From Our Prez: Thinking about submitting my pledge & What about our Future Minister?
You’d think, as Board President and a member of the Stewardship Team, I would be the first one to submit our pledge. But truth be told, I didn’t submit it. Until now.
In my thoughts and then, out loud with Mike, I went through all of our discretionary expenses – reviewing our various news, Apple Music and streaming TV subscriptions, my weekly wine allowance, our periodic housekeeping help. The annual flowers that I buy for pots on our front porch. Mulching the yard. We could eat more beans and less fish. We’ve not been doing exotic travel. There’s our housing – I admit, I winced when Rev Pam, in her sermon last week, mentioned the too big house with only two people rambling about inside of it. Yes, we have too much space for the two of us. It would take so much work (and decision-making) to get rid of it. Both “it” the house – and all that sits within it. What to do? What to keep? What to get rid of? What to pledge?
In the end, we decided to increase our pledge by 15%. We see our pledge as an investment in the future of our church community and the services it provides to our members and to r the community beyond the walls of our church . It turns out that a 15% pledge increase is what it would take, from all of us, to meet our aspirational budget. Our aspiration is to fund a closer to full time permanent Religious Exploration leader for our children’s program. Our aspiration is to continue providing health care benefits and fair compensation to our Minister and staff. Our aspiration is to close the gap on our fair share contributions to the UUA, whose support and resources benefit us each and every week.
We love our church for all that it brings to our life – and to the lives of others. And we also care about its future so it will be here for you, your family, and other who will need this community. We want CCUU to be sustained in the long run. Mike and I don’t have children in the RE Program. But just as I have always been happy to pay taxes for good schools although I never had children, I feel good about investing to support a vibrant RE program for our children. We want to cultivate caring, thinking human beings who will care for others and for the earth in the future.
And, frankly, it’s a good idea to support our children’s program for my own selfish reasons – our congregation needs more young adults in order to thrive in the future. One example of this is our Lay and Care Ministry team – these folks are all my age or older. We will need younger adults to help support these generous, caring people who are caring for us right now. And, yes, I hope for this support for myself, too!
What about Our Future Minister?
By now you probably already know that last October, our Board of Trustees and Reverend Pam reached an agreement that she would stay on as our contract minister for a second year – for the church year July 2025- June 2026. We’re happy about that! This gave us time to take a breath and settle more deeply into our life and work with Reverend Pam.
Now we have some thinking and planning to do about the future beyond June 2026. Our Board of Trustees has had preliminary conversations with Reverend Pam about a variety of possible paths for our future. We’ve also been meeting with our UUA Transitions Program Director and with our Congregation Life Consultant to talk about our options and prospects for future ministry. In March, our Board will hold a special topic meeting with Reverend Pam to discuss possible paths. We also want to hear from you and from our staff —your thoughts on our ministry and what you see as our congregation’s needs. Stay tuned for opportunities to share your input in the coming months.
In preparation for these discussions, we are reviewing the feedback that our Settled Minister Search team gathered in the fall of 2023 about what our congregation was seeking in a minister.
I hope you will always feel free to give me a call or stop me at church to share your thoughts and observations – we have a lot to talk about and to decide over the next few months.
If you haven’t pledged yet, now is the time! Every gift, no matter the size, helps sustain our community and its future. Here is a link for pledging online – it takes about a minute to do.
With deep gratitude for your support and your generosity –
Lisa Gilley