If you’ve been away from church for a while–or you know someone who has–we are ready to welcome you back. It can be difficult to take those first steps into church again, but our loving community holds you in its embrace.
The most recent chapter of my involvement with TJMC is a story of renewal and homecoming, on both a personal and institutional level. Though I have been a member of TJMC for many years, I recently went through a multi-year period of disconnection from the congregation. During that time, I no longer regularly attended services, and rarely participated in any TJMC events. I very much felt out of touch.
However, I did maintain some minimal connection, in particular through Nature Spirit, one of TJMC’s special worship groups, which, during the period of my disconnection, met once per month, primarily to discuss spiritual traditions inspired by nature. I would occasionally go to those meetings, and eventually got to know some of the people who were active in the group. I took special enjoyment in Nature Spirit’s outings into nature, when it was easy to bring my son along to take part with me.
As luck would have it, around the same time I was personally ready to renew my relationship with TJMC, Nature Spirit was itself in need of renewal. I remember the first service I attended after being away for so long. I remember sitting in the sanctuary, during the service, mesmerized by the familiarity of the building and of the people around me. I felt familiarity in being surrounded by community. I began to feel as though I had come home. At the end of that service, I ran into one of the people whom I had gotten to know through Nature Spirit. She invited me to the group’s end-of-the-year potluck, which was to double as a planning meeting for the next year.
The potluck was wonderful; the company and conversation were terrific. However, I learned that day that Nature Spirit was running on fumes; its energy was sapped. For the planning meeting, the main item for discussion was whether anyone had the energy to keep the group alive.
That person turned out to be me, at least initially until others joined in the effort as well.
It was time to come home. It was time to renew my connection to the congregation and bring my energy to Nature Spirit. And, that is what I did. As things happened, I would also bring my energy to other congregational activities, such as the fourth and fifth grade religious education class and the monthly Sundown Celebrations.
It is worthwhile to mention that shortly after this homecoming, it caught my notice that many of RevWik’s sermons touched on the concept of “we” culture, in contrast with “I” culture. As I understood it, in “we” cultures the calculation of whether an expenditure of energy is “worth it” is assessed according to the benefit that it brings to the community (the “we”), not according to the person making the expenditure (the “I”). I found this to be a profoundly inspirational idea, one perfectly suited to the task of reconnecting to, renewing, and creating community.
Nature Spirit is itself a community and its renewal was achieved through a community effort, not through my energy alone or that of any one person. Working together, in a dynamic exchange of ideas, we successfully envisioned an ambitious new mission for Nature Spirit, one that is organized around a dedication to diverse community, multigenerational accessibility, and being a spiritual home. We have organized a rich series of programs, which have explored, among other fascinating topics, shamanistic practices, connections between spirituality and creativity, and pagan holiday traditions. We’ve organized nature walks to bring us closer to nature, and social gatherings to bring us closer to each other. We’ve done these things with music, and singing, and art, and feasting, and storytelling, and friendship. The best part is that we are only getting started!
The Nature Spirit community has been strengthened and expanded. It is no longer running on fumes. For this, we are grateful to all who have brought in their energy, and we are similarly grateful to all in the congregation who have encouraged us.
In my work with Nature Spirit, I sometimes think about the Fourth Principle of Unitarian Universalism, “A free and responsible search for truth and meaning.” It is a privilege to be part of a community that affirms this principle, one that encourages earnest, wide exploration of spiritual ideas and traditions, such the explorations embarked upon in Nature Spirit. More than that, this community’s affirmation of the Fourth Principle is one of many aspects that makes TJMC a valuable part of my life, one that is worth supporting by pledging a financial contribution.
TJMC is a community that offers a warm welcome home when it is time to come home. I am grateful to have become an active participant in the TJMC community once again. It is good to be home.
–Dan Spitzner