What a busy week! It’s so great to be part of a busy Centre where we have lots of wonderful things afoot!
Not so long ago, someone shared with me that they would love for me to write a Happy Monday blog on a week in the life of a CSL minister. I can honestly say that every day is different, and every day has its own flavour and list of things to do. Also, much of the job description of ministry is very much centred around who I am being while expressing the work. To me, that means ensuring that first and foremost, before doing any task I choose, to bring an awareness (to the best of my ability) of the consciousness of Spirit to whatever I’m doing .
Some of the beings and doings of this past week, just so you have a little flavour: I attended an online webinar called the Church Disruption Summit. This was put on by a Christian leadership expert who (while focussing on a much more traditional spiritual teaching than ours) had many very interesting points on the direction of spiritual communities in the future. He began by bringing us forward in time to 2032 – 10 years from now – and seeing what the trends for gathering in community might be like. Much of his emphasis was on relevant content and connection, and being willing to acknowledge that virtual services are going to be key as we move into this future. He also spoke at length about the end of the Baby Boom era with its values of being service-oriented and of generous financial support for spiritual communities, and how that all may well have a different look in the future. This provided me with much food for thought as we go forward. It melds with where I see a difference in our own volunteer core as we’ve come out of the pandemic.
I also attended a CSL Community Connection conversation which focussed on a major change to the leadership structure of our greater organization, where they are proposing creating a smaller leadership core with the elimination of the Field Leader position.
On Tuesday, I attended a monthly Zoom meeting with the Region 5 Minister’s group. This is a time of connection and support for ministers in our region, which includes all of Canada as well as Washington state. Then, Tuesday afternoon the leadership of our CSL Kelowna met at Dr. Nadene Rogers’s beautiful home right on Lake Okanagan for some very important work – we gathered for a time of being together for the purpose of FUN! Check out the picture and see if you think we met that mandate. Our leadership works very hard and diligently to ensure the good for our community and it’s important to us to gather to re-fill our spirits. By the look of the picture, would you say we were successful??
Maureen, Margaret, Corinne, Jeanette, Diane, Dr. Deb, Pauline
I’ll skip over some of the other parts of my week (meetings and calls, going over our financial reports, preparing for upcoming services, scheduling etc., etc.) and go right onto the highlight of the week, which was the gratitude dinner Kenn and I hosted at our home for our Conscious Givers. What a sweet, sweet time it was. As I shared with everyone there, this was in all likelihood the last of these dinners we’ll host at our home. It was such a privilege to give our deep thanks for the solid financial support that those on our Conscious Giving program give to our Centre. In general, approximately 70% of our income is derived through this program. Those are the funds that allow us to provide all our services which support our vision of Awakening Humanity to our Spiritual Magnificence. This includes support for our speakers, staff (myself and Rev. Corinne), our location (Studio 9), our music, our bookkeeping, our livestream, as well as our outreach into our community, and more. These are all primarily derived from the support that comes through this program of financial commitment. As we said on Friday night, we most likely would not be here today without this generous, committed support. “Thank you” seems insufficient; but thank you from the deepest place of my gratitude.
If you’re interested in finding out more, we have a Conscious Giving Program form right on our website or contact our Treasurer, Rev. Melody Bailey for more information. (Also, thanks to those of you who were there who cared enough to want to check out my clean oven. Haha! If that makes no sense, read last week’s Happy Monday!)
Which brings me to Sunday, where we had a beautiful Soul Food Sunday service – always a delight with Rev. Barbara Samuel and Neal Klassen. My week ended with a Board meeting on Sunday afternoon. Your Board met with the Field Services representative for Ministerial Transitions, and we got more information as to our succession planning for my upcoming retirement. I know it is the right thing at the right time for our Centre, but I’ve got to say, some of these conversations are tugging at my heart a little bit. I really can’t fathom not being your Senior Minister; however, I know the next most perfect leader for this community is being prepared for us in the Mind of the One. Our task is to prepare our consciousness to be open and receptive to them! I know it’ll be perfect.
Blessings,
Dr. Deborah
If you missed yesterday’s Soul Food Sunday talk by Rev. Barbara Samuel and Neal Klassen, titled Receive, Harvest, Share the Bounty, you can watch the replay and other past services on the CSLK YouTube channel.
MIND-FULL MOMENT
“At the end of the day, if I can say I had fun, it was a good day.”
— Simone Biles
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