I don't know why a new year starts in January. Everyone knows it starts in September!
Whilst my family one by one falls to the flu that I started out with two weeks ago, life continues apace. My oldest started "school" for the first time since 2nd grade, with 3 classes at the community college. She seems to be enjoying the reading; we'll see what happens when the writing starts.
My son is ready to delve into the world of sports a bit more this year it seems. We are also planning weekly library days, which I am excited about. Free wifi! Near Starbucks!
I participated in my Wellspring retreat today and am very excited about the opportunity to co-facilitate this group. We had a wonderful kick-off, and there are just so many joys to small group ministry. This is a special group as well because it is made up of congregants from two different congregations, so there is a great border-crossing (in Meadville language) opportunity afoot!
It was also my first full day in my internship site, and it was really wonderful to meet with my supervising minister and talk about the topic of the week at seminary - multiculturalism and institutional change. I left with two more books to add to my reading list, one a history of my internship site, which will be very helpful in contextualizing the systems at work there. We talked more about the social location of congregations and how balancing growth, multiculturalism, systems, etc. is a ministerial balancing act. It's so much to think about, and I keep mentally stepping back more and more to try to encompass the whole picture; it becomes a bit overwhelming and underscores the need for good futures planning!
I am starting to get the lay of land for the different committees at the church and when they meet so I can start to float through and shadow them. Now, off to finish work and the several hundred pages of reading to do, plus that 3 page essay on church history.
2 comments:
Ooh -- which books did you get on multiculturalism and institutional change? I had a great talk last night with Paula Cole Jones about multicultural/multiracial ministries in the church and doing the work to come from a truly multicultural paradigm. It was fantastic. Today, church history!
We were reading Healthy Congregations, and on my own I read "Never Call Them Stupid."
We're also reading United by Faith: The multiracial congregation as an answer to the problem of race by Curtiss DeYoung, et al (Oxford Press; 2003); “Salsa, Soul and Spirit: Leadership for a multicultural age” by Juana Bordas. ; The Arc of the Universe Is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism and the Journey from Calgary.
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