Dear People’s people,
A few notes as we prepare for spring at People’s Church:
March is steward-ship season. This is when we ask people to make their financial commitments to the church for the fiscal year that begins in July. This year, we are working to both fund our yearly budget and shore up our capital reserves. We anticipate our building will require about $850,000 in repairs and upgrades over the next 20 years. Please sign up for a grateful gathering (more details about that in another part of this newsletter) and keep an eye out for pledge materials at church, in your email, and in a mailbox.
In the recent question box sermon, someone asked for more potlucks. The frequency of all-church potlucks has declined in recent years.
Here’s how to host a potluck at People’s Church:
- Gather a group of 5 or so people commit-ted to making it happen and willing to de-vote some time to this.
- In conversation with Eli, our wonderful church administrator, set a date. It’s generally best to schedule this several weeks to a month in advance so we can use all of our church communications to spread the word.
- Make sure you know a few things: how to set up tables in The Commons, where the dishes and silverware is kept, and how to use the dishwasher.
- On the day of the potluck, you team will take the lead in setting things up and clean-ing up. Other People’s people will surely help, but it’s best if there’s a small team who takes responsibility for making sure things happen.
- Bask in your success and all of the deliciousness and community you helped to create.
For the next three months, I will be re-using some of my favorite sermons & service topics once per month. All of these services originally happened at least 8 years ago, so I imagine that most of us either weren’t here the first time these topics were explored – or don’t remember the details. Some things are worth returning to – and I need a bit of a break. Given everything unfolding in our world, our church, and in the lives of individual People’s people, I am devoting more time right now to pastoral care for People’s people, institutional leadership and administrative tasks, and building and maintaining our partnerships in the wider commu-nity. Reworking and re-preaching previous sermons will allow me to be a bit less overwhelmed, I hope. If you are in a similar overwhelmed place, I hope you find ways to make things a little easier on yourself too.
There is no second Sunday potluck and pro-grams in March. Much of the church building will be in use by community organizations who have rented the building that day. Watch for a return in April.
I will be co-leading worship at this June’s Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly. This is an honor and I am already busy co-creating worship with Rev. Katie Romano Griffin, who serves All Souls Unitarian Church in Indianapolis. The service we are leading will happen in Louisville, KY on Friday June 19 from 8-9:30pm. It will be livestreamed as well.
Take good care, everyone,
Rev. Rachel