For the next three weeks in my column, I want to talk about the three words that the staff and I have chosen as our mantras for the 2023-2024 Program Year.
“It turns out that the only thing harder than doing ministry during the pandemic was doing it in the year following the pandemic.” This is a statement that was said in a staff conversation this past week. We are finding that we are reinventing so many things or figuring out how to do them following the pandemic. Because of that, one of our phrases for this year is FOUNDATIONAL STABILITY.
We are hoping that we can provide more stability with our processes and procedures and our infrastructure in how we do things. This includes helping new people figure out “how we do things here” to having a strong sense of how people of all ages feel like they belong, to preparing for Benjie’s sabbatical to re-issuing an all-new, online Program Guide for volunteers.
However, it is important to note that Stability does NOT mean complacency. Or not wanting to have a spirit of adventure, growth or change. We expect that we will continue to do all those things, but the infrastructure that holds us together while we do all that will be strengthened.
I’d love to hear from you what Foundational Stability means to you and where you think it is applicable in our congregation.