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Ministry of Counseling and Community Life part 1
Given the nature of transition periods and the inclination to review, the
Council asked that I publish this report that I gave at the last council
meeting at the request of the Church/Staff Chair, Paul Menzel. This is the
first part, mostly about history.
In 1996 I was asked to develop a sliding-scale counseling center and to
enter the UCC process to become a Commissioned Minister. In exchange I was
given an office, phone service, and office support. The idea was that when
I became a minister I would become part of the staff and thus integrate my
work as counselor and community-builder into the life of the church. Bob
Tucker was my superb mentor and encourager in the process. He suggested we
have an advisory team, headed by Hugh Sanborn. The Houston Association
Church and Ministry Committee, along with Bob, defined the course of
study. My psychology credentials were considered excellent, but they
wanted to be sure I knew the theology, polity and history of the UCC, so I
did a lot of reading and writing of papers, and attended a seminary course
on Biblical wisdom literature. An Ecclesiastical Council was held,
followed by an election by the congregation to come on staff. In February
of 1997 I was commissioned and installed at a beautiful service here at FCC.
That first year we developed a brochure, offered our first of several ethics
workshops for mental health professionals, and co-sponsored a huge event
with the Foundation for Contemporary Theology featuring the theologian,
Matthew Fox. Through the years we have offered many different kinds of
workshops for the church and others. We did several workshops for people
preparing for adoption. We have done many community-building workshops for
FCC, as well as workshops on human dynamics and communication skills. I
have been very active in the Adult Education program.
Kevin McClemore, one of our previous Associates, and I offered a six-week
course in “How to Be a Healthy Congregation,” using materials from the Alban
Institute, in 2004 and again in 2005. The Counseling Team has led Homecoming
several times holding worship and afternoon workshops on various themes. I
have assisted in worship on a regular basis and I have preached several
times. I have co-led two memorial services.
More recently, I have been involved in the transition process, having
served, with Teddy, as “pastor-on-call” for the six weeks between Jack and
Nayiri. Early in the transition period the Counseling Team offered several
workshops for folks to talk about what we hoped for our church and what we
wanted to put in our profile. Currently I co-coordinate the SpiritQuest
class on Sunday morning and the Seekers group on Wednesday evening.
I
have been fairly involved on the Association and Conference levels. I was
asked to lead a South Central Conference meeting for airing feelings after
the 2005 Synod voted to support gay marriage. There was quite a bit of
controversy among the churches, but we had a good outcome. I serve on a
Conference Investigative Response Team and have done a couple of fitness
reviews of ministers in our conference, one in January of this year. Those
are very time consuming, requiring visits to other cities, lots of
interviews and much composing of data gathered.
More on the next page.
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