Share the message.  Share what message and with whom?

Share the message!

All of us know part of what the message is.  For us at FCC-UCC, it is a message of welcome, a message of hope, a message of peace, and a message of justice.  It is not a new message but is at least as old as some of the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible.  It was renewed and perhaps broadened by Messiah Jesus.  O, yes, we know something of what the message is.  It is a message of God's gracious love and God's unending hope that human beings will grow toward God's dream for us both individually and as a human family.

Share the message!

We also know that we want to share the message with the many people in Fort Worth and surrounding communities who have not heard the message, or who have heard only a distorted version of the message.  There are so many people out there who NEED the message and who need to know about our community of faith.

The Share the Message Team, the Deacons, the Trustees, the Christian Education and the Christian Service Committees have all worked hard this past year in helping us share the message.  Our national United Church of Christ folk have made major efforts in recent years that have benefited us locally in getting the message out.

We must do more.  How can we as individuals and as a congregation grow in sharing the message?  What innovative, creative, more cost-effective ways can we find to get the word out, to get the Word out?

Share the message!

Sharing the message is about all of this big stuff.  And it's all VERY important.  But this kind of important message sharing will not happen if we do not attend to the very important work of communicating with each other-sharing the small messages that make our work together go more smoothly.  That means work by the staff on the Window, the Comma, and weekly bulletin announcements.  It means work by committee chairs and members to produce announcements and articles and get them to the office.  But it also means each of us making an effort to check out what is in the Window, the Comma, the weekly bulletin announcements, posters, e-mail messages, and other ways we have of communicating with each other.

Together we can share the messages that help us share the message.

Peace,

Dave

Leading the Church with Integrity and Authenticity

As I said at the Annual Meeting on January 24, all are invited to spend some time with Estrus Tucker after church on Sunday, February 14.  Please mark your calendars for this.  If you are chairing a committee, if you are interested in becoming a better leader, if you care deeply how First Congregational moves into the future, then you are especially invited.

Estrus is a facilitator with Courage to Lead North Texas-that's the group that Dave, Carol B., Cheryl V.E., and Sall-Ann and I attended in 2008.  It's the group out of which comes our own Sacred Conversations, a "circle of trust."

Dave and I hope that many of you will choose to come and sit with Estrus for a while that day.  I don't know what his exact topic will be or how he'll choose to present it, but I do know that whatever he tells us, it will relate to how you-and all of us here at First Congregational-can choose to lead the church.

It takes courage to lead a group of people or an institution with integrity and authenticity.  Why? The word itself is a clue - "courage" comes from the Latin word cuer, meaning "heart."  True leadership requires courage because it must come from the heart, from listening deeply to the 'still small whispers' of the Spirit within us, from our authentic self, and not from what is expected by others or from sociocultural dictums.  

That's a difficult feat to accomplish.  First, we must know our own heart.  That requires slowing down for quiet self-reflection, and then careful discernment regarding how we might be deceiving ourselves. When making a decision what is the actual motivation?

• is greed playing a role here? or
• a need to be center of attention? or
• a need to hide? or perhaps
• a desire to please an authority figure?

Second, listening to the Spirit within us requires even further discernment.  How do we really know whether it's the 'still small voice' of the Spirit or the voice of our own false ego guiding us?  My answer to that question has definitely evolved through the years.  My sense is that it takes

• years of practice listening;
• a real willingness to endure some pain or discomfort with what we may find about ourselves; and
• checking out what we think we're hearing with trusted friends in a community of faith.

Awareness of socio-cultural messages is also crucial to leading with integrity.  If we live in blissful ignorance about how the society subtly influences perceptions about women, racial minorities, GLBT folks, people with disabilities, etc., then we may be un-blissfully ignorant that our decisions as leaders are perpetuating stereotypes, or worse.

So, yes, it takes courage to lead with authenticity and integrity, but how much weightier are those words when applied to leading the church!  Leadership in the church is a weightier endeavor because of the nature of the church itself. 

• We serve the church as an institution and as the Body of Christ. What are the deepest commitments of each, and how do those deepest commitments relate to our own personal commitments?
• A community of faith is not opposed to conflict, in fact, centered in the courage of its deepest commitments a true community of faith will welcome conflict as creative energy.  How might our leadership of the church encourage this creative energy? 
• As an institution the church is composed of human beings who obviously come with all the tensions of the human condition!  How do we as leaders meld together the reality of our human flaws and failings with the transcendence that is part-and-parcel of the Body of Christ? 

Parker Palmer, author of "Courage to Teach" and the founder of the Courage and Renewal Centers, writes that:

We share responsibility for creating the external world by projecting either a spirit of light or a spirit of shadow on that which is "other" than us. Either a spirit of hope or a spirit of despair. Either an inner confidence in wholeness and integration, or an inner terror about life being diseased and ultimately terminal. We have a choice about what we are going to project, and in that choice we help create the world.

If our institutions are rigid, it is because our hearts fear change; if they set us in mindless competition with each other, it is because we value victory over all else; if they are heedless of human well-being, it is because something in us is heartless as well.

We can make choices about what we are going to project, and with those choices we help grow the world that is. Consciousness precedes being: consciousness, yours and mine, can form, deform, or reform our world. Our complicity in world-making is a source of awesome and sometimes painful responsibility-and a source of profound hope for change. It is the ground of our common call to leadership, the truth that makes leaders of us all.

With you and Dave in this wonderful adventure in courageous leadership,

Katherine

Adult Christian Education

The month of March is going to be an exciting time in Adult education.  Our guest teacher will be Eilene Theilig who will teach four Sundays on the topic of science and religion.  Tentatively, the schedule will be:

  March 7, Creation Stories

March 14, Cosmology

March 21, Evolution

March 28, Creationism/Intelligent Design

Eilene's personal story is quite interesting.  She's ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is now doing Lay Theological Education at Brite.  Before her move into ministry, however, she was the manager of NASA's Galileo spacecraft mission to Jupiter!  How 'bout that for a change in vocation?

Here is a little biographical information about our guest:

"Eilene Theilig has traveled far from her hometown of Houston Texas. Until recently, her professional career was centered around understanding the earth and solar system. With degrees in geology and a research focus on planetary exploration, she was an intern during the Viking Mission to Mars and, later, a National Research Council post-doctoral research associate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).  In 1989, she joined the Galileo Project flight team at JPL planning spacecraft activities for the journey to Jupiter and became the project manager for the final two and a half years of the mission. Deciding to follow a different path, in 2003 Eilene entered the Pacific School of Religion where she obtained a Master's of Divinity degree in May 2006. Her primary interest is in adult Christian education which she exercises as the Director of Lay and Continuing Education at Brite. Because of her background in both science and theology, Eilene maintains an interest in the intersection of science and faith. She is an ordained Disciples of Christ minister. "

She was interviewed several years ago by CNN...Here is a part of that interview:

December 11, 2001 (CNN) -- "I did my graduate work on Mars."

That's not quite what Eilene Theilig means. But when she catches the way it's come out, her laugh rings as clear as a Galileo photo of the massive planet she studies.

Since January 29, Theilig has been the manager of NASA's Galileo spacecraft mission to Jupiter at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. And on August 5, she may be less prone to giggles. That's when the 12-year-old Galileo spacecraft makes a north-polar pass at the Jovian moon Io.

"It's always a nervous time for us," Theilig says. "Io encounters are particularly challenging. They're in closer to Jupiter than most of the moons we fly by. And they deal in a radiation environment, the spacecraft gets socked pretty well with radiation on these passes."

No one's going to ask for his money back if Galileo doesn't make it through this flyby or the two more scheduled at Io before a pass at the smaller moon Amalthea and a final controlled impact on Jupiter in 2003.   "After the primary mission" -- a six-year trip to Jupiter and a two-year exploratory orbital mission there -- "we scaled back to a more streamlined operation with fewer people, which had its own challenges. We've continued now for four years beyond Galileo's primary mission."

Working her way up

Theilig grew up in Houston, Texas, the daughter of a father who was a CPA and a mother who at one time ran a crafts store.  Hers is "a career type that could eat you up," Theilig says. "I think you have to be very careful with that. I don't have family. I balance my life with a faith community. I'm very active at my church, the Disciples of Christ," near her home in Monrovia, California.

"Our society is so mobile that very few of us live in areas with the large extended family that we used to have. I think faith communities can help fill that gap.  I'm up at church probably an average of three times a week. A lot of it is meetings. I chair the worship committee, and I'm an elder." Earlier in her life, Theilig says, she was "in and out of organized religion," her parents having been churchgoers in Houston.

Theilig didn't grow up a kid stuck on the stars. "Of course, I was always fascinated by the lunar flights, watched them on TV. I found the whole idea of space exploration fascinating. But I was much interested in geology, the sciences and history.

"When I went into college," at the University of Texas in Austin, "I opted for geology, which was great because that and oceanography -- this was in the 1970s and they were just starting that whole phase of planetary geology, trying to understand other planets and the moon. I got to do some of that as an undergraduate, so that's probably when I decided I wanted to pursue space exploration."

In the mid-1980s, Theilig published research about the geological history of Mars -- that "graduate work on Mars" she's giggling about. She was taking a Ph.D. in planetary geology at the time from Arizona State University. And 10 years earlier, she'd spent a summer as an intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, assisting the Viking imaging team.

"I joined the mission seven months before launch, in March 1989. I was then a sequence integration engineer, which means that I helped put together, design, plan, then build the command sequences for the spacecraft. I know what it takes to build the command sequences for the spacecraft. I'd joined the mission design team. The project was handed off to the sequence team, that took it to the command generation. Ultimately we merged the two teams. In 1997, we merged sequence with the spacecraft team, the engineering team, and I was team chief at that time. So I kind of worked up through the ranks."

...

Theilig says that her faith hasn't been affected as heavily by her work as it has, say, some astronauts who sometimes talk about a new sense of spirituality after going into space. "I've just always had a belief in God. It's part of me."

For the full article, go to:  http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/jobenvy/07/16/eilene.theilig/ 

Chris Wilson Reception

We are so excited to welcome Chris Wilson to our church. He is the Chancel Choir Director and the Jesus, Justice, and Joy Music Leader. On Sunday, January 31, at 12:15 p.m., we will have a reception for Chris. This will enable everyone to come and get acquainted with him. You won't want to miss meeting Chris.

Adventure Travel Night

Come to church on Thursday, February 18th, beginning at 7:00 p.m. for an evening of vicarious adventure travel with Lynn B., across the US and Canada on her big year of birding, and then with Gary F., on his Costa Rica adventure. Cookies will be provided. (For those of you who went to the Lynn's Fellowship presentation, this will be a different, expanded version of that presentation).

From Hospitality Committee

Valentine's Day is Sunday, February 14. To celebrate, the Hospitality Committee is asking the congregation to bring ROSE SHRUBS to church on this date for our new rose garden (on the eastside of the parking lot). Jo-Lou and Peter G. have graciously donated three truckloads of highly enriched compost and the mulch is left over from year's past landscaping. All we have to do is bring in the roses! We will accept roses of all shapes, colors and sizes! We want our rose garden to be as diverse as the people at FCCUCC. With a little care we can have fresh roses all summer to enjoy inside and out! For questions or donations please see Loren B., Mary C. or Malcolm S.

Hospitality Committee Meets

The Hospitality Committee meets Wednesday, February 3 at 6:30 p.m. Please join us. This committee is ad hoc and in need of more members!

Baxter Baby Boy Shower

You are invited to share in the joy of the Baxter Baby Boy Shower on Sunday, February 21st following the fellowship time after the 11:00 worship. It will be in the Social Hall. The Baxter's welcome and encourage earth-friendly solutions like gently used and homemade items. They are registered at Babies R Us and Target.

Monthly Drum Circle

Our next drum circle will be on Friday, February 26 at 7:00 p.m. If you have a drum or rattle, great. Bring them along. If you don't, no worries, we have lots of drums and rattles to share. And don't worry if you've never experienced a drum circle before. This is an activity for everyone. If the weather permits, we will end the evening with a walk through the labyrinth. Come join us for fun and fellowship. Sponsored by your Wellness Ministry.

Sue L.

Haiti Earthquake Response

The devastation in Haiti after the recent earthquake is horrific. Recovery will be on-going for years. The national UCC reports strong on-line giving for Haiti Relief through the national church, surpassing all previous giving records on-line. Through January 19, the national UCC reports: $250,603 has been received from 2366 on-line donors. This total does not include mail in gifts from offerings received from local UCC congregations. You can donate to the relief fund either through FCC, by writing Haiti relief on your check or you can give via credit card on the UCC website: www.ucc.org. So far, our church has raised $930.00.

Sewing Parties

Again this year, one of the two projects for the South Central Conference Annual Meeting will be school bag kits. The Christian Service Committee has selected two dates for sewing these: Saturday, February 20, from 9:00 until noon; and Saturday, March 27, the same hours.

In the past men have participated as well, helping cut material, ironing, and even sewing. So, come one and all. Everyone is invited! If you have a sewing machine, please bring it. Also, strong, plain-colored material, one half to one yard in length.

Flyers about sewing the bags are available for those who prefer to sew at home. Later we will add the needed school supplies. These school bag kits will be sent to Church World Service for distribution to needy children around the world.