Rev. Claudia Frost
08-08-2010
In 1985, many of us enjoyed watching Michael J. Fox as
Marty McFly accidently being warped back to 1955 in Dr. Emmit Brown’s time
machine invention made out of a stainless steel DeLorean sports car.
Remember the antics of Marty trying to find the younger version of Doc Brown
to help send him back to his own time while simultaneously ensuring that his
parents meet and fall in love so that Marty’s own existence continued?
That year, Back to the Future was the number one
box office hit. The movie reminds me of the importance of paying attention
to the events and history of our past to ensure our future. In the movie,
Marty McFly was transported to his home of the past before he existed as a
member of the family, yet he was trying desperately to return home.
If we went back in time and looked at our
church family, what would we see? Since 1905, when this church was formally
organized, there have been many milestones, peaks and valleys in the life of
this church.
How many of you were members here in the
1970’s or earlier? What about the 1980’s when Back to the Future was
a hit? Who was the minister in the 1980’s? Fast Forward ten years.
What do you remember as the main church activities in the 1990’s?
We’ve come a long way since meeting under
the shade of a tree in the 1800’s, ….then in the school house that used to
exist across the street,…… to having our church building burn to the ground
on Easter Sunday, 1950. Today, we enjoy meeting every Sunday in this
beautiful brick building that was rebuilt in 1951 by our dedicated church
ancestors.
Looking back at who we have been, how we
have lived our Universalist and Unitarian faith in this place at the
crossroads, …….in this community,……is important. This is our church home.
Many people have described their first experience of discovering a Unitarian
Universalist Congregation for the first time as a feeling of “coming
home”….of finding a place where they feel “at home”. Church at its best is a
religious community where all are welcome, where healing often happens,
where we can be known…..just as we are, where we can be renewed and return
to a sometimes hostile world and continue to make a difference.
In the movie, Patch Adams, Robin
Williams, who plays Patch Adams says, “All of life is a coming home.
Salesmen, secretaries, coal miners, beekeepers, sword swallowers, all of us,
all the restless hearts of the world, all trying to find a way home….”
Since coming to this church home, I have
been learning as much as I can about you,…..rural life in eastern North Carolina, …….and our surrounding
communities. Since so much of my personal experience has been in large
congregations, I have been reading books about small congregations, and
meeting with the other UU ministers of the eastern cluster where I learn
more about life in small congregations. One of the things that has come up
in each of the books I’ve read is the value and importance of smaller
congregations as being the right size to be caring communities, for as Rev.
David Ray says, “churches that are hospitable and caring, live;…..those who
care only about themselves die.” (Ray) When I
first preached here in February 2005, I experienced this church as a
hospitable community and have come to know that our fellowship and caring
for one another is a congregational strength.
Our strength of hospitality and compassion
for each other is important, but I think we need to consider our
congregational focus and that involves caring for others through our church
mission. The church’s mission is our reason for existence. Church mission is
not so much about program as it is a way of life. We already know the
importance of spiritual nurturing and faith development through quality
worship services. We value religious education for children and adults and
pastoral care and church fellowship in the life of the church. These are the
characteristics of a living church rather than a surviving institution. But
it’s time to look to the future. These church accomplishments are not the
heart of church mission and church mission is our future. Church mission
really deals with an outer focus…..a far sightedness…..church mission is all
our church does beyond our doors.
I have previously mentioned some of church
consultant, Michael Durall’s wisdom from his books, the Almost Church
and The Almost Church Revisited as he coaches and critiques Unitarian
and Universalist congregations in particular about life giving knowledge for
church growth. He reminds us that “Unitarian Universalists should be
creating churches that make the world a more just, safe, and equitable
place…..Churches seldom die from taking risks…..they expire from becoming
complacent………churches with fortitude are the churches of
the future.” (Durall 31)
Another well known protestant Church
consultant, Kennon Callahan, says “A congregation without a mission is a
club, not a congregation.” He says that real mission is not a program,
but a way of life. “When mission becomes a way of life, a church looks at
itself as a people who can make a difference in the lives of others.”
We may be small but we can make a
difference in the world. #561 in our Hymnal, Singing the Living
Tradition, reminds us of this with the words of Margaret Mead: Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.
Our purpose statement which we read
this morning says we strive:
To provide a place of liberal worship
To live our Universalist and Unitarian values
To help with spiritual growth
To be open, accepting and inviting
To actively engage in our community and the world
Being a member of a congregation should
change people’s lives in some fundamental way and have a vision of a deeper
spirituality through service.
Can anyone know our church mission from our
statement of purpose? I wonder. I know we are engaged in some
activities in our community, but we are not living up to our full potential
as a vibrant congregation. The church’s mission is our reason for being.
Today’s message is about mission and what is possible in caring for others
outside the church walls.
Our purpose statement gives a hint about
who we are…..but what’s missing? The purpose of the church is not just
worship, discussions, fellowship and fun, although those are important for a
lively congregation. The deeper purpose of the church is to make a
difference in the world where we are located. This marks the difference in
smaller weaker churches and smaller, but mighty, churches that make a
difference in the world beyond the church doors. Church mission is about
changing lives. Do we have a mission focus?
What do we do particularly well? Do we have
a congregational style or way of being in the world? What
are we passionate about? We see ourselves as a beacon of liberal religion in
eastern North Carolina.
We should ask ourselves, “How bright is our beacon? Is our light shining
bright enough for people to find us…..” What are we known for? Are we
sharing the joy of this congregation with our friends and neighbors…… Our
weekly message is in the newspapers each week thanks to a dedicated
volunteer,…. our newsletter is on the webpage….we’ve had our picture in the
paper and participated in some community events….but are you sharing the
good news of our faith with friends and neighbors? (My story) I hope to host
a class one Sunday this fall sometime on how to talk about our UU faith.
Raising our own consciousness about the unique gifts of this congregation is
a starting point for discovering our mission focus.
One place to start developing the whole
congregation’s consciousness about our mission is with awareness in our
church budget. What organizations do we support? Do we have any cohesive
policies or traditions concerning criteria for church support? There is so
much need and yet we have limited resources, time, and people; we need
creative methods for making decisions that best suit our congregation.
The mission is not just what the church
does collectively; it would be good for us to be aware of what each member
does to live our values in the communities where we live. What are our
individual members doing in service in a variety of organizations and
agencies? I am aware of what a few of you are doing but would love to know
more. This could be the focus of a newsletter article and a beginning to
look deeper at who we are.
I know as a congregation we are involved in
volunteering for the library, we help at the Stew Fest fundraiser for the
library, we sponsor a portion of the highway for Adopt the Hwy litter clean
up, we are engaged in recycling and some Green Sanctuary activities, and our
building is used for English as a Second Language classes. I’ve been
wondering what our overall mission focus is.
At first I thought when we do discover our
true calling for making a difference in the world it would have something to
do with food……we do food well. Our history and traditions are immersed in
farm families ….people who know how to grow things and there are so many
good cooks among us and “breaking bread together” has been an integral part
of religious life since the days of the early Christian church. I was
intrigued by one of the programs the Unitarian Universalist congregation of
Beaufort,
SC is involved with. They have
about eight different Social Justice Programs and one of them is their
support of the Marshview Organic Community Farm
– which is a community program that teaches young people (8-14)
about good nutrition and they raise organic food and manage the enterprise.
The food is sold locally and the youth receive credits toward a
scholarship savings account based on the number of hours they put in.
During the growing season, the kids work after school and extensively
in the summer. The congregation provided seed money,
helped get SC and federal designations as a non-profit and developed
fundraising events for this organization that was founded by another local
group.
I also guess I thought about food because
when I did my Internship year at Emerson UU in Houston, besides all the many
varied social justice projects various groups in the congregation were
involved in, they decided to have a congregation wide mission that focused
on hunger so that people of all ages could be involved in a variety of
projects. Besides making hundreds of sandwiches for the homeless shelter on
a monthly basis, I remember they worked for the city wide food bank
collection projects hosted several times a year and the youth group
sponsored a canned goods collection one Sunday and then made a labyrinth out
of the canned goods for a labyrinth walk and program on world hunger as just
a few of their projects. My imagination was spinning.
When I mentioned my thoughts
about mission to my ministerial fellowship committee and the idea that
mission grows out of the church’s history, unique character and context, the
thing some of them thought of first is this congregation has a long history
connected to education. Yes, our very being emerged from the Sunday school
class Julia Kent Outlaw began in 1869. They told me a number of teachers
have been prominent lay leaders in the history of this church. I know we are
among the original supporters of the Grady-Outlaw library at Albertson and
many of you continue to volunteer there for the church on a regular basis.
This past Monday I attended the new meeting hosted by the new
Duplin County School Superintendent with leaders of our county faith based
groups. If I could say there was a theme for the meeting, besides calling
for unity, there was an open invitation for our congregations to get
involved and actively help the schools in our communities. A couple of the
ministers present mentioned community based programs churches are assisting
with that are already helping the schools in some way.
I want to raise our mission consciousness
and begin a conversation with you to look at our future through the eyes of
church mission. If we are committed to a sense of mission we will live more
fully with purpose as a congregation. I’m reminded of a story you may have
heard of a young woman walking on a beach early one morning who noticed an
old man picking up starfish one at a time and throwing them back into the
ocean. The young woman asked what he was doing. The old man explained that
the starfish would die if they remained stranded on the beach. “There are
millions of starfish on the beach," said the young woman, "how can your
efforts make any difference?" Bending over and tossing one more
starfish into the sea, the old man said, “But at least I can save this one.”
We can make a difference in
the world……… Some congregations have found that being involved with the
Heifer Project or Habitat for Humanity homebuilding projects are smart
missions that get the maximum from their investment of time and money with
outcomes of greatest good. Such programs are organized on
the adage of “give a person a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to
fish and you feed him for a lifetime” because the people benefitting from
the programs are also involved in learning to improve their own lives. (MOMA
churches)
Discovering and living our unique church
mission is possible. We need to discover our hands on and person to person
mission focus…..We live best experientially. Congregational volunteers are
the ones who keep the doors open at the Area Congregations in Action Thrift
store in Mt.
Olive
and volunteers from various churches help at the Helping Hands Mission that
distributes food.
Unitarian Universalists have always valued
the importance of direct experience. Contrary to what some UU congregations
do, we don’t need extensive study and long range planning. We do need
to start small…get input…raise our consciousness of what we are already
doing and organize to involve the whole church to do whatever we feel called
to do.
We should keep in mind the KISS principle
(Keep It Simple, ….Stupid). The simplicity approach also requires seeing a
need, imagining and envisioning possible solutions, and then appropriately
planning and organizing the whole church body to accomplish the mission.
Outlaw’s Bridge Universalist Church has
always had a “can do” spirit of being able to meet whatever challenges come
our way. Looking to our past with an eye to our future is key to
understanding our mission. What is the intersection between who we are, who
we have been? What are the needs of our surrounding
communities? Church mission is our future to being a mighty small church
rather than just a small one. If we commit ourselves to a sense of mission
we will live more fully with the purpose of this congregation. We can become
the mighty small church that makes a difference in people’s
lives….who makes a difference in the world. Back to the future….developing
and living our church mission is possible.
May it be so. Amen
Sources:
Michael Durall, The Almost Church: Redefining
Unitarian Universalism For a New Era, Tulsa, Oklahoma: Jenkin
Lloyd Jones Press: Tulsa,
2004.
David R. Ray, The Indispensable Guide
for Smaller Churches, Cleveland: The
Pilgrim Press: Cleveland,
2003.
