Sharing the Ministry

Alida M. DeCoster

September 15, 1996

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church

Bethesda, Maryland

Come my way, my truth, my life. Such a way as gives us breath, such a truth as ends all strife, such a life as killeth death.

Come my way, my truth, my life...These are the opening lyrics of our first hymn, by George Herbert, an English poet who took holy orders in 1630. This is "The Call," one of his five mystical poems set to music by Ralph Vaughn Williams in 1911. It is perhaps my favorite hymn, though I must say, there are many hymns I love.

But this particular hymn had a profound influence on me when it was sung in my church in St. Paul in the early 1980s as I thought about the possibility of attending seminary and becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister. The words express a deep hunger for meaning and purpose, hunger for the spiritual life. The hunger for the life "which killeth death," transcending narrow thought and lifeless creed. A strength that makes a guest, a heart that joys in love. The melody ends unresolved, implying that there is no end to such a quest and such a life.

Do these lyrics stir you? What is your way, your truth, your life? What is your strength, your joy, your feast??? What stirs you most deeply? What sparks your passion? Do you ever feel called? Called to love, to serve, to rejoice?

The topic of my sermon today is ministry. And the message I wish to give is that ministry does not just belong to the professional ministers. Ministry means service. All are called to a personal ministry. We all have a mission in life. Life calls us all to live from our depths, to flower and bear fruit, for, in Roy Phillips' words, the beauty of the flowering and the fruit to be born for the world.

Today I celebrate my tenth year as one of your ministers here at Cedar Lane. I am so grateful. I have been so challenged and so blessed. You have taught me so much, and loved me so much. And I love you. I cannot imagine a better way to be spending these years of my life.

Before I talk about shared ministry, perhaps I will tell you a little of my story, of my spiritual quest, and of my ordination, which took place on September 21, 1986. The next thing I should say is "It all started back when..." But, I do not know when it started. Did it start when I was in the choir in the early 80s, or when I was active in the UU youth group in high school? How about when my parents were married in the same church in 1950? Or when my great grandmother took my mother and her sister to the same church to attend Sunday school back in the 1930s. Maybe it started with Adam and Eve. Or maybe with the big bang.

I know that for all my life until I met a woman minister, I did not consciously think of becoming one. But I was always questioning and searching. Now I know I was looking for my way, my truth and my life. I loved going to church and sang every Sunday in the children's choir in chapel. I loved the stories and all the people who were so nice to me. They respected my ideas and my questions.

After college, where I majored in French, I worked in a number of service settings. I worked in a hospital, taught in two alternative high schools (remember those?), earned a masters degree in counseling and worked in a family service agency as a family life educator. Something was always missing. I was hungering for something deeper, and once I returned to church in 1980, it did not take long for me to become intrigued with the possibility of ministry.

I graduated from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in May of 1986, which was shortly after my candidating visit here at Cedar Lane. It was during that visit that I met with many of you for the first time and gave my first sermon here. I was scared. On my way into the church to preach that morning I slipped and fell in the driveway. There was a messy scrape on my knee and a giant hole in my nylons as I led the service and as I then retreated to the parsonage while you voted on my fate.

Delighted by the affirmative vote, and also nervous about my ability to rise to the challenge, I returned to Minnesota to graduate and prepare to move here. When I told a minister friend about the bloody knee, he laughed and said "the wounded healer strikes again." This was a very witty remark, but the experience of that fall in the driveway, the feeling of being disheveled, and knocked off my feet, was rather a serendipitous way to begin. It was humbling and that was appropriate. It is through our wounds that we become healers.

This has been the core theme of my ministry, the living out of my personal ministry. It is in my own wounds and in the healing of them that I have learned compassion. As I hope to model the wounded healer, I hope to invite you to acknowledge your own wounds, to be present in such a way to help you heal and become healers in turn. We are all wounded healers. The world is broken, and love, grounded in compassion, is the balm, which then allows us to keep growing and loving.

In the last ten years at Cedar Lane, a lot has happened. There have been changes in the staff and the building. There have been changes in the world. There have been controversies great and small. Through it all there have been deaths and losses, souls we cannot believe are gone, and abundant new life, children growing, amazingly, going off to college, marriages, divorces, and always, learning, growth and discovery. Life rolling richly on in this community of memory and hope we call Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church. What a privilege to participate in this wonderful life among you.

As I speak today of ministry, and the sharing of the ministry, I wish to say something about the role of the professional minister. The ordained minister is one who is called forth from a congregation and formally designated as one who possesses the skills and gifts to be a religious leader. Ordination in our tradition is the exclusive right of the congregation. I was ordained in my home church in St. Paul. During the ordination ceremony, there was a laying on of hands that everyone participated in. Everyone there was making me a minister.

The meaning of religious leadership is evolving. In today's world, I believe that the role of the ordained ministry is, more and more, to facilitate the ministry of the laity. Professional ministers bring certain training, skills and gifts to the leadership of congregations. All members of the congregation, through their own spiritual development and gifts are called to particular personal and shared ministries. And, indeed, professional ministers come forth from congregations.

Roy Phillips of Unity Church Unitarian in St. Paul is the minister whose preaching and leadership inspired me to pursue the professional ministry. His recent book, Transforming Liberal Congregations, from which Carole read earlier, describes his vision of the ministry of the laity, a vision that is gradually becoming reality in the congregation he serves. Committee work in that church is coming to be reframed as ministry. Social concerns, pastoral care, membership services, religious education...all these dimensions of church life are now being referred to as ministries. This way, everyone is more and more seeing their service, both in and outside the church, as related to a personal call to ministry, something that grows out of their own spiritual development.

What does it mean to develop spiritually? I would like to spend some time this morning defining spiritual development in my own words. Spirituality is very hard to be articulate about. But it is important to talk about it so we can get a better grasp of what it is. It is through our spiritual growth that our own ministry becomes apparent. Rather than quoting anyone on this, I will tell you simply what I think spiritual growth involves.

First it means to allow ourselves to feel life deeply. Feel deeply. Relearn to feel like a child does (not behaving like a child). We often become cut off from our feelings in life because they are painful and we need to protect ourselves. Spiritual development, in part refers to an increasing ability to feel, respect and learn from our feelings.

Second, spiritual development involves trust. Now, we do need to be somewhat "street smart" in life. We learn when to trust and when not to. "Trust in God, but tie your camel to a tree." Spiritual development involves trusting life itself to be worthwhile in spite of all the bad things that happen to us and to others. This is also called Faith. Faith does not have to be in a deity, but there must be some basic faith or trust in life itself, and ourselves as worthwhile. So spiritual development is about growing in trust.

Third, spiritual development recognizes interconnections. From the microscopic to the cosmic level, life is interconnected. We belong whether we like it or not! We are part of the vast whole of the universe. As we grow spiritually, we become ever more aware of our connections, to ourselves, our families and neighbors, our society and world and the universe itself. This awareness grounds our morality. Our interconnectedness requires us to behave with fairness and responsibility.

Feelings, trust, interconnectedness, what else? The fourth thing I will suggest as a dimension of spiritual development is wonder: an increasing amazement about the life around us. The life of which we are a part. It's awesome man. The experience of birth often stirs this in us. Wow. As we grow spiritually, maybe we say "wow" more often, not mindlessly, but reverently. We are awed by life's power and beauty. And this awe and wonder give rise to gratitude.

I or someone else could name other important dimensions of spirituality. I will add this fifth and final suggestion in my definition of spiritual development today. That is service. Feelings, trust, interconnectedness, wonder and service. As we grow and develop spiritually, we become ever more compelled to serve, thereby expressing our love and gratitude for this amazing life. This is personal ministry. It grows naturally out of our spiritual unfolding. Service which grows naturally out of our spiritual quest is not a chore. It fills us with joy.

Frederick Buechner wrote that your vocation is found where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. Let me say that again. Your vocation is found where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. There is your ministry. It may be what you do in church, or at home, or in the world. It is your service, a natural outpouring of your joy in living, your gratitude for the beauty of the world, your trust in the possibilities of love. Your personal ministry is your passion. And it often grows out of your wounds.

As I have grown spiritually, I have found my passion in pastoral care. Because of my own experience with illness, and the healing I have experienced, I feel a deep solidarity with those who are ill. I know I cannot fix anyone's pain or illness. But I can be with them in it. And in this "withness," I find deep joy. It feels like my way, my truth and my life. In a church this large, there are not enough professional ministers to attend to all in need. That is why we now have this new ministry...The Pastoral Associates of Cedar Lane will be introduced to you shortly. These Cedar Lane members are growing spiritually. They are not do-gooders who are going to try and solve your problems. They are living their personal ministry. They are serving this congregation in a way that allows them to grow and to feel deep gladness. They are ready to be with you on the journey if you have a need.

They will listen. They will be with you, whatever you are going through. Confidentiality will be carefully maintained. They meet with me monthly and receive ongoing training and supervision. They are wise and growing. Next year, we will hold another training if you would like to consider this kind of ministry in the future.

What is your way, your truth your life? What is your passion? What is your ministry? Is it music, is it children, is it learning about the Bible, as a group of our members has undertaken together? Is it developing a model of liberal religious leadership for the new century? The new millennium? A new Unitarian Universalist congregation in Upper Montgomery County has recently been born. The name they have chosen is Sugarloaf UU Congregation. What passion went into the development and birth of that new religious community! What is your passion? What is your ministry?

I have a dream of how we might develop this idea at Cedar Lane. My suggestion to begin thinking about for the future, is to start a personal ministry support group. If it is successful, others can be formed. In such a group, people can begin to articulate where they are in their spiritual journey, where they are with feelings, trust, interconnections, awe and service. In such a group, each member can become more clear and explicit about where they are and where they want to go, and get support for that. Let us think and talk about this possibility. If you are interested, let me know.

Ministry is a joy and a privilege. We may all partake. Let me now present to you our eleven pastoral associates.

Closing words from the Starr King School for the Ministry 1996 catalogue:

There must be communities of people

who seek to do justice

love kindness

and walk humbly with God,

who call on the strength of

soul force

to heal,

transform,

and bless life.

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4099
Tel: 301-493-8300    Fax: 301-897-5713
e-mail: office@CedarLane.org
Sunday Services at 9 and 11 a.m.
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