Poor Thomas! We all know Thomas for one single thing - doubt. We forget that Thomas shows up in other parts of the gospel. I would imagine if he were here, he would exclaim - "I'm more than just "doubting Thomas!" But that is what we remember - that one experience where Thomas said he wouldn't believe unless he saw the wounds on Jesus' hands and side.
Descriptions or labels have staying power. Not all are negative. Years ago, Metro Weekly magazine wrote a feature article about me and labeled me "Jill the Baptist." That label has stuck! It is an accurate description of at least part of my identity.
We call Thomas a doubter because of one memorable experience of him. So, the question for us as a congregation is how do people describe us, based on their experience of us? Do we get described in a certain way? Do we get labeled? What do we do if that description does not match what we think we should be described as?
As Jim Smith is beginning to think about his message Sunday, he and I were emailing back and forth and I brought up the concept of brand image and brand identity. Brand identity is what we WANT our identity to be. For BUCC that may be labels like "justice loving," "welcoming," "safe," "caring," "friendly." Brand image is what people experience. Do folks who visit, those in our neighborhood, our users, our nursery school parents, the organizations around us, experience our justice, welcome, safety, care, and friendliness? Do we communicate this to folks? Do our actions demonstrate these qualities?
One of the things we will do during out Identity Intensive (the month of May!) is to find out the answer to some of this. In Matthew 16:13 Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do people say I am?" Then Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do YOU say I am?" We too will be asking these questions. First, we'll ask the community who they say we are. Then we will ask ourselves - who do WE say we are. Do you think there will be some similarity in the answers?
The Identity phase of our transition is the one of the most important phases of the transition process. It is where we do the hard work of looking at ourselves and our community and figuring out from a variety of pieces of data who BUCC is and who we want to be in the future. All the work after that depends on the work we do during the identity phase.
Some folks have told me, "We've done this before!" Some have shared a frustration that sometimes things didn't move forward after all the "who are we" discussions. I promise you that we will move forward with this. The congregation will get all reports of the brainstorming. We will give those who are not able to come to in-person meetings an opportunity to contribute to the process. All the data collected will be shared with everyone. And then we will move forward. That is part of my job, and frankly, it is part of my calling to this work.
I'm excited about what we will find when we start talking to our community. Martha and Jim have already done an interview so they can share expectations on conducting the interviews with our community members. What they found out is already interesting! And don't worry, if you don't want to actually talk to people, there are opportunities to just walk/drive and observe. There are roles for everyone in our Identity phase!
And just to recap where we are in the process - Spring is Identity. During the summer a small group will look at the minutia of governance. Then in the fall we will begin moving toward making some broad decisions and working on broad goals. Goals will move us toward decisions on the future and lay the groundwork on what you will communicate in your search for a settled pastor.
These is an exciting season for BUCC!
Blessings,
Pastor Jill
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