Let Your Life Sing

Let Your Life Sing Pathways Church Rob Moore 10/14/2007

One song…a song people would remember…one song to let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth…one song that would sum you up…something real, something you felt…that’s the kind of song that truly saves people.[i] When I think about letting our lives sing, this is what I hope we are singing. That one song, maybe two or three songs, that sums us up, that truly saves people. Today’s movie scene spoke literally of a song. I speak of finding a song that is your passion in life; that lets you sing from your strengths and gifts in service to others. For some of us that might literally be a song as our music team demonstrates for us every week. For most of us it will be something different. Today, we will look into why we should bother trying to find that one song for us, how we might go about discovering it and then what do with it once we’ve found it.

In a sermon this past summer, the Rev. Barbara Pescan mentions that she hears from those in Unitarian Universalist congregations “that they want comfort when they are sad; and times for celebration; the challenge to go deeper; and to serve. These days they want more than to be able to articulate their beliefs….They also want to develop for themselves a reliable practice of their faith, and to find ways to serve a hurting world with kindness. They want to do something more than be buffeted by events; so they can be something more than observers.”[ii] Do you want the same thing in your life?

I believe Pathways was created in part to offer a place where we can go deeper and where we can serve. We can see it right in our DNA: “Service is vital to practicing our spirituality and living our mission in the world…We engage in outward directed service opportunities that make a difference.” But service is only half the picture. There is also the need to go deeper. I think that the two go hand in hand when we discover the place of service that lets our lives sing. When we enter service from a place of passion and strength, then we enter into ministry. One writer puts it this way; ministry or vocation is that “place where your deep gladness meets the world’s great need.”[iii] Is there a better description of true service than that? Where your deep gladness meets the world’s great need. This is what we are talking about, folks. Finding your purpose in life, finding where that purpose meets the needs of the world. The world doesn’t have to mean mission trips overseas or any other grand scheme. It can mean any number of ministries large and small in the church and outside. Letting your life sing means discovering your song and singing it in the right place for it to be heard and savored; savored by you in the giving and savored by those who receive it.

When we do this, the benefit to the world receiving the service is fairly obvious. But the benefit to the individual or group providing the service is a little fuzzier. If you happen to be in a congregation that offers training for your particular ministry, then you benefit from attaining new skills, new ways of being in your service and your life. Pathways is just starting to offer some of these training opportunities. Take for example the Adult Education leader’s workshop happening this Saturday. On the agenda are topics such as goal setting, communication, dealing with complaints and even a little pastoral care. This is the first of a series of workshops for this year that are designed to give our adult leaders skills to grow into their ministry and their lives. As a result, they grow in their faith and the church grows in its faith by having leaders more equipped to do the service they are called to do.

Growing in specific skills is only part of the benefit to an individual, though. There is a deeper level still that we can aspire to. We also want to have the opportunity to go deeper in our spirituality and to grow into a spiritually mature, whole and authentic human being. One way to do this is to take the time to reflect on your service. Why are you doing it, what need does it serve in the world and in you. How does this service further my spiritual growth? “Service involves commitment. People …need to grow in their faith and come to understand the relationship between word and action…[and] it is…our actions – the choices in the trials of life, the places of service, and the sacrifices we make for others – that cause faith to grow.”[iv] As we reflect on our times of service, we can see how we have put our faith into action. We can test whether we are truly living by our values and gifts and passions with this service. As we serve from our abundance rather than our scarcity, we become transformed and realize the old adage of it being better to give than receive. Once we begin to see this transformation in our service through our church, we begin to see this transformation seeping into other areas of our life as well. We act differently at home, at work, and with all the parts of our lives. We become leaders not just at church and in our ministry area, but everywhere we go and in everything we do. How cool is that?! We can actually come to church “and be something more than observers”[v] and we can grow spiritually.

Of course, as I hinted at a bit earlier, this kind of discovery and service and spiritual growth is not all sunshine and roses. There are some sacrifices to be made. When last I preached here over the summer, I showed a movie clip from Akeelah and the Bee. In that scene, Akeelah read a quote from Marianne Williamson about our greatest fear being our light, not our darkness. To paraphrase, we are often terrified of being called into service, into ministry because of what we might be asked to do. We are scared of what our success might ask of us. I mentioned then that I am called to help create this kind of equipping ministry here at Pathways. That was over three months ago. In that time I have studied and read, but I have not until now brought it out into the open. I have written and re-written a newsletter article and Pathways Weekly announcement trying to get it just right. But in part what has really held me back from going public with this is that I am terrified of what I am about to get myself into here. I’m not worried about failing or nobody showing up to join me. I’m worried that people might actually show up and I will have to lead a group to places I cannot predict or plan for. I have that conditioned voice inside my head that Susan Frederick spoke about last week telling me that this will be too much work, that I’m not ready for it, that I’m not up to it. I even thought seriously about saying no to preaching today because I wasn’t ready to roll this out yet. Ultimately, though, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, but I didn’t exactly jump at the chance. But, you know what, all that is OK. This is all part of the reflection and growth process. When it gets right down to it, I welcome the sacrifice of the order to my life to open a bit of chaos that comes with the unknown. Even though it still scares me from time to time, I know I have the support of leaders here and of many of you out there right now and that comforts me and encourages me, literally gives me courage.

So, let’s really get into how we might go about bringing this kind of equipping ministry to Pathways and ultimately to other congregations as well. We start with a vision that we already have. This past spring and summer the board and congregation created a vision statement that is big and bold and that is one the great things about this church and why I keep coming back for more. One part of this vision is this: Pathways provides abundant and relevant training opportunities for its volunteer leaders, eagerly sought by others from outside the church community through its regional leadership training center. When I read this I knew I was in the right place for building this kind of ministry. But this vision is only part of the process as I see it. I want to expand the vision to encompass all of what I introduced so far. This vision of equipping ministry has three components: Discover, Connect, and Equip. Our Pathways vision statement really only speaks to the last piece. With these three components, I think Unitarian Universalist congregations do a good, if perhaps incomplete, job of the Discover piece. Many churches do a fair job at the training piece, especially in the religious education area. But where most churches fall short is the connecting piece. So, let’s go through each and see what they entail.

I chose this term Discover for this first component for a couple of reasons. One, we already have a Discovery Class at Pathways which would be included in this introductory phase of the process. But more importantly, I love how the word discover can be broken down to dis-cover. This is what this initial phase is about dis-covering your gifts, your needs, your passions, your talents. It is also about dis-covering what is important to know about a church you may be just visiting or thinking about joining. A lot of churches have the New Member class or the Visitor Orientation class or perhaps a series of classes. We do a good job of that usually. These types of classes are especially important for a Unitarian Universalist congregation because we are not very well known outside of our small circle. It is also important to be introduced to a new church because many of our churches are so different in culture and style. Beyond the New Member class, we also have other introductory offerings such as Evensong or The Spirit of Life series I am leading now. There are many other series of classes and workshops that introduce us to our faith’s history and practices so that we may begin or continue on our spiritual journeys.

But I also want to see more of a Discovery of the individual as well. This is where we can offer opportunities for gifts discernment, personality tests like the Myers Briggs our pastor spoke about a few Sundays ago, talent and interest surveys. In preparation for today, I took a few of the Spiritual Gifts Assessments on-line. I learned that my three main gifts are prophecy, shepherding, and exhortation. You may notice that these are traditional terms from Christian Scriptures. One of my goals in all this is to create a Spiritual Gifts Assessment tool that is not tied to the Christian language, especially where speaking in tongues and casting out demons are concerned, and is more inclusive and general. Exhortation and prophecy are communication gifts with exhortation focusing on the personal and practical application of a message or truth and prophecy focusing on the truth to be communicated itself. Shepherding involves the long-term personal responsibility for the welfare of a spiritual community. Sounds about right to me. Just look at this sermon! I encourage you to take a look at some of these tools online. Just type in Spiritual Gifts in your search engine and you will get a number of choices. As I mentioned before, be forewarned that the language may be off-putting for some. But try to plow ahead, translate as you go and you might be surprised by what you dis-cover about yourself.

This brings us to the key piece to this whole puzzle for me: connecting. So, you dis-cover your gifts and talents and your interests. You pore over the list of ministry opportunities in your church. What then? This is where many churches drop the ball. We have probably all heard stories or lived stories where someone goes to a new church. They go through the new member class and maybe even fill out a talent and interest survey and then what happens? Nothing. There is no follow up to connect that person fully to the church in general or to a specific ministry. Connection then becomes an intentional component of ministry. This IS the ministry for some. Just as we hope to do with visitors at the beginning of their journey with us; we also have follow up in this middle phase as well. And what do we follow up with? A face-to-face interview! The idea is simply to have an intentional conversation about your gifts, talents and interests; all those things you just dis-covered. If I have a gift of Hospitality what can I do with that here at Pathways? What ministries are available to me, either in the church or outside the church? No wondering, no waiting for a phone call, no need to force your way into a ministry, which many of us just won’t do. You simply have a conversation of where to go next. That is a key item. At every step, there is always, always a clear and communicated next step.

But this interview/conversation is not only what can this new person do for the church and the members already here or for the community. It is also an opportunity to determine what this new person needs from the church at this time. When we come to a new church, we have found something that meets some need in us. Sometimes it is a clear need, most of the time it is more subtle. One result of this conversation may be that this new person really needs to be served by the church at this point in their lives. Their own service will come later perhaps even as a result of the service they receive themselves. How many people have ever been directly asked at this or any other church, how can we serve your needs at this point in your life? Not many. I hope that changes soon.

Let us assume, though, I am ready to offer my gifts and talents to the church right now. Then I will be put in contact with a ministry Connector. Let’s take Children’s religious education as an example. I have a gift of teaching and an interest in teaching elementary age children. The person I have had my interview with puts me in touch with a religious education Connector. This person invites me into this specific ministry. It all boils down to clear and intentional connection. At this point in our journey, we move into the next component, Equipping.

Equipping moves us into finding out more specifically about what is involved in a specific ministry. This is where the training academy comes in. It took us all this time just to get to our vision of training our leaders. I hope you can see how this whole process leads up to this and how it is all connected to leadership and spiritual development. But equipping is not just training and workshops, all important don’t get me wrong. But it is also recognition, affirmation, feedback, accountability, and the reflection I talked about earlier. Another common pitfall in many churches is putting someone in a ministry and then leaving them dangling there with no direction, guidance, support, training, and affirmation. All of this is equipping. We must continually affirm someone’s worth and dignity by celebrating their ministry, recognizing the growth and maturity they are living. Supporting and re-directing them if they dis-cover they are in the wrong ministry after all. Giving them feedback on how they are doing, offering suggestions on how to do things better. Asking them how we can do things better and better equip the next person in their ministry. In short, giving them the tools to do their ministry as well as possible. Equipping ministry is a constantly evolving process, both for the individual going through it, for the church being in a constant state of discovery about its members and ministries, for the system itself as we learn things and make improvements on the fly.

By now some of you are probably thinking: Wow it sounds great, but what a lot of work and people necessary to create it. You’re right. But is it worth it? Does it fit within our DNA and our Vision of what we want Pathways to be and become? I, of course say Yes, absolutely. But I am also practical. I am not advocating starting something like this next week or even next spring. This will take time; it will take careful thought, planning, infrastructure and foundation building and many other things. In the meantime, training opportunities will continue to be created as needed just like the RE workshop this Saturday. So what I am calling you to today is to begin this journey with me. Think about it, turn it over in your mind, see what works for you, what causes you concern, what excites you about it. If you are really excited about it, look for an announcement in the next week or two calling for a few people to join me on a task force that will study and research this type of ministry for Pathways to see what we can make of it here. If you’re really, really excited about it contact me today or this week and let’s get started.

For today, though, just sit with it. Go to those Spiritual Gifts websites and see what you may learn about yourself, examine your own history and discover how church and life could have been different for you if your church had this type of ministry in place. And above all, search your heart and spirit for that one song that truly saves people, for that song that can join with the songs of others to create a chorus of service and ministry that plants seeds of light and love here at Pathways and throughout our community so that we can continue to build a spiritual community that changes lives. Amen.