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On Reflection and Renewal as Leaders
Having only been on the job as your District Executive for 10 weeks now I can hardly claim need for rest and renewal. Yet, the tempo of the church year must be in my blood, and as with the seasons, I find the rhythms of the church year here in Northern New England more distinct and pronounced. Though gratefully most of our congregations now hold regular Sunday services throughout the year, the summer remains a welcome downtime for church leaders, especially for our religious professionals, who often reach summer feeling stretched and depleted.
So, as leaders, what do we do with this gift of time away from church responsibilities?
During the bulk of the years as a leader in my former business career my children were young. Then, when I took time off from work in the summer, it was for a family vacation. I approached those times as truly a time away from work and with family. The recharging was physical and emotional - a week or two of full night's sleep, nearly daily exercise, and immersion in the life and love of family. Self-reflection was an afterthought. Any spiritual or creative renewal was solely a fortuitous and mostly unacknowledged byproduct of the physical and emotional restoration derived from special time with family.
That has changed the more I've plumbed the dimensions of  religious leadership. One of the first things I did after deciding to leave my career of 23 years and embark without a clear path toward a life of service to our faith or its ideals, was to go away for a few days to a cabin in the Hill Country of Central Texas - to follow the advice of Wendell Berry to "come into the peace of wild things ... to come into the presence of still water ... to feel above me the day blind stars ... (and) rest in the grace of the world ..." I was alone in purposeful reflection on my spirit, listening for the creative expression of a new call.
In the closing chapter of the book Leading from Within: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Lead, the editors describe how leaders "must continually engage in the crucial task of attending to who they are and how they want to be with others," which they highlight along with fostering renewal among the central tasks that all leaders face. These six tasks are:
- Leaders find and listen to their inner voice
- Leaders listen and attend to others
- Leaders tell stories and inspire shared vision
- Leaders cultivate an organization's creative imagination
- Leaders evoke conversations that matter
- Leaders foster renewal
I find this short list to be the best expression of what we are called to exhibit as church leaders. Leadership in churches is not about balancing budgets or mediating between competing interests for space, money, and program sponsorship. Leadership is about inviting creative thinking and action, evoking conversations that matter, and continually attending to who I am and how I commit to be in relationship with others.
As you head to the beach or lake cabin or mountain retreat this summer, I encourage you to see this time less as getting away from church and church concerns, and more as a time to reconnect to your spirit and to reignite your creative energies. See how you can newly develop or reestablish habits that restore your vitality and energy for the good work of the year to come.
Be well.
In faith and service,
Joe Sullivan
District Executive |
Summertime, and the Livin is Easy
Kimberly Paquette, Multigenerational Ministry Director
I have a love/hate relationship with summer. I love the idea of  having down time. I love that the warm days provide countless opportunities for being outside. I love that we seem to have permission to drop everything and take day trips or excursions or adventures, each and every weekend if we can. I love having the opportunity to spend more time with my family, the ones in my home and my extended family as well.
But then there are certain aspects of summer that I really don't care for. I don't like the lack of routine that summer can bring. I don't like the persistent feeling that I should be living more, having more fun, and relaxing all the time, when I still have a job to do. I don't like that the days are longer, which often means more hours to fit more into. The season that has been sold to us as being light hearted, fun filled and full of days lounging by the pool or ocean seems to be more myth than reality, for me at least.
What I have found, over the past several years, is that the summer gives us an opportunity to engage in different forms of spiritual practice. Like many UU families, we don't attend worship services in the summer months, leaving a void in our spiritual lives, or an opportunity to engage in a new way (depending on how you look at it!).
One summer, we focused on hiking. Each Sunday, as a family, we went hiking someplace new. It was a fantastic experience, offered lots of time for reflection, and allowed us to connect with nature, each other, and witness the beauty of our surroundings. Hiking became our spiritual practice.
One summer we took up gardening, planting our vegetables and herbs, tending to them each day, harvesting them throughout the summer and enjoying the fruits of our labor. Gardening became our spiritual practice. Another year, we made a habit of attending our local farmer's market each week. Cooking and baking together became our spiritual practice.
This year, given my propensity to really despise the irregularity of summer (among other things), it makes the most sense for me to intentionally cultivate the spiritual practice of gratitude.
"While gratitude is an all-season spiritual practice, it especially suits the easy-going spirit of summer since the primary requirement for gratitude is acknowledgement
of the giftedness of life and those whose love and
sacrifice has shaped our lives."
~ Bruce G. Epperly ~
For more ideas... Here, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussatoffer 31 examples of activities to encourage your exploration of summer spiritual practices.
Whatever you choose, I hope you find some opportunities for renewal, reflection, and respite this summer. |
Crab Grass is a green summer reality and a poem that  has grabbed me. Lynn Ungar is the poet and also staff with our UU Church of the Larger Fellowship. I read it in a collection of meditations called What We Share, edited by Patricia Frevert, available at the the UUA Bookstore.
With each line of the poem my fingers remember pushing into small spaces in that particularly strong network of crab grass roots. These are roots that bind and without 'effort' resist being broken easily. And the poet invites, "Imagine living that way. /Imagine knowing from the ground up/ that you are tied to the whole ..."
Our NNED UU congregations shift in the summer, sometimes leaving individuals feeling less rooted, less tied to the whole. "The whole" often disperses to summer destinations, or makes room for an influx of seasonal guests. Whether we put committees on break or into higher gear to build something or welcome visitors, our sense of connection is different from the rest of the calendar year.
One thing that is not different is that people continue to need connection and support. We picnic and worship in small circles or around bonfires under an open sky. We paddle in a canoe, and work together or apart. We read poetry more often, and sing favorite hymns. Holding and being held; what is it we hold as we do these? What root system binds our lives as the summer shifts us? The poem continues, "Don't you think there are/ things worth holding on to/ with a thousand arms, / ten thousand gripping toes?"
In a way, summer is the pallet of different paints we use to discover or co-create what is 'worth holding on to', worth binding ourselves to. Some, like me are able to take more breaks from work and consider ways to connect more deeply and freely to the sacred. For those whose work demands more in the summer, holding on to what waits our allegiance is a different matter. But because summer is a kind of threshold, it is a good time to ask, "What is worth holding on to with a thousand arms, ten thousand gripping toes?" Is it each other? Our values? Tradition, or an intention to bring a way of being to the public sphere? Is it relationship to the divine? Faith? All of these or none?
With the next deep breath that prepares us for more intense work or greater ease this summer, we might consider what is worthy of us. Crab Grass, in its simple way sends the not-so-simple message, "Before you deride the faithful/ consider carefully/ where you will put your roots." Well now. This is summer and each of us will choose.
With gratitude and love,
Karen Brammer, Smaller Congregation and Justice Specialist
P.S. One way to explore what binds our lives is to check out on-line worship with the Church of the Larger Fellowship. |
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