QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Over the next few weeks and months, we are going to be part of a process of discerning a future path for First United Church.  I'm not part of the reference group that will be guiding us through that process...I'm just like all of you...someone who will be asked to ponder and discuss, to imagine and wonder what our community of faith should look like in the years ahead.  We'll be asked to answer some questions and offer some thoughts and opinions on what our ministry and mission might be.

I know that sounds a bit daunting, but I'm excited about the opportunity that is before us.  This is a time when faith and doubt go hand in hand.  I want to share my initial thoughts with you - not as a leader or an expert - just someone who has been thinking a bit about our future together.

I think that at this early stage of the process, it's important for all us to believe and act as if there are no stupid questions or certain answers.  As much as we can, we have to play our role like a painter with a blank canvas, ready to be filled with the art of our ideas and hopes and plans.  Things might seem fuzzy and uncertain, but the goal is clarity and definition, to the extent that we can bring that into being.  That will take some time and we might not get it exactly right the first go around.

I'm also of the opinion that at this early stage, the questions we ask ourselves are actually more important than the answers we might come up with.  This opportunity to chart a course is a rare one and I want us to take advantage of it.  Let's leave no door closed or possibility unexplored as we sift through what is essential and desirable for our future.  Let's be willing to look outside and beyond ourselves, for what other people and the world might reveal to us.

Something else is clear to me at this point.  Discernment, done well, will challenge us to examine what we've lived in the past, what might be done in the future; it will push us to consider stepping beyond what has been comfortable and known to us.  There's a part of me that is fearful of what might come about from our efforts.  I'm reminded that I've been afraid before and managed to find the Way.  We can do that again, together.

Let's remember to treat each other with integrity and respect, to be loving of others and ourselves.  Let's remember that God is our helper.

Pat

Take This Away With You

Come, my friends.

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Tho' much is taken, much abides;

and tho' we are not now that strength

which in old days moved earth and heaven,

that which we are, we are ---

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

~ from "Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson ~