In my own search for a congregation to serve as settled minister, I’ve reviewed about a dozen congregations’ self-descriptions. Search committees write these descriptions in response to questions posed by the UUA’s Department of Ministerial and Professional Leadership. Your search committee has been developing SNUUC’s description from your surveys and the focus groups of last fall.

One of the questions that I love best is this: “Does the congregation have a mission – not a mission statement, but a glowing coal at its center – and, if so, what is it?” I love this question because it’s an attempt to get at how focused, energetic and purposeful a congregation is. Also, in contrast to most of the other questions it has “poetry” in it. “A glowing coal!” I like the metaphor – not the first flame, the quick rush of blazing kindling, but the enduring heat that will carry through the night. The glowing coal at the heart! To ask this in the vernacular, what turns you on? What gets your juices going? “Come on, baby, light my fire.” Well, what lights your fire?

We understand this when it comes to sexual energy. The vernacular is all about the erotic. But how about congregational energy?

Some congregations get “juiced” about a new building. There’s no question that building a new building or addition can be very exciting. I am pleased for you that you have a planning committee making its presentation at the congregational meeting today. I got a look when they presented their plan to the Board so I have seen their work. It’s an exciting, useful and beautiful plan. You will soon see it in more detail.

But congregations are never about brick and mortar ultimately. Congregations that sizzle with lasting fire do so because they share a commitment to a vision that a building serves. In other words the building, exciting as it may be, is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Of course you should be stirred by the beauty and usefulness of the plan. But I would like you aglow even more with your shared vision for SNUUC, a vision this extraordinary addition would help serve.

Last Sunday I spoke with you about mission, that is, about the broad purposes of this congregation. Today I speak to you about vision, the specific purposes that you wish to accomplish through your energy and commitment over the next couple of years.

Too many congregations spend much of their time drifting. Where founding members brought passion to their work, those following may find themselves doing what’s always been done because “that’s the way it’s always been done,” not because they are excited about it themselves. In a drifting congregations you will hear the phrase, “we have to …” versus “we love to …” Drifting congregations can be flat, affectless, depressed.

So what turns you as a congregation on? What gets your energy up, your juices flowing, so to speak?

If you were able to re-invent SNUUC from the ground up, what would you keep because you love it? What would you let become history?

I know this is a transition time for you. In a transition time, it may be more challenging to feel free enough to imagine a future. You may feel preoccupied with “who will the new minister be?” “Can we make it through all the changes?” “We had to go to a re-canvass just to get a bare bones budget, how can we think broader?” “We don’t have enough people to do what we are already committed to, how can we think about anything else?” “We have to get our house in order before we can dare to imagine anything else?”

Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from Psychology 101? He observed that it’s nearly impossible for people to imagine being creative, if they are starving. Getting fed is a more basic need and will trump higher order needs like creative fulfillment. I suspect something of the same dynamic applies here. It’s hard to dream when you’re worried about the basics: leadership, enough money, who the minister will be, and so forth.

I want to assure you that the essentials are in place. Sure, you don’t have a settled minister, but with a vision of what SNUUC is that all of you share, you won’t depend on a minister because you will know what you together want to accomplish. You will know your shared ministry.

I say the essentials are in place. You have a building. You have dedicated leaders. You have competent and caring staff, Director of Religious Education and Youth Coordinator, and organist; as well as support staff, Office Managers, Financial Secretary, and Custodian. You have a budget that you support. You are commitment to UU principles and purposes. You have a rich legacy from the people before you. You care deeply for one another. You have inspiring children and youth. The essentials are in place. As I said I want to assure you so that you can begin to “play” with vision. So, take a deep breathe. Relax your breathing. Play with some different possibilities. See which excite you.

Is there a glow at the heart of SNUUC? What about this congregation energizes you? Where’s the juice? Are there areas, currently dormant or barely warm, that might become that glowing coal?

Is the glowing coal in how you do Sunday services? Is that what energizes you – the emotional power, the intellectual range, the music, something else about the Sunday experience?

Is it in the religious education program? The “sanctuary” that is created for each child as she and he explores their own feelings and thoughts, as well as those of others and even other religions.

Is it in the commitment that many of you make to your spiritual growth and the sharing between you of your journeys?

Is it in the caring that you extend to one another when there is need?
Is it in the reaching out to transform the community, indeed the world, and to live in harmony with the earth?

Where do you find this congregation most alive?

Here are some of my “playful thoughts” about possible SNUUC’s glowing coals. For a congregation of your size, your youth program stands out. Too often, a congregation of 150 wouldn’t even have a youth program. Religious education would stop in the junior high ages. After Coming of Age, youth would evaporate. At SNUUC, in contrast, youth are wonderfully present and inspirational. That’s remarkable. There’s a glowing coal there. Is it just in a corner, or is it at the center of this congregation?

Might you build on this wonderful program to be even more intentional in your vision for your ministry with youth? What might such a vision look like? You see, I’m suggesting a way to take something you already do well, and do it even better. Do it as the whole congregation.

First of all, each and every person in the congregation would be able to say with pride something like this: “One of the most important things this congregation does is to minister to youth.” Ideally, whether you were directly involved in the youth program or not, you would be happy to boast about it. So, if someone asked you, “what do you mean ‘minister to youth’?” you would have an answer. “We provide a safe haven, where every young person is prized. You know how brutal it can be in many schools. Kids divide into cliques. They can rip each other apart over how they dress or their favorite band, not to mention sexual orientation, differing abilities, or diverse religious affiliation. Here we minister by creating a safe zone, where kids can be different, yet honored for who they are.”

Your boasting wouldn’t be over. “We minister to youth by encouraging them to develop their own power and skills. Our youth shape their program and activities, their own worship rather than having someone else tell them what to do. In our ministry with them, we assume they want to grow, to act compassionately, and to enjoy each other’s company. Our ministry trusts that within each of us there is a spirit that wants to blossom.”

And if the other was still listening, you would have even more to say. “We minister to youth by providing them a place where caring adults will speak as honestly as possible with them about the most sensitive and important issues in life. We minister by providing a place where youth can bring up the issues that trouble them most, whether it’s sexuality, suicide, fears of parental expectations, questions of faith and religious development, whatever. Our sexuality curriculum, called “Our Whole Lives,” stands out from all others because of its honesty and it comprehensiveness.

We minister to youth by helping them act on their impulse to help others. As our youth learned about day laborers in the Freeport area, they wanted to help. They made pies for Thanksgiving and put on a lunch for twenty-five or so a couple of Sundays ago.”

To summarize, if ministry with youth were fully shared as a vision for this congregation you would be able to say with enthusiasm, “I’m ticked pink that we offer youth safety, empowerment, honesty and the opportunity to serve. That’s one of things we do best!”

By the way, in saying all this am I suggesting that the program is perfect? That it always, in every encounter with every youth, offers safety, empowerment, honesty, and service? No. We don’t always live up to our vision. We are human. But, I trust, that sharing the vision of what you want ministry with youth to be, you can work through the actions or words that are not consistent with that vision.

Now, how might a vision of ministry with youth be expanded? Within SNUUC it might be through a deeper emphasis on spiritual growth. There might be more pairings of youth and adults searching together for meaning and truth. Take the Coming of Age mentors to another level. Have adults share their spiritual journey with youth. Then where there were shared interests have the youth and adult take the journey further. Those interested in paganism might read Starhawk. In Buddhism, they might dialogue around a meditation practice. If interested in Christianity, they might read together from the Jesus Seminar. They might share a prayer practice.

If SNUUC were to extend its ministry with youth beyond the congregation’s walls, what might it do? It might sponsor workshops in conjunction with other youth programs from other churches, synagogues, temples and mosques. For example, it might use the powerful techniques of Teaching Tolerance in a truly diverse gathering to learn how to live tolerance – to learn how to truly embrace diversity. It might use the Alternatives to Violence work originated by the Quakers to learn how to handle aggression and anger.

Does any of this light your fire? Do you have other visions of how to build on to the current ministry with youth?

I will turn now to another part of SNUUC’s life that you do well and ask what might be a larger vision: the Thrift Shop. It provides a wonderful service to the community by providing poorer people good deals, and by recycling. Clearly there’s a coal burning here as well. How might the Thrift Shop expand its service to the community? Do you have an idea?
I’ll toss off a couple ideas to get the creative, energetic juices going. How about using a good portion of the income to train and hire at a living wage a person or two from Freeport? Think of it as a job training opportunity. I suggest a living wage so that it really makes a difference in a person’s life.

How about surveying the customers, who were willing, about the most pressing needs they face? After learning from the people the Thrift Shop serves, then stepping up to the plate in finding ways – small, doable – to meet those most pressing needs. Who knows what direction such conversation might lead!

I hope that by my raising these examples I will stimulate you to talk with each other about what would excite you – what would burn like a glowing coal at the heart of SNUUC? I’ve mentioned youth and Thrift Shop. It could be in children’s ministry, in celebration of religious diversity, in commitment to spiritual and personal deepening and maturing. What calls you?

In today’s general membership meeting you will elect a new slate of officers and trustees. We intend to have a retreat with committee chairs, a “leadership retreat,” where we will be focusing on vision for SNUUC. I urge you to talk with your newly elected board and your committee chairs about the vision that would get you excited.

This I know. The more clearly you know where your shared passions are, the more energy you will raise to accomplish your vision. Coals ignite the dry wood around them. You will ignite the people who are drawn to your vision, if you can express that vision with enthusiasm. And people will be drawn to your vision. People hunger for significant ways to serve human need. Your vision may show them a way. That clarity will help your search committee as well. With it they will be more likely to find the ministerial match that will work by your side in doing the ministry you share. Let’s talk. Where is, where would like the glowing coal to be?