Ministry

Pastoral Care and Counseling is one way of tending the heart, mind, and soul of a person as a minister. For me, this is about deep presence: listening to what shows up in the words, behaviors, and fantasies each of us has. Then, ministers support by following the threads that connect the different pieces of who we are, and helping to make meaning of the experiences we have. Pastoral Care involves listening and mirroring, accompanying a person as they unpack their stories and imagining what they would like to leave behind or what new way they want to try. To me, this is the ministry of paying attention and being real. 

Small Group Ministries  involve the kinds of experiences that allow each of us to go deeper within, while practicing presence to and with fellow travelers. Small Group Ministries, writing courses, meditation groups, hiking groups, study groups are spaces where we tend our own mind, hearts, and bodies. These spaces become places of depth particularly if we set the stage for it with clear intentions, purposes, commitments, and covenants. Ministers can be facilitators that help set the stage for the kinds of experiences people are wanting to have together, to deepen their own spiritual lives and connections. 

Sunday Services or weekly gatherings are about communal noticing and remembering: it is our chance to pay attention, to shake off our numbness, and to make a choice about how we want to show up in the world. Sunday Services should “do” something to you – ideally, you should be changed by them! My guiding belief about these weekly gatherings is that they should serve a purpose for individuals, as well as for the collective body of the congregation. The question we have to ask as facilitators is, “What does our community need now? How could our gathering on Sunday support us in meeting that need?” Our design is our response to that question.

Communal Rituals are the other types of gatherings that get us all in the same room together. I love the rituals that have, against all odds, stayed with us in our communities: memorials, weddings, baby showers, parties to celebrate transitions, claiming our true names, retirements, menopause, and anniversaries. These are opportunities to do an old thing well: coming together to intentionally witness someone(s) change and transform. Ministers help make that easier: we listen deeply for the longing, we delightfully manage the social awkwardness of asking for what we really need, and we make it safe for the witnesses and the transformer to settle into a different, more present way of being.

Group Facilitation includes all kinds of processes that we need in congregational life to be a people: making a decision together, planning a program, designing a new way of doing things or improving an old way, navigating a conflict or disagreement, visioning a different future, or naming a mission or core values. These processes are improved when ministers act as supportive facilitators: helping leaders make decisions about how to create clarity around shared purpose, invite dissent, hear needs, be creative, and generate shared understanding and accountability for next steps.

Leadership development is membership development is faith development: when we welcome someone into a congregation, we are welcoming them to claim their power and their role on a faith journey in a community. These systems are often separate within congregations, yet are interdependent with one another: how we welcome people, how we create opportunities to shape individuals and relationships, relates to how we then invite those people to take greater ownership and responsibility (leadership) in shaping the shared journey we are on together. Ministers bring ease to this by recognizing this system’s interdependence, making the journey to belonging clearer, and finding ways for people to take their next best step on their faith journey.

Financial engagement and stewardship is core to ethical ministry. Ministers have an essential role in congregational finances, particularly in our capitalist culture, where financial wellness is a spiritual and social issue. Ministers have a role in supporting financial literacy and modeling humility when they don’t know or understand something. We also have a responsibility to understand how our people relate to their resources. By engaging in stewardship efforts, we know clearly how resources flow back and forth between people and their congregation: we support people in lowering pledges, increasing pledges, and finding right relationship with their giving and our congregation’s budgeting. We model this with our own willingness to be real about money, to explore our money stories, and to invite changes to what we believe.

Administration is not often the reason ministers go into ministry – however, it is another opportunity to live out our mission and faith. You can see if we live out our mission in the ways we hire, supervise, and let go of staff, in our compensation, and in our ability to be a place where people flourish as employees and volunteers. Staff meetings, supervision, compensation, communication, and management are all part of what it means to live in alignment with your organization’s mission and vision. There is no “business side” of church that is separate from the mission, values, and beliefs of that church. Ministers are inherently administrators.

Denomination: Unitarian Universalist congregations are uniquely independent and interdependent organizations. Although we practice congregational polity, meaning congregations follow their own democratic rules in determining resources and leadership, we are part of an association that values collaboration and connection. I was lucky to be part of the Baja 4 – a collective of congregations that practiced shared worship and programming for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has fundamentally changed what I believe about congregations: we are independent organizations, yes, but we function as a faith movement when we work together for the flourishing of each of us.