by the Rev. Melanie Morel-Ensminger
at First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans
Sunday, October 2, 2011
This past June, I had a kind of an epiphany at the UUA General Assembly, the annual meeting of delegates and members of Unitarian Universalist congregations from all over the U.S. and the world. For the past 7 years, one of the things that happens at GA is that certain congregations are awarded the title of Breakthrough Congregation. The UUA website explains what that is:
… the Breakthrough Congregation initiative was an effort to identify those congregations that had achieved significant and sustained numerical growth and give them an opportunity to share what they’ve done, and how they’ve done it.
Breakthrough Congregations are selected by the UUA’s Growth Team, and each congregation shares their story at General Assembly. I was especially struck by the presentation and video of the UU Congregation of Fairfax, Virginia, pastored by my friend and colleague Mary Katherine Morn.
To give you a little background, Rev. Morn has been serving Fairfax for 8 years – in fact, I did the Chalice Lighting at her Installation ceremony. Over the time of that ministry, the minister, Board, and congregation have together embarked on a conscious and intentional process of transforming important things about their church – how it was governed, how it thought of itself, what its purpose was, how they would treat each other, how they would present themselves to the world, and how they would welcome new folks.
One of the first things that the Fairfax congregation changed about itself was its Mission Statement. Now, UU congregations in general have a problem with Mission Statements. Sometimes they are too long, and almost nobody in the church, even those who helped write them, can remember them. Let me give you a couple of examples of this kind of Mission Statement:
•The First Unitarian Church of Wilmington, Delaware, inspires lifelong spiritual growth. We promote religious freedom and joyfully offer our community and our world the transforming message of our Unitarian Universalist principles. We share a freely-chosen faith that opens minds and deepens understanding of life's enduring mysteries. We rely on reason, intuition, personal experience, and diverse religious traditions. As individuals in community, we commit our energy and resources to this mission.
•Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos: We are an accepting congregation, diverse in religious and spiritual expression, uniting in fellowship to enrich our lives and inspire the community by promoting Unitarian Universalist principles.
I defy anyone to remember either of those.
The 2nd issue with UU church Mission Statements is that sometimes they are so inclusive as to be almost useless. A Mission that is too anodyne, trying not to offend anyone, ends up offending by being too general. A couple of examples:
•Thoreau UU Congregation in Stafford, Texas: We are a spiritual community of open minds and caring hearts, working for social justice and religious freedom in Fort Bend County.
•From the UU Church of Lancaster: We are a welcoming, nurturing community that celebrates our spiritual diversity. Commitment to our Unitarian Universalist principles inspires us to create positive change in the world.
These statements are well-meant, and they're not offensive, but they’re boring. They could apply to almost any church.
You may be wondering how the First Church Mission Statement compares. You can judge for yourself – turn your Order of Service over, and there it is:
•We are a richly historic, diverse and inclusive, liberal rel-igious community of free thinkers, inspired by reason and spirit. Members of First Church commit to seek meaning and wholeness in our lives and justice in the world.
Not bad.
By contrast to all of these, the Fairfax congregation went in a different direction, and came up with a 3-word Mission Statement that the whole congregation could get behind, buy into, remember, and actively apply to their church life. Their Mission Statement is Grow, Connect, Serve. That’s it – Grow, Connect, Serve.
If you go to the UUA website and view the Fairfax Breakthrough Congregation video, or go to the Fairfax website, you will see how this Mission is applied through everything the church does. The congregation understands “grow” in both senses, as to grow in numbers of members, and to grow in spiritual depth. They strive always to connect authentically with each other, and also to connect warmly with newcomers to the church. They see service as part of who they are – service to their church and service in the wider world. Grow, Connect, Serve. It’s their mantra, its their reason for being, it’s their motto, it’s their mission. Over 8 years, living up to it has helped them become a UUA Breakthrough Congregation.
I was very impressed with everything I saw and heard about Fairfax, and I was also inspired – which is of course why the UUA exists, why we are in Association with other UU congregations, and why we’re celebrating Association Sunday this morning. We can help one another, we can inspire one another, we can learn from and teach one another.
But I’m NOT suggesting we copy the Fairfax 3-word Mission Statement. Inspired by them, I came up with one I like for us. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to like it – indeed, it would be great if this Association Sunday sermon would spark a congregational conversation to come up with our own 3-word Mission Statement.
The 3 words that I came up with have a few more syllables than the Fairfax Mission, but I think they fit us better. Try this out: Hospitality, Community, Solidarity. Let me unpack them one by one.
Hospitality is a term that has been associated with the city of New Orleans for hundreds of years. It is also a religious imperative, common in traditions both Eastern and Western. It means to welcome the stranger, to make guests feel at home, to treat a new person with honor and affection, to create a home that is warm and welcoming. Hospitality shares a common root with “hospital,” and so there is an implication of healing. For the Semitic tribes of the hostile desert in Biblical times, hospitality wasn’t mere politeness – it ensured the safety and even life of travelers.
First Church has been including a reference to “radical hospitality” in its self-presentation well before Katrina, and it has become even more important after the Storm. We’ve practiced hospitality with each other as we returned home to the city and to First Church, we’ve practiced hospitality as we’ve welcomed new members, and we’ve practiced hospitality to the thousands of volunteers who have come to take part in our recovery and restoration. Practicing hospitality as our congregational spiritual discipline is natural to us, and thus it is a good choice as the first word in our 3-word Mission Statement.
Community is a term often bandied about, commonly used interchangeably with congregation. But you can have a congregation without having a community. In a congregation, folks attend the same religious organization. In a congregation that becomes a community, there’s more – folks care about one another, help one another, support one another. But even more importantly, folks in a congregation that becomes a community are accountable to each other. They make promises about being in right relationship, they call each other back to those promises when during stress or conflict they become obscured. In a congregation that becomes a community, the members are strengthened by their bonds with each other, and always seek ways to enlarge the community. As the second word in our 3-word Mission Statement, we would proclaim our aspiration of the ideal of Beloved Community that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of.
Many UU churches, like the one in Fairfax, speak of service, and service is a good thing. But there is something beyond service, beyond social justice issues and projects, beyond helping those who are oppressed and in need – and that is Solidarity. Solidarity says that we aspire to go beyond service and helping – that we aim to stand with those often considered “the other” or “those poor people,” whoever they are. We who have been victims of disaster and prejudice ourselves stand with those for whom that is their constant state of being. We who have overcome great loss stand with those in loss and grief.
There is a poster in the kitchen of the New Orleans Rebirth Volunteer Center, upstairs on the 2nd floor of the First Church Religious Education wing, pointed out to all the volunteers who have stayed here since Katrina. It portrays a community of indigenous people in Australia who collectively came up with a passionate expression of how they felt about the outsiders who came to “help” them. The poster says:
“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
Now, that’s Solidarity, and that is better, more just, more equitable, than mere service.
It took the Fairfax UUs 8 years to become a Breakthrough Congregation, and they did not have to overcome a major disaster and the attendant challenges of rebuilding membership, finances, and a building complex to do it. But it can still be an inspiration to us. We are only 6 years out from Katrina, and with the partnership of our Association and congregations and individuals within our Association, we have come a long long way. But we too can aspire to be a Breakthrough Congregation, we too can transform our habits and processes, and we too can start by changing our Mission Statement so that it inspires and challenges every single First Church member and friend to our finest efforts towards Hospitality, Community, & Solidarity. So might this be! AMEN – ASHE – SHALOM – SALAAM – NAMASTE – BLESSED BE!
