COM Service Evolution Meeting
A final Service Evolution meeting will be held next Tuesday, October 25 from 2:00-3:00pm in the usual church Zoom Room (https://uuma.zoom.us/j/4774349822). Please see full update from COM below.

The Committee on Ministry (COM) and Rev. Chip would like to thank all the volunteers who attended one of the Service Evolution groups this summer. The purpose of these groups was to give Rev. Chip feedback about his services and let him know how specific sermons “landed” with the congregation.

Chip reports having gotten a lot of valuable input from folks with a range of experience with the topics these sermons addressed. He says, “I try to aim toward the middle, providing a significant on-ramp for those for whom the topic of the sermon is new information and at least getting the broad outlines accurate for those who are already quite knowledgeable on the topic, but sometimes I miscalculate and things get muddied a little bit.”

One of the components of these discussions was a covenant to be “kind but not nice,” the idea that too often we attempt to be “nice” by avoiding any conflicting opinions. This results in relationships based on inaccurate info, whereas kindness shares important information that people need to know about each other while keeping in mind the worth and dignity of the people in the conversation.

We did this process for three months and we’d like to offer one more opportunity, on Tuesday, October 25 from 2:00-3:00pm in the usual church Zoom Room (https://uuma.zoom.us/j/4774349822) for structured feedback before retiring the formal group. The final meeting will be an opportunity for more general feedback; rather than focusing on one service, participants could focus on any service or on services in general.

The COM and Rev. Chip will continue to solicit feedback but the formal structure of Service Evolution Groups will end after the upcoming meeting. Feedback can be provided in many different ways: contacting Chip during office hours or by phone, text, email, or letter; or contacting one of the members of the COM (Jim Ward, Lynn McDonald and Mary Alice Lundergan). The process of having honest conversations—kind but not “nice”—is something we hope to foster in our beloved community.