One aspect of our deliberations that has inspired me the most is the fact that our conversations include disagreements–about priorities of characteristics or excellence of a candidate’s preaching, as examples–but never contention. In the early chapters of Ephesians, Paul offers some powerful guidelines for how to live in community. On a small scale, this group has modeled how to interact with one another in love–even with our various life experiences, our different ways of being in the world, our varied perspectives, preferences, and ideas. There is a shared feeling that the Holy Spirit is working through the collective body to reach decisions that will help UPC continue to be God’s church into the future.