Strategic. Planning. Committee.

Three words that people may find it hard to get excited about. Yet they’re very important to our future. We have an outstanding group of people looking at where we’ve been, where we are, and how we need to move to become the best UU Felllowship we can be.

Strategic planning requires an ability to set large goals and the interim goals to get there, but to be nimble in completing them. The committee recently brainstormed a list of things we might do that inspired and excited me. We can’t do it all, though! The strategy part comes in as we assess which particular actions are most likely to lead us closest to where we want to be. We’ll have to consider resources that might be available and the context of the community in which we find ourselves. We’ll have to think about who we include and who we might include. Strategic planning offers the next step of building on the vision statement that we have spent time thinking about over the last couple months. How do we become the safe haven, the incubator of the next generation of UU’s, the builders of bridges, the visible beacon of liberal religious messages of hope and meaning? How do we embrace and live out our values?

The questions may seem irrelevant to individual UU’s. But, really, each person has a role in this. Our fellowship does nothing independent of the members who comprise it. As the fellowship reflects on how it lives out Unitarian Universalism, you might ask yourself how you do the same task. How does inherent worth and dignity influence your choices? How about the interdependent web of life of which we are a part? How do you embody tolerance and compassion? What do you do to grow spiritually and help your children to?

I often tell people that Unitarian Universalism is not an easy religion. We don’t offer definitive answers. Instead, we encourage and nurture the questions and the search for the answers. You have to do the search yourself.

It’s not an easy religion, but if you put in the time and effort, it is a rewarding one.

In faith and freedom,

Jonalu