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Introduction
 ast
weekend I attended an inspiring conference in Houston, Texas: the first
International Convocation of Unitarian Universalist Women---ICUUW. The
conference was organized by several groups I knew when I was a minister
in Texas. Now, I can’t speak for the other six hundred participants, but
I suspect many of them are still flying high from the conference. What
most fired me was the commonality --- the sense of common purpose --- we
developed in just three days together. Ministers and laity from diverse
backgrounds, from twenty countries and over thirty states, teens to
octogenarians with wide-ranging theologies, came together in common
purpose I never thought possible when the idea for a conference first
came up four years ago.
We participants were united in common mission --- on the same page about
why we were there. The conference mission was “Weaving Global
Partnerships to Enrich Women’s Lives.” Yes, from time to time we needed
the help of a ‘Right Relationships’ process: even us well-intentioned
women and men slipped up from time to time in using fully respectful
language and habits. However, we did not allow relatively low-level
snafus in interpersonal relationships drive wedges into the larger,
solid structure that was our reason for being together. We trusted the
process of the conference and in just three days created a tangible list
of to-dos --- concrete outcomes for our commitment to global
partnerships to enrich women’s lives --- in the areas of education,
health care, and prevention of violence.
I haven’t had an experience of common purpose quite like this in a long
time. This feeling of being all on the same page was energizing. I was
reminded yet again why I am called to this challenging work of ministry
in our liberal faith. I was reminded how transformation in the lives of
every living creature and in Mother Earth herself is possible when we
Unitarian Universalists come together in common purpose.
The organizers of ICUUW had a clear mission. The root of ‘mission’ means
‘to be sent’ and their reasons for being sent or called to organize this
conference were clear. Mission is the reason we exist. Mission is the
core of a well-functioning organization. Mission makes any institution a
whole and creates an energy that compels each part to support the whole.
Any group --- families, companies, schools --- may be bound together by
mission. Mission matters.
Many in our congregation heard a stimulating workshop by Rev. Robert
Latham several weeks ago. He emphasized how mission is critical to a
well-functioning religious community. Surprisingly, for many Unitarian
Universalist congregations, successful mission is a most perplexing
question. It has become Mission Impossible. Latham called instead for us
to make Mission Possible.
But still, you might be asking, why talk about mission here in worship?
Well, for one, mission work is spiritual work because it helps connect
us. Also, mission work is practical work. Mission creates an energy that
compels each part to support the whole. Furthermore, Rev. Latham’s visit
inspired this congregation to re-evaluate its current mission statement.
However, we can’t do the work of a mission statement without clarity
around the meaning of mission. It is the meaning of Mission and how we
can become a mission-centered church that I want to talk about today.
If you are a newcomer here and thus not yet engaged in the life of this
congregation, perhaps some of these thoughts about mission in a liberal
church will apply to other institutions you are currently more engaged
with.
Three Layers of Religion
Rev. Latham suggested that mission in a religious setting exists on at
least three levels. For starters, he reminded us why humans created this
institution called ‘religion’ in the first place. Religion --- of any
flavor --- exists to address the profound questions of life. Way back
when, someone who was named ‘witch doctor’ or ‘shaman’ or ‘prophet’ was
called to sit under a tree all day and ponder the meaning of life’s
perplexing questions, questions of intimacy and ultimacy, questions
about the meaning of life and death. And because these questions were
common to all humans, this ‘meaning-making institution’ came to be
called ‘religion’ from the root ‘re-ligio,’ meaning ‘bound together.’
All religions in the world have this common mission of meaning-making, a
mission that is larger than ourselves.
So humans developed religion. But over time, different versions of
meaning-making emerged around the world, conditioned by different social
cultures of the world. People of liberal culture preferred a ‘faith of
the free,’ free of dogma and respecting individual search for truth and
meaning. Of that liberal culture, those of Unitarian mindset countered
Calvinists Reformers and Trinitarian Congregationalists. Colonial
Universalists countered mainstream Protestants’ belief in predestination
and humans’ inherent sinfulness.
But it is not enough for culture to create liberal religion at some
theoretical level. In order for each of us to participate directly in
religion, we humans also created individual congregations, such as
Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church. Each congregation thus
constructs its own particular sense of mission, its own reasons for
existing. A mission-based congregation is a healthy congregation, a
congregation that is going places.
Importance of Mission
Clearly, Mission is possible and mission matters, in this congregation
and in our lives more generally. Mission is important for many reasons.
Mission provides a common view of reality for an institution, a
‘workshop of our common endeavors.’ in the words of Kenneth Patton. A
mission-centered church is an organic whole, all parts relating to and
supporting the work of the whole. But a caution: we shouldn’t confuse
commonality and sameness: we can have very healthy mission-based
organizations made up of diverse elements, as long as those elements
support each other and the whole. And we shouldn’t confuse commonality
and dogma: common values and actions do not make us dogmatic, like ---
you know --- those other religions that we’ve broken away from.
A sense of mission also provides focus. Mission explains not only why we
are here and how we’re connected, but where we are going. As Robert
Latham quoted R.F. Mae, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, you are
liable to end up somewhere else.’ Mission keeps us on track.
Perhaps most important, being mission-centered is transformational for
an organization. A mission-centered organization such as a church can
transform the society in which it exists into a view of reality that
matches its own values. In the process, the members of the organization
are likewise transformed. Mission supports that central quest for
meaning that we pursue together as congregants.Why are we here? Why is
there life on this planet? You know, small, easy questions like that.
Commonality, focus, and transformation: I certainly experienced these
qualities in Houston.
Awareness of Mission
Latham also told us that a healthy liberal religious congregation not
only has a clear sense of mission. It also has an organization and it is
an organization, led by lay membership and professional staff committed
to living out the mission. That is, it’s not enough that a mission exist
in an organization. It is also vital that the members of the
organization are aware of the mission and its influence on their
individual and collective lives, and that they each work to support the
mission.
How is our congregation becoming more missionally-aware, and how are we
willing to live out our mission? Let us discern these important
questions in the context of those three layers of religion I suggested a
few minutes ago: the world-wide institution called ‘religion;’ the
liberal religion of Unitarian Universalism; and this congregation of
Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church.
Religion: How are you engaged in the mission of
being religious? I might ask this question this way: why do you go to
church, to any church, or mosque or temple? Our main reason for going to
church ought to be transformation: so that we leave church a little or a
lot transformed in our pursuit of those profound questions that engage
all human beings. We don’t go to church first and foremost to build
community, although community is certainly something we find at church.
We don’t go to church first and foremost to learn --- although learning
certainly might take place. We don’t go to church to take personal
positions or to assert our rightness, although certainly our personal
experiences and talents contribute much to the working of the whole. We
don’t go to church first and foremost to engage in social justice ---
although certainly work in the world is likely. In short, when we go to
church, we do well to check our secular selves at the door in order to
open our hearts and minds and souls to the ineffable questions of
existence.
Some of you know that I often attend a church of sorts during the week.
It’s important for professional religious leaders to engage in regular
renewal, and I go to a church west of here a bit. Let’s call it the
Brown Hill church. I like it there. I’m comfortable and welcomed there.
I know that every time I go there, I will find some sort of
transformation and renewal because I know that there I can always find
God as I define God. There I can find a source that reaffirms my faith
in the goodness of life. I challenge each of you to on-going discernment
of your reasons for going to church.
Liberal Religion: Then, at the next layer, our question becomes: Why do
you go to a liberal church? How do you engage in a liberal religious
mission, grounded in goodness, freedom, reason, and this world, not in a
supernatural world. One version of our denominational mission statement
reads ‘Transform the Spirit, Help Heal the World.’ Our liberal religious
mission generally implies Faith into Action, as we label it. Action in
the world should not be the reason we come to a Unitarian Universalist
church, but action is certainly one of the many results.
In connecting with other Unitarian Universalists last weekend in
Houston, I was reminded all the more about the religious mission of
Unitarian Universalism, especially its call to put our faith into
action. Over the course of three days, the six hundred participants met
four times in small groups to define our three areas of action to
improve women’s lives around the world. Each participant pledged to work
individually and in their congregations and communities for these action
items. As I participated in this sessions, I was connected not only with
other Unitarian Universalists around me. I was also connected to our
religious ancestors, those who came before us. I wondered, is this what
it was like, at that first Women’s Rights meeting in Seneca Falls in
1848. Is this the same spirit and unity and hope those women experienced
back then?
Going out to events like this convocation helps clarify our own
identity. I had an experience myself a few weeks ago of going outward.
Rather than going to my usual Brown Hill Church, I attended a different
congregation within the same circle of churches. I had a different
experience, I expanded my sense of what is possible spiritually here in
these Colorado moun... ... er, uh, places of worship. So that when I
next came back to my Brown Hill Church, I had grown all the more in my
devotion to the liberal spirit it represents. So I offer another
challenge to each of you. During the coming months, I challenge everyone
to attend some event of Unitarian Universalism outside this
congregation: a worship service somewhere else, a class, a workshop,
perhaps national General Assembly that we will talk about in the forum
after the service. Go out to another denominational event, and I wager
when you come back here, you will have expanded all the more your
understanding of the mission of being a Unitarian Universalist.
CUUC: Finally, let’s ask how we understand the mission of this
congregation. ‘Why and how does Columbine Church exist?’ How are we
bound together as this particular Unitarian Universalist church?
This is an important question to ask at this time because the ‘How’ of
this congregation’s existence is changing through very intentional
decisions for organizational change made a few years ago. Thus, our
upcoming work on a new mission statement will be in the context of these
changes, which include: one, an intentional decision to grow, in numbers
and in identity as a Unitarian Universalist congregation; two, the
addition of more and more professional staff time --- most church
literature suggests that it congregations cannot grow beyond one hundred
members without the centralizing influence of professional staff; and,
three, a cultural change from a family- to a pastoral-style
congregation. These changes will influence how we define and live out a
mission and a mission statement.
These changes---intentional growth, integral professional staff, and
family to pastoral---speak to becoming a more organic church. This
quality of being organic is what I felt at the Houston conference: a
sense of clear structure in the organization and clear understanding of
how each part fits into the whole. Our congregation is becoming more
organic, developing more connections among the parts, and more
centralizing in the flow of information, some through staff and some
through lay leadership. Each of us can help organic growth by asking,
“who might I be coordinating with as I engage in any particular activity
in the congregation?” For instance, asking the office administrator to
list every activity on the church calendar as our schedule of church
activities becomes increasingly busier. The more we develop this feeling
of a whole working for common goal with common procedure, the more
effectively this congregation will become a mission-centered church.
A few weeks ago I grew in understanding the mission of the Brown Hill
Church, and how it can help me find transformation. I realized that I
was getting in a rut when I went there. I usually sit in the same group
of chairs --- the blue chairs --- their square seats fit me well --- and
I engage in the same activities over and over. But the last time I went
there, I decided to explore other parts of the church I’d always assumed
weren’t for me, or that I wasn’t capable of contributing to. I tried
sitting instead on some of the black chairs --- you must agree with me
that to sit in black, diamond-shaped chairs with the likes of names like
‘Avalanche’ and ‘Rattler’ can be a bit intimidating, but I sat there
anyway, and, you know, I survived. I not only survived. I had new
experiences at church by branching out. And in finding a new seat, I
left an empty blue chair for someone else, perhaps a newcomer. So I
challenge each of us to explore what else is possible right here in this
congregation. Diversifying our experiences will help us understand all
the better how the whole functions, and thus what the mission of the
whole is and can become.
So we go forward, defining as we go new mission: new reasons for being
for this congregation, incorporating new structures, new people, new
activities. We go forward living that new mission. Our new relationship
with mission will inform the process of creating a new mission
statement. However, as we go forward, we do well to remember one
important caution from Rev. Latham, to distinguish between mission and
ministry. Mission is why we exist. Ministry --- the ministries of the
congregation --- is everything that we do to fulfill our mission. Any
ministry that any one of us promotes should not take priority over
mission, the goal of the whole. Well-grounded mission of the whole can
take us into amazing new dimensions of what it means to be religious.
Closing
Where is our holy church? For what reasons is our holy church? Last week
in Houston I heard several individuals overtly declare that they need
Unitarian Universalism. They have never found another church willing to
open its arms and its heart to these individuals who live just a bit out
of the box. These folks would agree with the hope expressed in our final
hymn, that the liberal way of seeking right will be around for at least
ten thousand years. I agree with them. I also want Columbine Unitarian
Universalist Church to be here as well, for a long time, for all the
other persons out there like you and you and you, who I suspect would be
living a very different life if this congregation did not exist. May our
mission keep our doors, our minds, our hearts, and our spirit open for a
very, very, very long time to come.
MAY IT BE SO
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