A Place for Exploration

Weekly Message from Meg

I hope you know how much I love ministry with the CLF, and how blessed I feel every single day to have been passed this leadership mantle. As minister emerita Jane Rzepka said to me early on, “CLF is a great sandbox to play in!”

One of the aspects of CLF I love the most is that we are a learning environment, constantly taking in new information and experiences to shape how we might do ministry. Every time I read a new book about management or transformational change, I think, HEY! WE DO THAT! I mean our agility, our attention to mission more than tactics, our willingness to try experiments, even knowing they might fail.

Our learning fellows are absolutely central to creating this learning environment. They arrive from many places and stages of life, with dreams and longings for ministry that defy convention. Some are seminarians seeking ordination, others are living their calls in other ways. In this time when conventional congregations are struggling to remain relevant, they imagine new ways to reach out with the saving message of Unitarian Universalism. As I listen to the testimonies they’ve been sharing these last few weeks about their time at CLF, I hear over and over their gratitude to have had a setting where they could lift up their vision of ministry with support, and without fear of judgment.

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been asking you money for the learning fellows program. You may have also noticed that the number of learning fellows we have with us varies greatly from year to year. All of that is determined by funding! If you value the diverse voices and visions that come through for a year or two and provide creative leadership, I hope you’ll make a donation of any size to help us out!

Originally published at Quest for Meaning.