Gospels                Luke 16:1-13

Welcome

    Welcome to First Congregational... for the first time perhaps.  Or welcome back!  With public school having started this week, this Sunday is the sort of “official” start of the FCCI program year, too.

    The choir is back to practicing, and the Children and Youth Ministry Team is back with the familiar Christian Education and faith formation program.  Most of the committees are back to meeting in September after their more “irregular” summer.  Folks who were less frequent over the school break are getting back in the rhythm of attendance.  The enjoyable and challenging AfterWord series resumes this week with Bob Riter from the Cancer Resource Center.

    We’re back in business!

    Some folks are not so much returning “back” as attending for the first time.  It’s up to we long-time attenders to make those first tentative steps past our threshold a meaningful, comfortable, and spiritually connecting morning.  I have no doubt that long-time attenders here are capable of a generous, inclusive, embracing welcome; my concern is that with the delight in seeing each other again it will be easy to overlook the first-timers and forget to enfold them into the flock gracefully and graciously.

    So keep an eye out for new faces, and be happy to see them!  If you approach them with happiness, you will probably find that sometimes tricky balance of welcoming without being overwhelming.  Many churchgoers fear that they will be too aggressive in pouncing on new people and turn them off, so we sometimes act “too cool” and keep away.  Lots of us have experiences visiting that have turned us off— usually by feeling too singled out too obviously— but don’t let that stifle your hospitality.  And remember that what you might think is “giving people space” can be experienced as neglect.  But just because that balance is tricky don’t give up!  Welcome like you like to be welcomed, and you will probably hit the comfort zone.  And if you are waaaaay introverted, just point a new face out to folks who are more comfortable saying “Hi” for the first time.  We’ve got the whole spectrum among us!

    Most times when we read the UCC slogan we focus on the “wherever you are on your life’s journey,” cherishing the openness and grace to all souls.  These Sundays in September, let’s run with the “you’re welcome here” part.  After all, God is happy to see everyone in church, whether for the first or ninety-ninth time.

    May you feel welcome this Sunday.  And share it!

                                                           In Christ,
                                                               
                                                                David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible       Jeremiah 4:11-12 , 22-26
From the Epistles              1 Timothy 1:12-17
From the Gospels              Luke 15:1-10

Worship Service

            I’ll admit it.  Being new to the whole thing, I was sorta startled that FCCI relocated worship the weekend of the Feed My Starving Children MobilePack.  Marcie Bishop mentioned that the sanctuary was used for group orientation, which does sorta bump into our regularly scheduled program!  In fact, I wandered around considering other places in the building we could hold a simplified worship service, but a few people reminded me that the whole facility is filled with activity, and even if a room would work, it might be hard to hear anything.  Duh, David.  But I felt a little strange about relocating.  That was probably the preacher’s proprietary feeling about the primacy of worship in the life of the church.  And maybe a bit of unconscious, reflexive territoriality that goes with the job!  Momentarily.

            But then I realized that the other side of my theology was really happy!  Worship is important, but not the only priority for a community of faith.  Mission is, too.  I’ve always known that and pushed for that… duh, David.

           My flitting feeling that the building is being invaded supposes that our facility is a refuge from the world, or, as some congregations and some architectures show, a fortress protecting it from the world.  A healthier perspective is that a church’s facility is a launching place into the world, a base of operations, a recharging station to have the energy to work the rest of the week for our neighbors’ well-being.  It is the garage, the workshop, the warehouse, the central depot from which the employees in their service trucks go out to do the job of faith.  The doors swing out.

            On this particular weekend is it much clearer to see that spiritual impulse to pack and mobilize for the good of others, but this congregation has it all year long.  I think that is a good thing.  Duh, David.

            I’ve seen a few church sanctuaries where over the doors is inscribed, “Our worship is over; Our service begins,” as people leave the sanctuary on their way out into the world and the rest of their weeks.  I’ve always kind of liked such theology.  This Sunday, First Congregational really does that!  Sure, I hope to see a handful of you at Cass Park for our outdoor worship, but I hope a lot of you support or participate in our literal service feeding Christ’s starving children.  Work and worship.  They go together.

                                                                                       In Christ,
                                                                                     
                                                                                               David

Texts For Sunday Worship:
From the Hebrew Bible     Jeremiah 18:1-11
From the Gospels             Luke 14:25-33