[printprofilepic]I hope you’ve had a restful and joyous holiday season. As we pass into another new year, it’s time to look ahead at what’s in store for our congregation.
If you haven’t already, you should receive a notice of congregational meeting very shortly. The purpose of this meeting, scheduled for January 23rd, will be to approve the selection of an architect as we move forward with our new building process. The Architect Selection Task Force has done a remarkable job winnowing a long list of candidate firms down to a select few. I was privileged to sit in on several of the final presentations from the architects on the short list. It was an exciting time, and I found myself thrilled by the possibilities that were presented by these talented firms. In the end, the Task Force selected the Albuquerque firm of Mullen and Heller. On Sunday the 23rd, the Task Force will makes its case for Mullen and Heller and ask for a vote from the congregation to proceed on to the initial design phase with them. Please make every effort to attend this important meeting. I hope you’ll be as excited as I am as we move into this next phase of the project.
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The start of 2011 also marks the beginning of the DRE search in earnest. Later in this issue, you’ll see an introductory report from the DRE Search Committee. If you have any questions about the process or about the job of the committee, please feel free to contact me or any of the committee members. A copy of the job description is available to view on the church’s website.
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Our other major project this year involves a melding of technology and volunteer stewardship. Late in the last church year, our office moved over to a new suite of church management software, IconCMO. The Icon software allows us to keep better track of our members and friends, and keep all of our data in one single, secure, and convenient place (until now, we had several different depositories for information, not all easily accessible or useable). The addition of this new administrative tool will also allow us to plan for volunteer needs. We can track past volunteer work, and catalog skills, talents, and interests within our community. However, in order to do this, we need to get a sense of what our skills, talents, and interests are.
Later this year, as part of our annual stewardship campaign, we will be collecting data for an all-congregation census. Along with our drive for financial stewardship, we will also be gathering information on the time and talent we so often talk about as being important to the stewardship of the church. Members and friends will receive a survey regarding the various skill and interests they have and are willing to share with the congregation as the need arises. The data we collect will become an invaluable tool for committee chairs, the nominating committee, and other leaders in the congregation as we search for volunteers to help with the many long- and short-term projects that arise in the day-to-day life of the congregation. More details on the census will be forthcoming as we assemble the survey. In the meantime, please consider where it is that your greatest joy in service lies, and how you might be willing to share your time and talent with the congregation in the coming year, and in the years still to come.
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Two of my own personal goals for 2011 have already been reached, before the year has even begun. In mid-December I received notice from the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA that I had been accepted into Final Fellowship with the Association. This means that the MFC has determined—through a series of evaluations submitted by myself, the board, and the Committee on Ministry—that my ministry has progressed and matured to a point where I no longer need to be reviewed annually by the denomination. I am now cleared to mentor new ministers and supervise student ministers should the opportunity arise. In June, I’ll participate in the annual Service of the Living Tradition at General Assembly in Charlotte, NC, where I will be formally welcomed into this new status.
During that same General Assembly, my name will appear on the delegates’ ballot as one of a slate of three new members of the UUA’s Commission on Appraisal. The Commission on Appraisal (COA) is charged to “review any function or activity of the Association which in its judgment will benefit from an independent review and report its conclusions to a regular General Assembly.” Currently, the COA is studying the relationship of authority and ministry within our congregations, and is due to report on the study in 2013. My appointment to the COA (following this June’s elections) will last for six years, and will carry through the end of the current study and completion of the next. It is an honor to be nominated, and I am thrilled to be able to serve our congregations and the Association in this way.
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One of my goals for the year past was to put out a collection of sermons from my first two years here in Los Alamos. It’s taken most of the last year to make it happen, but I’m pleased to announce that Your Life Is a Gospel is at last available for purchase. The book collects three of the major sermon series I delivered between 2007 and 2009—Our Identity, Our Sources, and The Big Questions—along with several other popular sermons from those years. I owe a great deal of thanks to my wife, Jess, who designed the interior and exterior along with taking on the unenviable task of copy-editing my very rough texts.
Your Life Is a Gospel is self-published through CreateSpace. It is currently available for purchase from the book’s website: yourlifeisagospel.com. It lists for $18, but during the month of January, members and friends of the congregation can receive a $5 discount using the coupon code ZK8RUDBX. I should also (hopefully) have copies for sale at the church within a few weeks.
Rev. John Cullinan
