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Making the Most of What We Have - II
An address delivered by The Reverend Don W. Vaughn-Foerster
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Many of you may remember the illustration with which I ended my remarks on Resumption Sunday a year ago. At that time I set forth the usual goals of interim ministry, that transitional period between the last settled minister and the next settled minister. This transitional period is, often, a time of stress because something important of the old has been lost and just what the new will be like is unknown. When an interim minister is part of the process, he or she is supposed to provoke or speed significant change or action. The illustration, which I picked up from Rev. John Weston, the UU Settlement Director, suggests how this might be. Envision all the patterns, norms and habits of a congregation to be like a supersaturated solution of some chemical compound in a beaker. Now, drop into this solution a crystalline solid of the same compound and ching! The contents of the entire beaker crystallize around this seed crystal. Actually, the same chemical compound may crystallize in several different ways because the compound in the beaker takes on the shape of the seed crystal. Over time, when the match is good, the crystalline shape of the minister -- primarily the shape of the minister’s relational style -- has such a profound influence on the shape and style of the whole congregation. Once the crystalline structure in the beaker is fully formed, you can take a surgical saw and pliers to remove the seed crystal; but, then, what happens to the crystalline structure? Nothing! It has a hole in it, but, otherwise, it is what it was. Drop a new differently configured seed crystal onto the crystalline structure, and what happens? Nothing! Boink! It bounces right off. Over the years hundreds of UU ministers who have tried to succeed other well-established or long term ministers have bounced right off such crystallized congregations. Now pour a solvent onto the crystallized solid in the beaker, apply warmth, agitate gently, and watch the solid dissolve once again into a supersaturated solution. To know that it is a supersaturated solution, take a new seed crystal and add it to the newly dissolved solution. What happens this time? Aha! A new crystalline structure forms. The structure is differently configured from before because it takes its shape from the new seed crystal. The interim minister’s mission is not to be the new seed crystal. It is to be the solvent. My mission is to assist you to prepare to reconfigure yourselves in a new way around new professional leadership. In a word, I am here to help you quit being what you were and get ready to be something new. That may seem like strong medicine to some of you, but just consider this. Unless old crystallizations (meaning the old norms, patterns, and behaviors) are dissolved, the next settled minister may easily “bounce off”. After that, minister after minister could easily “bounce off” until the old norms, patterns, and behaviors somehow disappear of themselves. Well, I’m here to report that the dissolving process seems to be right on schedule. Most of you have grasped just how important it is to be enough open to change that, when a new settled minister comes, you will be eager to establish a new and committed relationship with that person as your primary professional leader. I do have to admit that some people seem to regard me not so much as a solvent but as perhaps something of a surreptitious seed crystal myself. I find myself “bouncing off” them rather than helping them open up. But, then, that is right on schedule, too. After all, we are only half way into the transitioning process. We have the rest of this year for everybody to come to terms with the reality that things will not be the same here next year as they were even last year -- and, certainly, not the same as they were the years before. What I’ve said so far gets me to my purpose this morning, which is to let you know where I think things are with this congregation at this time. During this last year things have changed enough that some folks are energized and “up” and others are a bit weary and a bit “down.” This is to say: things are on track. The solvent (which is actually more than the interim minister and is, also, in part, a natural reaction to ambiguous times) is at work. You can see this reaction under a few arbitrary headings such as “growing pains’, pastoral versus program church issues, finances, and goals. We don’t have time for a long particularized dissertation, but I do want to give you a birds-eye view of where matters stand in general. Some of the “growing pains” I see relate to volunteering and leadership. Some volunteer jobs have been done by the same people for so long that energy levels are at low ebb. This is not necessarily only a problem of a transitional period. This happens in congregations everywhere under many circumstances. But during transition, when it is not clear where things are heading, volunteer energy is almost automatically subject to being drained. At this time, tender loving care. is appropriate, but actually seeking out new or different persons to volunteer is also very appropriate. Leadership roles also present some special concerns. A time of change for the organization is an easy and appropriate time for a person to decide to make changes in his or her relation to that organization. As new possibilities arise, new and different persons are attracted to following out those possibilities. The trick is to make sure that those who want a rest from responsibilities are allowed their rest but are not then ignored. Also, competency in a job is a necessary criteria for any new person who would take on that job. So far, these matters seem to be moving along quite well. You have a leadership pool that maintains a strong commitment to the well-being of this congregation. And, there have been appropriate and beneficial changes in it. One of the big issues that greeted me when I arrived last year was this congregation’s growth from a pastoral congregation size to a program congregation size. Simply put, the pastoral group is a congregation of friends for whom personal relationships are primary and for whom program activities are pretty much incidental to their getting together. The program group is a congregation whose program and activities are primary but which promotes personal relationships as people come together to cooperate. There are issues involved here that would be present even if you were not in a transitional period. Within a transition, these issues can be more problematic. The question arises, “What can be done in the interim that won’t get in the way of whatever new vision a new settled minister may bring?” In spite of this question, some things clearly need to be done now for the good of the day-to-day functioning of this congregation. In this regard, what struck me when I first arrived last year (and what has been confirmed in the months since) was an organization chart outsized in relation to an available volunteer pool. Too many committees. Too many meetings. Maybe with a hundred or more members thirty-two or thirty-three committees and overlapping requirements for their committee heads to attend other meetings might be plausible. Also, there is still the tendency here, when looking for new officers or committee members, to ask “people you know” to do these jobs. Then, when they decline, the tendency is to advertise for people you don’t know to volunteer and then to be disappointed no one steps forward. Ask the people you already know; advertise to the people you do not know: this is “in-group” thinking. Some changes can be made in this approach before a settled minister darkens your door. Luckily, the Board is already paying good attention here. However, some things will require more than Board action. For instance, the Bylaws need to be revisited to seek how the Council system actually fits into this organizational structure. And, the processes of finding nominees for elected office and filling vacancies on committees need to be sorted out in such a way that both are done -- just to name two issues with the Bylaws. I have named a couple of ways in which the Bylaws would benefit from a bit or revisiting. There are several other places in which a bit of tweaking would be in order to bring them up-to-date with the actual size of this congregation. Perhaps the aspect of moving from pastoral to program size that stands out most for me is the way diversity is understood and celebrated. The expectation is that the larger a “liberal” group gets, the greater the variety of social, political, and economic points of view there will be. People in a small group tend not to have to listen closely to one another. They already know pretty much what others think. The larger the group, the more necessary it is for people to listen closely and empathetically to one another. And, inevitably it requires that they learn to accommodate clear, even basic, differences of opinion. I hasten to add, however, that most UU churches have a way to go before perfection in this regard is reached. Another instance where accommodation to diversity could be improved is the Sunday Service. The most striking thing about Sunday morning here is how remarkably well things tend to be done. The music is good to great. Persons participating in the service, also, usually are good to great. But I have to admit that I experience a certain sameness of mindset in the proceedings here that seems somewhat at variance with the diversity of mindsets that exists within this congregation. The results of the survey that the Search Committee sent out last year suggest that there is at least a 40-40-20 general division of approach to religion within this congregation. In round figures, the survey indicates that 40% of the congregation is humanist; 40% aligns in some way with new age approaches to religion; and 20% is theistic (if you include the deists.) How such a balance of views can be accommodated is a very good question. But, as an outsider coming in, it seems to me not to have been explored very deeply as yet. [Incidentally, as late as the 1998 edition of the UU WORLD, the reported distribution of views within Unitarian Universalists was 46 % humanist, 22% theist and Christian, and if you add an unidentified 6% to the reported Earth/Nature Centered 26% then 32% somewhat new age points of view. I leave the suggestive differences between 40-40-20 and 46-32-22 for you to contemplate.] The financial situation here seems to me to be both adequate and challenging. It is adequate to sustain a thriving, effective congregation within the limits of the budget that was raised for the coming year. It is challenging if that budget is spread to cover everything that the line items of that budget indicates are desired. That this congregation cannot at the present time pay for everything it wants was illustrated for me when it became necessary to put the building expansion on hold. In some ways this incident also underlined the lagging volunteer situation. Aside from the ambiguities present within the effort to raise money for a building fund during a time of serious transition, there was also a noticeable effect on the program of the church. Volunteers working on the building fund necessarily had their energies diverted from other worthwhile involvements in the congregation -- involvements important to the stability of this congregation during the period of transition. Over all, however, the message seems to be that it is not likely that everything can be done at once. Some priorities have to be set, time lines identified and followed religiously, if it is not too presumptuous to put it that way. After all, it is financial constraints that set the real priorities of an organization. This reality came to me in full force at the last Administrative Council meeting. There, it became clear that much of the volunteer tiredness, which was expressed, could best be assuaged by hiring a sexton. A sexton is a paid person who takes care of the church property and performs other related duties, like changing light bulbs and mowing the lawn. Volunteers do so many of these “unnoticed” jobs around here that it is no wonder their energies for and interest in other kinds of involvement are drained off. Most churches the size of UUCGT have someone on the staff to fulfill a sexton’s duties. This congregation probably should have gotten at least a part-time sexton when it reached a membership of 150 -- if not before. Not to fill that position when it becomes useful inevitably creates budgetary tension because other interests move in to fill the vacuum. At some point the difficulty becomes choosing between esthetics and program on the one hand and the care and maintenance of both the facilities and volunteers on the other hand. It is not a problem of which is the most valid but of which takes priority. At any rate, the budget this year is not distributed in such a way as to provide for essentials that need to be done for the physical well-being of this building and the mental and emotional well-being of volunteers. I have talked about volunteers, leadership, organizational and diversity issues connected with the transition from a pastoral to a program congregation, and the way the budget controls or confuses what are the priorities of this congregation. What is to be done about these things? Most of what I have mentioned has been of concern to the Board during this past year and, certainly, since its workshop retreat in August. >From my perspective, the Board has shown good sense in identifying not a dozen or more goals, in which brainstorming efforts often result, but only three, major goals for the coming year. Focusing this way augurs well for the Board actually accomplishing what it sets out to do. High on its agenda is the developing of policies and procedures that are appropriate to the size of this congregation and that will enable persons to understand for what they are volunteering before they volunteer. It’s amazing what difference a little clarity on such a matter can make in the effective and rewarding operation of a congregation. Also, clearly of prime importance is the preparation of this congregation for a settled minister next fall. Of course, since that is the main reason I am here, I will do all I can to help the Board accomplish this goal. The third goal is to enable members to find meaningful and spiritual connections here. The Board understands well that, unless this is done, there’s not much point in doing anything else. For my own part, I will pursue the topics and issues I have identified here and will do so on a different basis from the way I pursued my role during the first year of interim ministry. Last year was beset with its own ambiguity for me. I came to UUCGT expecting to be here two years. With that in mind I approached the first year as a time to learn as much as possible about UUCGT so that the necessary concrete actions of latter part of the first year and the whole of the second year could be based on knowledge of what needs to be done and not on speculation. After a short time, it became apparent that the Search Committee was intent on securing a settled ministry candidate during that first year. That meant that, instead of developing a plan of action for myself to implement last spring and during a second interim year, the need was to make an analysis of circumstances here to pass on to a settled minister in August 2005 (last month). Since there was no settled minister called, and since I am here for the second year, I shall, myself (perhaps a few months later than I preferred), follow up on what I learned last year. During this coming year I shall, of necessity, expand my approach from that of observation and consultation only into the active shouldering of ministerial responsibilities in a more assertive way. As part of this approach, I shall be responsible for at least three Sunday services a month. Also, I, probably will be writing explanatory papers on how aspect of ministry and congregations function, and whatever else is called for by my contract and that provision in the Bylaws that says “The Minister shall be responsible for the Congregation’s spiritual affairs and interest, educational programs, and pastoral care, and shall serve as a consultant and professional resource for organizational matters and community outreach efforts of the Congregation.” Furthermore, I am still guided by the five developmental goals that apply in some way to almost all interim ministry situations: to help the congregation know its history -- what it has been and how it got to where it is; to help the congregation illuminate its strengths, its needs, and its challenges; to aid in the inevitable shifts of leadership that occur during periods of transition; to strengthen ties with the UUA and the District; and to enable the congregation to renew its vision and to prepare for new professional leadership. Much has been done already on all of these; much, still, can be done. I have one stipulation to add and it is: I am not at all intending to do these things like a ministerial seed crystal, seeking to get everybody to do things the way I think they ought to be done. Rather, I intend to do all I can to help you see how this place is put together, what it actually does (as over against what people say it does), and I hope to enable you all to feel good and positive and optimistic about who you are, why you are, and where you are going. In short, I intend to help you melt down old gods and sacred cows into more fluid substances so that you can reshape them into something new and beautiful -- a process you can begin but can only be fulfilled when your new seed-crystal, your new Moses (so to speak), shows up next year.
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