You probably know, the Episcopals have this practice where during Ember Days (Weds, Fridays, and Saturdays following the first Sunday in Lent, Pentecost, Holy Cross Day - Sept 17th, and December 13th) a new minister sends the bishop a letter reflecting on the changing nature of your call. This continues until ordination, maybe beyond. It's not our tradition, but I'm envious of it. And so I'm going to borrow it as a mode for writing about what's happening at Two Rivers (oh, and you're the bishop, in case you weren't sure). I wonder what our Ember Days would be? Ingathering, Yom Kippur, Advent or Solstice, Martin Luther King, Holy Week/Easter, Annual Meeting? Something like this will be my pattern for the letters. Framing these conversations in this way helps me remember it is ministry, not management, learning not result, covenant above all. It helps me reflect on my own continuing formation as a minister, my own learning and spiritual path. And, it helps me stay on a routine process for writing.
There are three areas I want to talk about in this first letter: faith development, community formation, and governance. I'll post one section at a time, just so this doesn't go on and on....
Let's do this in reverse order, starting in governance.
- Board Development: To say the Board Pres and I talk often would be a serious understatement. Through our relationship I am learning what it means to experience mutual transformation and growth in shared ministry. We are true partners, each with a strong sense of our roles and also our challenges in this work. We hosted our first Board Retreat last Sunday, focusing on leadership, the role of the Board, visioning, and the communication flow amongst the empowered lay leaders of the congregation and to the Board. Out of this Retreat came a number of important actions, perhaps most of all a named craving for deeper work within the Board to build relationships, to become in and of themselves, a covenant group. Also, we worked out the beginnings of a plan for involving the congregation in a visioning process. We did not, however, get to the process of naming shared values, which would be a very important next step. Tensions in the air remain around leadership succession, volunteer recruitment, financial security, and ensuring we don't "get ahead of ourselves" without the necessary resources. Fear remains, despite much evidence that might encourage otherwise.
- Leadership Development and Shared Ministry: The Leadership Development Committee has begun its work, including identifying job descriptions for each Committee. The LDC Chair led an important conversation at the Board Retreat about ways to grow our leadership development in the congregation. My sense is by November most Committees will be functional, including the beginnings of a lay Pastoral Care Team, a Worship Committee, and a Membership Committee. Social Justice is lagging but there are seeds for this being planted now. Also Finance/Stewardship remains underdeveloped (see below).
- Finance: It became clear to the Board Pres, the Treasurer and I earlier this year that the Budget would require significant revision, especially with the major programmatic changes we have been making (number and types of Sunday worship programs). The Board Pres and Treasurer have worked together to bring the Budget to a clear presentation - this will go to the Board in the next few days. It will be a meaningful change from the budget presented and approved at the annual meeting. They created a narrative to go along side it. There was an accounting error, however, which mostly makes up for the increase in the budget so at this point very little additional fundraising must be accomplished (less than $2,000 I believe). The Board Pres is working to identify ways to get herself out of this process going forward - considering a Finance Committee or at least identifying another Board member who could focus on budgetary details with the Treasurer.
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