Minilogue - June 2007

By the Time You Read This

By the Rev. Bruce Johnson

Every time I sit down to write a newsletter column, I find that phrase coming to mind. Because the CALL is prepared well in advance, I, too, need to think ahead. What will the readers of my MINILOGUE need to know, not today or tomorrow, but two or three weeks from now? To be honest, it’s often difficult for me to project myself ahead in this way, and I often struggle with writer’s block at this point. I want my newsletter articles to be timely, but that’s not always possible. As the physicist, Niels Bohr, once said, “it is difficult to make predictions... especially about the future!” None of us has a crystal ball, but still we can’t help wanting to know what lies ahead. We imagine, we fear, we fantasize, we hope, and then we make our plans. Human beings are just built that way, it seems, opening toward the future with all its promise and possibility.

Congregations are built that way too, which is why UUCUV members empowered a Strategic Planning Committee to develop a document that can serve as a guide for our programming over the next five to seven years. That team has been hard at work over the past year, and by the time you read this, they will have delivered their final draft to the Board for approval and presentation to the congregation.

I was an ex officio member of the Strategic Planning Committee, and I can testify to their dedication and their commitment to faithfully reflect the congregation’s vision as they understood it. Lori Fortini, Mardy High, Suzanne Simon, Terry Rosenmeier, and Steve Ketcham all deserve great thanks for their efforts!

In her book on strategic planning for religious organizations, Alice Mann defines the essential process as one of “holy conversation.” This pretty well describes the deep and searching dialogue that often took place when the committee got together to map out our common dreams.

The essential point is that these “holy conversations” can and should continue, as individuals and working groups within our congregation respond to the plan in creative ways. This strategic plan is not “carved in stone,” but is meant to be a living document that provokes further reflection and action, and inspires and guides our ongoing journey. It is important to remember that “the map is not the territory,” and that we still need to take the actual journey, which will contain many surprises and new possibilities.

There will be measurable milestones on the way - numerical goals achieved, programs developed, lives transformed, a sanctuary built - but it is the “way” itself that counts. In the words of Ursula LeGuin, “it is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

In growing faith,
Bruce