Dear People’s people,
In addition to the overview of church history, Unitarian Uni-versalist theology, and church programs and logistics that we include in the inquirers class, there are a few things I try to repeat to every co-hort of the class, every group of folks learning about if this community is right for them. I figured this wisdom doesn’t need to be just for newcom-ers, so I’m sharing it as a reminder:
If you want to be known in the church and know others, join a small group. It is difficult to build meaningful connections with others if your participation in church life is limited to Sunday mornings. Relationship building happens in small groups – any small group. Possible small groups in-clude chalice circles, book clubs, bell choir or voice choir, the Tuesday morning building and grounds work group, the finance committee (or any of our fine committees) and more. If you are looking to know others at church, find a small group. If you need help figuring out which group might be right for you, reach out to me. I’ll help you navigate the possibilities.
If you see the church not being who we say we want to be, please tell me (or another church leader). Are we talking about justice and equity and love but failing to live it. Please be brave and tell us. I always tell this to newcomers because they are often the best at spotting the gap between our aspirations and our reality, but anyone can notice this. Those of us who have been here for a while can’t always recognize this as well as newcomers, so I ask newcomers to be brave and tell us the moments where we are not living into our values.
Know that the church will disappoint you. When that happens, try to stay. Sometimes, newcomers arrive in our community and think we’re really great. We are really great and we are also human. There will be times when the church as an institution or individuals within it will disap-point you. This is inevitable, unfortunately. When the disappointment happens, stay and try to stick it out. I’m not asking anyone to overlook abuse or egregious misconduct – I’m referencing the con-flicts and disappointments that are always part of humans trying to be in community together. In stay-ing through the small disappointments, richness and depth and strong relationships can happen. I often make the analogy to a romantic relationship. It of-ten takes the first argument to figure out how compatible people are. That’s not always true, but it’s a useful analogy in this instance.
What are things you would tell someone exploring if this congregation is right for them? Let me know and I might share your wisdom with the next Inquirers Class.
Take good care, everyone,
Rev. Rachel