Areas of Ministry
What Are We Doing When We Do Church?
I used to think of church as a wonderful banquet with welcoming tables, deeply satisfying food, and genial company. In this analogy the minister helps people find their place and points out good things to eat while the congregants take turns serving, eating and washing the dishes.
That’s a pleasant, nurturing, inclusive analogy, but it doesn’t include all of what really happens at church. It doesn’t include that radical bit about change.
These days I think of church more as a laboratory – a place where people can come and learn new ways of seeing and being in the world. We’re building a new way and as we work sometimes there is a flash of light and a puff of smoke!
In this vision of church I see us conducting experiments with such titles as “Being Well Together”, “Walking and Talking”, “Not Walking and Not Talking”, and “Letting Go”. Church then becomes the place where we work at becoming a people so bold -- a place where we change ourselves in order to change the world!
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Changing Ourselves to Change the World
We are in the middle of a new civil rights movement and as Unitarian Universalists, we are called to examine how we have contributed to inequality, and consider the ways that we will participate in dismantling the systems of injustice.
Did reading that make you as nervous as it made me to type it? Ugh. Change is scary. Change is dangerous. Change doesn’t sound fun! And why should I have to change? Can’t everybody else just change first?
And there is our challenge: convincing ourselves that change will be better for us as well as for others.
As an individual, my commitment to social justice is unwavering, but it isn’t always apparent. I don’t wear it on my sleeve. Instead, I try to simply live it through my relationships.
As a minister, I strive to create worship and reflection that makes space for those encounters with the self and others that brings about internal change. Once a person has been thus transformed, there is no going back to the old ways of being and this change radiates out into the rest of the world.
Plenty of congregations wind up with their social justice work scattered across too many areas, or with passionate people who carefully tend their pet projects but never manage to invite others to join them.
My work as a minister is to help a congregation clearly articulate their commitment to social justice and then provide them with guidance as they do the work. Ideally a congregation will take on issues in their community, as well as in the larger world.
"Watching Nell turn into a minister has been an inspiring experience. She is a grounded, sane, intelligent, and compassionate woman who finds more beautiful ways to say things than most people can.
These qualities will serve her well in UU ministry, but the most important quality, as I see it, is her honesty and authenticity. She means what she says, and when she doesn't know something, she'll tell you she doesn't know. I admire this enormously."
Rev. Meg Barhnouse
Senior Minister, First Austin UU
Pastoral Care
Walking With You Is My Prayer
I will be your minister for all of the points in your life -- not just the prosperous or happy times. I choose to walk with you through the tough and uncertain parts of life. I will honor your transitions and transformations, and I will listen deeply to your story.
Likewise, I will work with the whole congregation to support you as you reach out to listen well and minister well to one another as a community of caring.
