August 1, 2002
FROM THE PRESIDENT: JOHN WAGNER
And If I'm Elected . . .
I admit it's a bit late for that phrase where I'm concerned. One of the interesting features of our Church election process is that there is no campaigning. It's not so bad to avoid being harangued by a tribe of electables, but it may be that some useful information is missed along the way. In that spirit, I'm going to present you with my campaign platform, slightly delayed. What follows is my pet agenda.
* Growth Issues, Future - Over the next year or two you will hear and talk much about the transition we find ourselves in, that of growing from what is often described as a “Pastoral" church to a "Program" church. We need to begin talking to each other about what this means to us, what possibilities are open to us, and what direction we want to take. The planning process is likely to be both exciting and a bit scary, and our need to get started is immediate. Steps are being taken right now to form the next group that will help guide us. Luckily, we have many in our congregation with exceptional talents for this effort, and there is a wealth of outside resources as well.
* Growth Issues, Present - We also have growth-related needs today, which many of you know from direct experience. The most immediate is to create more usable space for our Religious Education Program, and some of our other gatherings that lately feel displaced.
* Finances - A year-round Stewardship Committee that will help stabilize our financial picture in the future is in the process of forming. Our expert and talented Finance Committee is also preparing to develop a multi-year budgeting process. These are efforts I support and believe will ensure our financial health, and our ability to meet our commitments to programs and staff.
* Our Relationships With Each Other - I have long been concerned about those times when we treat each other with less respect and consideration than we each deserve. I want to encourage opportunities for education in appropriate relations, and self-examination of our behavior toward each other. We are not just a group of folks who wandered in off the street; we are UU's together, and that means that we should treat each other in a special way.
There you have it. There's a dozen other things, of course, but that's the short list. Whether you knew it or not, this was the platform you elected me for. Campaign headquarters would like to know how this fits with your priorities, too. Give a call or drop a note, if you're inclined.
~John Wagner, Board President, 687-0757
July 2002
FROM THE PRESIDENT: JOHN WAGNER
Who's In Charge Here? The Sequel…
Last month I offered some opinions about the nature of democracy, both in the larger community, and as applied to our congregation. The Cliff's Notes on that dissertation might be: Absolute democracy is tricky. Representative democracy can work. Trust in each other, and acceptance of each other's work, judgment, and good intentions, is vital in a caring community. So how come I took 600 words to say it last time? Go figure.
I also suggested that there is more than one correct answer to the question of "Who's in Charge?" I made the case for trusting someone else to be in charge, whether a governing body, or the volunteer who said yes to a task that needed doing. If this is done properly within a caring community, it's an act of faith, and of gracious acceptance. When we do it well, we get a lot done with a minimum of strife, and we take good care of each other.
But the alternate answer: "You are!" or, really, "I am!" is also ultimately correct, and in some circumstances the only appropriate one. Some decisions can't be made without the voice of the collective whole, or the input of each individual. Our church regularly faces such decisions. "Who will be our leaders?" requires a collective act of choice that can't be done by proxy. And we provide indispensable input as individuals to the question of what our budget will be when we make our annual pledge to operate the church for another year. In these and similar cases, it is both privilege and requirement that we all act together.
Whichever kind of decision-making we do, the ultimate outcome is the need to lay aside our individuality just enough for the community to take a step or two forward. I don't think this is an easy thing for us as UUs. We are an independently spirited, don't-tread-on-me kind of group by nature. We come together with a collective belief in the importance of our individuality, an interesting manifestation of the attraction of opposites. We then have to turn around and submerge that very individuality into the group will, in order for the church to exist at all. It's an intriguing challenge As I have watched us go through this process, I have come to believe that we ultimately do it well, though not without struggle. It makes sense that we would do it well, and that we would struggle in the process, because we are thoughtful, questioning people, not easily satisfied in our quest for "the right way." Over the next year or two or three, we will be faced with choices and decisions that will challenge us greatly, and will require all of our decision-making processes to be at work, and working well. I look forward to us being thoughtful individuals who come together as a trusting community, to make good decisions where we are all in charge of the outcome.
~ John Wagner, Board President, 687-0757