Since last Sunday, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the ice breaker that moderator-elect Lindsey Telg offered to the group assembled on Zoom for the All Board Kick-off. She invited us to take a brief quiz that would enable us to identify which “creative type” we each inhabited, which in turn would point us to our “creative strength,” “untapped potential,” and “ideal collaborator.” It was super fun; you can take it here.

I’ve taken it a few times now, curious about how consistent my result would prove. You’re not supposed to overthink your response, just go with your gut, but telling me not to overthink it, is pretty much inviting me to it. So. I was curious. As it turned out my result was remarkably consistent, but there was also one prompt I keep returning to in my mind. I tend to see life through the lens of [either] systems [or] stories.

Now, I love stories. Have been an avid reader of fiction and creative non-fiction for most of my life. I love the stories of people — real people, church people; love to hear about your experiences and the complexities of your journeys. But I have also long been moved by the systems that organize and shape our lives and experiences.

This should come as little surprise, I suppose. My dad is a pastor, but also has a Ph.D. in the sociology of religion. As a youngish teen (and stereotypical oldest daughter) I already had opinions, however borrowed, on Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement in which I was raised, preached regularly about the personal experiences of grace and assurance, but he also organized groups of people in a way which built a network of connected communities.

All this is to say that as we’ve entered into our current season of life together at UCG — three and a half years into a pandemic that has reshaped the church in North America, in a time of economic and social upheaval and a revitalized labor movement, a time of transition and dreaming — I’ve been thinking a lot not just about what we do as a congregation, but how we do it. Obviously there is so much that we do thoughtfully and gracefully and beautifully and ethically; but there are also directions we’ve pursued and programs we’ve developed that have, over time, come to be taken as given, when they are, in fact, only one way of multiple possible ways of doing things.

Talia and I went to the annual meeting of the Florida conference of the United Church of Christ in October, and I sat in on a workshop on fundraising and philanthropic giving that had all my wheels turning. The speaker laid out different models of giving and change, inspired by that old maxim, “Give someone a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish . . .”

Each model is moved by a different understanding of what a person or community’s needs are, of what might be done to meet those needs, and how resources are developed to fund those actions. They each also have different underlying assumptions about who, rightly, has decision making power, and how to measure success.

Heidi Neumark, a now-retired Lutheran pastor and brilliant writer, had a piece in The Christian Century recently that notes how many churches focus on compassionate giving or the providing of services and advocacy, and urges them to also consider community organizing as a way for making change. You should check it out here.

Again, in this season where we are raising money to support next year’s budget, as we are beginning to imagine what work a third minister might allow our clergy team to do, and as we are dreaming about a capital campaign as an investment in our future ministry, it is important for us to take a wide and deep look at our financial life together; to take a systems approach to our stewardship of our resources.

We are already doing so much good work together, and I am so grateful for the ways so many contribute to and support the life of this congregation. I am also so grateful — and excited — for these next months of dreaming together about what might be possible as we listen to the voices and needs of our fellow UCGers and our wider community.

Grace and peace to you!

Bromleigh