On February 15^th, I celebrate my 6^th month anniversary as your minister.  Consistently, I’m hearing that attendance is up.  People are coming back, new people are showing up – and staying, and even those people who have been around for the last few years are reporting that they’re around more than they have been in a long time.

More people means more energy and can often feel like a sign of life and hope. But, there’s a down side.  Communication becomes more difficult.  In a small congregation, everyone sort of knows everything, but as more people are involved, that model is complicated and people start feeling like they are on the outside, looking in.

In an attempt to reduce that feeling of being on the outside, I will do my best to provide updates.  Specifically, I’ll try to focus on culture shifts and open conversations.  I’ll do this in the newsletter (when possible), in the Society Scoop and on this blog.  If you’re like I am, the best way to read a blog is to have it sent directly to your email so that you don’t have to remember to go looking.  If you don’t mind looking, check our new (and fabulous) web site (www.fusw.org) where you’ll find a link to the Minister’s Blog on the front page (on the left bar).  If you’d rather have it sent to your email, go directly to www.madnessoflove.com and find the “sign me up” box on the right.  I’ll try to keep it short and to the point.

And in that spirit, here are a few things you may or may not know:

•      We have convened an Ad-Hoc Space Planning Task Force to sort through the major issues related to our building.  These include our limited parking, flooding and crowding.  We’ve been meeting monthly and have been doing homework between meetings.  We are hoping to have recommendations based on solid research to present to the congregation before this church year is over.  The members of this Task Force are: John Murray, Susan Greenburg, Jane Lawrence, Ross Crolius, Jon Caplan and me.
•      We now have 11 Worship Associates!  We had our first meeting on January 8^th and agreed to two primary objectives for our work.  One is to provide a think tank for our worship experience, thereby helping me to make decisions regarding the Sunday morning experience.  Secondly, this group provides primary oversight for the details on “minister Sundays”.  They organize ushers and music and, hopefully, will take an active role during the service itself.
•      Our Social Action Committee is becoming our Social Action Council and is under the leadership of Barb Caplan and Irene Jong.  Vivacious and dedicated Joyce Fish is stepping down as chair, but will remain in a leadership position as Institutional Historian.  (Thank-you, Joyce, for all you’ve done over these years!)  The Council will provide oversight and institutional structure for a variety of projects; membership will consist of representatives from each of our social action efforts and the past chairs.  They will meet three times a year.
•      Earlier this year, we decided to create an Executive Committee to provide some managerial oversight.  Previously, the Council was charged with this task, but attendance at the Council was small and inconsistent.  The Executive Committee is a body many congregations use and is generally populated by the elected officers and the minister.  (In this case, because we created this body after the year had started, so our Secretary is not able to participate.)  The Exec meets on the 4^th Tuesday of each month.
•      One of the conversations some of us are having lately is about empowerment.  The current model is to locate authority in the Board so that most decisions, ranging in importance, get pushed up to the Board. My hope is to empower committees with the authority to make decisions and to inform the Board rather than relying on the Board for approval.  We have many very bright and competent members who are dedicated to a particular aspect of congregational life.  In a larger congregation, it makes sense to trust them and to let the Board do their job of governance rather than management.  This is just a conversation at the moment, but I think we’ll start to see some changes.

We’re all going to have to work together to keep information flowing and to make sure that everyone is feeling like the center of the action is exactly where they are standing.  No one is on the outside looking in!