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--- emerson:stone-soup:introduction [2025/04/11 17:56] – naptastic
+++ emerson:stone-soup:introduction [2025/04/12 16:29] (current) – [Introduction] order is for the ToC naptastic
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+=====STOP EDITING THIS PAGE. WRITE THE MISSING PARTS.=====
 =====Introduction=====
 Welcome to Stone Soup. This is a plan to address needs identified by the Long Range Planning Task Force and generally revitalize Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston over the next few years, and to get us onto a path of growth and sustainability.
-(okay, that's a good first draft. Now tie it together better.)
+I've tried to come up with a short summary but this effort has to start with a frank admission: Emerson is not the church I joined 10 years ago. If I were in the same situation today, I'd join a different UU church. Our worship is mediocre, we spend very little on it, we have almost nothing in terms of programs, and we spend the lion's share of our time and energy either raising money or on non-mission activity. If we were a non-profit, I wouldn't donate to us. Our overhead is too high and our deliverables are meh.
-Emerson is not the church I joined 10 years ago. I were choosing a UU church today under the same circumstances, I'd choose a different one. Our worship is mediocre, we spend very little on it, we have almost nothing in terms of programs, and we spend the lion's share of our time and energy either raising money or on non-mission activity. If we were a non-profit, I wouldn't donate to us. Our overhead is too high and our deliverables are meh.
+I'm not saying this to tear us down; I'm saying if we need growth, there's plenty of low-hanging fruit.
-I'm not saying this to tear us down; I'm saying this to point at an opportunity we have to change ourselves from a church people **visit** to a church people **join**.
 ===Service===
-I think the fundamental issue that we need to fix is simple to understand: we don't have a strong culture of service. Actually, I don't think it's going too far to say, we don't know the first thing about service.
+I think the fundamental issue that we need to fix is simple to understand: we don't have a strong culture of service. Actually, I think we don't know the first thing about service.
-Also, we're too focused on money. But that's another topic.
+The first thing about service is: It's what needs to be done, not what you want to do.
-The first thing about service is this: It's what needs to be done, not what you want to do.
+One place where we got this wrong was in the orchestra. The whole reason I joined Emerson instead of First Church in 2015 was because Emerson had an orchestra. But our minds weren't on service; we wanted to play Schubert and Dvorak and all these really difficult, ambitious pieces, and we did. But what was needed was frequent accompaniment of church services. We should have been able to cover any time our keyboard artist had to be out but we never reached that point. We weren't trying to reach that point. We were focused on doing what we wanted, rather than what was needed. We were not serving the mission of the church.
-For example, one place where we got this wrong was the orchestra. The whole reason I joined Emerson instead of First Church in 2015 was because Emerson had an orchestra. But our minds weren't on service; we wanted to do Schubert and Dvorak and all these really ambitious pieces, and we did. But what was needed was frequent accompaniment of church services. We should have been able to cover any time our keyboard artist had to be out but we never reached that point. We weren't trying to reach that point. We were focused on doing what we wanted, rather than what was needed. We were not serving the mission of the church.
+(We're also too focused on money. But that's another topic.)
-Every church has two missions--the same two missions: worship and service. Praising our God, and making the world a better place. A church that's better at those things is a better church, full stop.
+Every church has two missions--the same two missions for every church: worship and service.
 ===Worship===
-As a church of mostly secular people, we don't have the same built-in drive for praise and worship that believers have. If there's no higher being whose will to seek, what do we worship? The piano?
+As a church of mostly secular people, we don't have the same built-in drive for praise and worship that believers have. If there's no higher being whose will to seek, what do we worship?
 When I gave my sermon on homelessness, I said our core ministries were being neglected. That was March 23rd. It had not yet occurred to me that the seasons had changed and that we, as a church, did not mark it. I asked about it later, and found out the services marking the seasons have been organized by just one person for some time, and they don't have bandwidth for it anymore.
-So my first proposal is not a policy or initiative, but two definitions for us to use (finish this sentence)
+So my first proposal is not a policy or initiative, but two definitions that would help keep us from neglecting the worship part of our mission:
   * **Spirituality** is the experience of being connected to something larger than yourself. That larger thing can be completely imaginary. It's the experience of being connected to it that matters.
   * **Worship** means creating those spiritual experiences for the people who attend our services. **Sharing** that experience is why we come.
-I believe these spiritual experiences are an essential part of the human experience, whether you're a believer or not. I assert that one of our weaknesses as a church is that our worship is not a reliable source of spiritual experiences. (write this again like you're not wearing a bowtie)
+I believe these spiritual experiences are an essential part of the human experience, whether you're a believer or not. Much of Stone Soup is about elevating the quality and experience of our praise and worship. Powerful spiritual experiences in memorable worship services turn visitors into members.
+===Activism===
+The other thing that will make people want to join our church is having good programs. The church I attended in Utah isn't even theologically compatible with me but I went anyway because what they're doing is actually saving lives and actually getting people off the street.
-Much of Stone Soup is about elevating the quality and experience of our praise and worship and it's all later. I want to lead with the programs people have been asking about and for the most: the activism.
+(If I can figure out the words, I'd like to briefly explain the theory of the plan here.)
-"What do we do now?" "What can I do to help?" I'm about to answer that question.
+This introduction needs to establish:
+  * Stone Soup grows the church
+  * The pathways and mechanisms for growth are clear
+  * The way to get there is to shape Emerson into an engine for expressing our values in the world
+  * The evangelism effort needs to be the right kind of scary
-(Next section: activism. This is where we introduce the housing first program. Which segues into the Social Action Council stuff. Which segues back into the worship stuff. Which segues into the musical collaborations. Okay, this is making sense.)
+These are the three legs of the stool. Evangelism is three things:
+  - Be a church people want to join
+  - Be connected enough with the community that people find their way in by diffusion
+  - Invite people who are likely to accept and join