Unpacking The Interim Bag
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 18 September 2011 01:00
- Written by Elaine Beth Peresluha
Please note that this is the written text from which Elaine speaks extemporaneously. The words will not match what you hear on Sunday mornings. To hear exactly what is said please go to our podcasts of Sunday's sermons.
Reading
Turning to One Another
Margaret Wheatley
There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
Ask “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?” Keep asking.Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dream.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.Be intrigued by the differences you hear.
Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what is possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.Remember, you don’t fear people who’s story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness. Stay together.
Sermon
Unpacking The Interim Bag
Rev. Elaine Beth Peresluha
As an interim minister I accompany congregations through their middles. These are the times between ministries, between sizes, between buildings or identities. Middles are marked by change, an alteration, a variation, or modification that leaves something or someone different. Middles are usually not the most comfortable places to be whether we are there by choice or by chance. Human beings enjoy predictability competence, clarity, and closure, all of which are distinctly absent in most middles. This is what can make a middle feel bad. Being in a place that feels bad does not mean anyone did anything wrong. It does not mean we are incompetent. Middles are unpredictable and create a distinct lack of clarity- not exactly a feel good kind of place.
In the Alban Institute, an interfaith educational and consulting organization has identified five developmental tasks for congregations in transition- another way of defining middle. . The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations- has pretty much adopted these tasks as a structure for our interim ministries-
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History: Coming to terms with history. Claiming and honoring its past and healing its disappointments and differences.
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Identity: Discovering a new identity. Illuminating the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, joys, needs, and challenges.
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Leadership: Allowing effective institutional structure and leadership to emerge. Clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, and navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition.
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Connection: Renewing denominational linkages. Renewing connections with available resources within and beyond the UUA.
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Discovering: Creating new directions in ministry that inspire the congregation to engage its future with anticipation and zest.
Being in any middle long enough to emerge on the other side successfully requires some specific tools. So I come with my brightly colored interim bag.
First- and probably most important to you, I have this hammer. I am a Social Constructionist, thus, this hammer. You will get to know a lot more about Social Construction and its applications, Appreciative Inquiry and Relational Responsibility as we move through this bag- and our time together. As a constructionist, I believe that in between where we have been and where we are going, there is an opportunity for some new realization or creation. Social constructionists believe that all that is real and the good is created and discovered in relationships. There really is no "self,” distinct and separate from those relationships, culture, or community we all came out of and participate in. In between what you know and I know- where you have been and where I have been is fertile territory for anything to be imagined or to be discovered. When two or more people engage in a conversation, intentionally leaving space in between their differing understandings or beliefs with appreciation and respect for the other, something new, that neither one could have discovered on their own can emerge. Both come away changed. This hammer reminds us all to be willing to be changed.
I have a Ruler to measure success- I come with my Yankee roots, my degrees, my books, special guides to interim ministry- this Janus Book- and all my experiences of ministry and 20 years of nursing that help me to understand and appreciate the direction we are going- how we are doing and feedback that I can give you so that you will arrive at the destination you chose- and want.
Hmmm- Fire hat and water pistol. I am sure you are going to react and reject something during our interim time- I am an expert at managing fires and squirt water on the small sparks so no devastating brush fires spread.
Band-Aids: On of the most important parts of our interim is to discover and bind any wounds or injuries that are pat of the first Parish story – I bring you presence, care, and a promise of healing.
Mary Phipher wrote "... most of us are no longer menders. We are K-Mart shoppers who discard objects at the first sign of disrepair. Mending takes time, skill, and personal attention. It is cherishing, having an I-Thou relationship with something. Object you are mine so I will fix you." Staying in relationships is to be a mender. Marriages that last do so because of a commitment to cherish... we mend what we value. We value what we mend. Mending hallows objects and gives people depth of character.” Sometimes that takes more than band aids- so I also carry a needle and thread in my bag- to remind each of us to be menders.
The Oreo Cookies? Oh- I always pack these- for satisfying hunger and for remembering that the middle is the cream- the sweetest part- the reason to eat a cookie. Middles are to be savored- and Oreo’s reminds me that we are all different- as exemplified by how we choose to eat our cookies- all at once- just pop the whole thing in, dip it first in milk, or nibble and dip, bite through the middle. - Or as two separate halves, which some of us prefer to take apart and lick out.
POM POMS!! My absolute favorite part of my job is being your cheerleader- inspiring, encouraging caring and enthusiastically whatever the score- what ever the inning, I will remind you of the best I will suggest, loudly that this is the best part of your lives.
Today is the beginning of our creation of a covenant- an agreement between us- I am laying out for you what I promise you- but I do not ask you to promise me anything –yet- not until you have some experience of who I am and what you can trust about me- because a covenant is about trust- trusting your safety to take risks- be vulnerable- be honest and not be hurt, manipulated, shaped or taken advantage of in any way. I do not expect you to believe yet that you can trust me. So I will earn that trust and then, I will ask you to enter into a covenant with me, one we create, together.
Everything that I have talked about this morning- all the tools in this bag- are part of what it means to have meaningful, caring relationships and personal growth. That, to me is what churches are all about- learning how to be a human being, with other human beings whether it is in the choir, an RE class- or as a citizen of the world. Everything we do- with one another offers us the opportunity for discovering meaning and purpose. Relationships give us all the opportunity to process, listen, express feelings, and concerns while appreciating the middle that we are in together.
So today, we begin. I open my heart and my hands to you- I come with these tools and I promise you to heal and not to harm this beloved community. I promise to earn your trust and to not betray the trust that you offer me. I will share my portion of truth with you so that together we can grow in wisdom, vision, and understanding. Today, we begin.
The Mixing Bowl by Gunilla Norris
Here on the table
Is the mixing bowl.
Brown and ordinary,
Turned on the potter's wheel,
It has an umber rim
And glazed, cinnamon-speckled sides.Its task is to be open,
A simple space. This bowl is
Clay, earth, matter. Particular.
We are like it. Clay,
Earth, matter. Particular.
And vast when we are empty.When life can fill us to the rim, brimming.
We are the mixing place
Where terror and hate,
Where love and hope,
The way we move,Our smiles and uncertainties,
Our courage and stupidities
Are all embraced.
We are the body bowl...
The forming space,
The home of possibility.