July: Just the Right Amount of Change

Beloved community,

It is an exciting time for Chalice! We have just launched our capital campaign to raise money for Phase 1 of our hoped-for construction project, and we are in the process of hiring a new half-time staff position, the Director of Congregational Life.

This is also a time of great transition and change at Chalice. AGAIN! As one of our Board members commented at the recent Board retreat, “It seems like we’ve been in transition for years. Will we ever have a rest?”

It so happens that I am writing this column at 9:30 p.m. at night, two days past the deadline for the newsletter. My two-week vacation starts in three days. I’m tired. My first two years of ministry have been overwhelmingly joyful and exhilarating, and this past year has included moments so difficult I hope to never face anything like them again. Like many of you, I too yearn for rest.

But there is an adage that churches are like sharks: if we aren’t moving forward, then we are dying. (In fact, it is not true that all sharks must keep moving in order to breathe, which makes the saying all the richer, in my mind.) Though we might yearn for quiet times, it doesn’t take long for “quiet” to shift from “contentment” to “stagnation.”

As I begin my third year of ministry at Chalice, we are entering what could very well be a time of relative rest for us. We are enjoying the blessings of the added meeting space the cottage provides. And the Director of Congregational Life’s work with us will hopefully provide just the right amount of change and newness to keep us moving forward, engaged and enlivened.

At the end of my first two years with you, I can say with full conviction:

Chalice, I love you.
I love this work.
I love Unitarian Universalism.
I love being your minister.

I’ll rest up on my vacation, and you rest up while I’m gone. I’ll be back with you mid-July, and we’ll get back to work together.

Bright blessings, Sharon