Theme-Based Ministry
For the past three years, we have chosen an annual theme that has been woven through our Sunday Services. I have loved the opportunity to explore deeply one particular theme, usually at one service each month. The themes have provided both an anchor and a guiding focus…roots AND wings.
In April, at the worship conference I attended in Denver, I learned about a new kind of format for worship themes, and I’m excited about implementing it here at UFP. It is called “Theme-Based Ministry” and is anchored around monthly theological themes (one theme per month). There is a three-year rotation of themes; the cycle begins again in the fourth year. Each theme has a story associated with it, and the story offers language, symbols, and metaphors for reflection and discussion.
During each month, the congregation is offered multiple ways to engage the theme through worship (usually just the first service of the month will focus on the theme), newsletter articles, small groups, RE classes, and more. We may even develop a reading list and resources for at-home family practices.
This model is designed to help us create a common language of faith, to assist us in building our own theologies, to create a more direct connection between our programming and our worship, and to integrate our learning and exploration across the generations. For all of those reasons, and because tending to the spiritual life of this community is my mandate, theme-based ministry is coming to UFP!
Over the summer, I’ll be laying out our own unique cycle of themes. If there are particular theological themes that you would like to explore, I welcome your input, especially if there are themes you believe to be distinctively Canadian. But to begin, VISION will be our September 2011 theme.
Loving being in this shared ministry with you,
Julie
1As summarized by Rev. Marlin Lavanhar of All Souls Unitarian in Tulsa, OK.
2 The first year it was “Stewardship”, last year it was “How Shall We Live?” and this year it has been “Where do we come from? Where are we going?”
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