But, this was important. It was my first time to meet with your elected leaders. From my perspective, things went very well.
I must say, I am impressed with the folk you have assembled to sit around that table. I give special thanks to your Moderator, Rev. Len Silvester (whose only drawback was he arrived with a Boston Red Sox mug - and as if that was not bad enough, it commemorated their 2004 World Series victory over my beloved St. Louis Cardinals).
Among the array of subjects we dealt with, the most important was our discussion around 'Building Relationship.' It will be our focus for a while, and the Exec. Co. took this very seriously. Some very good ideas emerged that will be a large part of the retreat in September that we will have with the full Board of Directors (stay tuned for more info about that).
Please keep your elected leaders in your prayers. This is an important time in the life of the Conference, and your support is essential.
1 comment:
Dear John:
You asked in the recent UC News SW edition for us to tell you our story of how we have been blessed by the SW Conference. I was blessed in the last quarter of 2007 to be invited to work as Spiritual Director for the Executive Committee as it prepared the Conference for our new Conference Minister. This was such an opportunity for me because I had done some similar work with organizations but knew I needed more experience to grow into this new field of spiritual direction, which I call Organizational Spiritual Direction. My pastor, Rev. Briget Nicholson (then Moderator) brought me on for 3 meetings where I led meditations, taught a bit about discernment and then during the business portion of the meetings would observe and reflect back to the Committee where the energy, life and movement of the Spirit seemed to be most evident.
This wonderful experience was healing for me because not all the churches and denominations I have worked with in the past were as enthusiastic or open to infusing business meetings with spirituality. But this group actually enjoyed the new style and was very appreciative. After the experiment ended, several members told me how helpful the work I had done was to some important and difficult decisions they later had to make.
As a result of this work, I feel more confirmed in my call to expand spiritual direction to organizations, especially church boards and councils. I do this now with First Congregational in Tucson and am keeping my eyes open for new venues. I feel certain that God is preparing to use me in this way, and I'm glad the UCC "gets" the importance of listening to the Spirit.
I have been blessed by the SW Conference; I am being blessed by it now and I hope to be a blessing to it now and in the future.
Thanks for asking us the question, John.
Teresa Blythe
tblythe@jps.net
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