Religious Education News for April

The forsythia is blooming in my neighbor’s yard, the grass is green, and I’ve packed most of my winter clothes away in the attic.  I know, you can blame me if we have a blizzard later this week.  But do you know what this means?  

It means that life is just about to start zooming forward.  I’m seeing the end of summer in my rearview mirror already, and it is gaining on me.  

Ok, maybe it’s not quite that dramatic, but we are definitely starting to wrap up the church year and look ahead to the fall.  Already! 

Last Saturday the RE Leadership group met to discuss the Religious Education Program’s direction as we move ahead post Covid.  We reviewed some of the program’s history.  Some of you may not know that there have been 3 Directors of Religious Education in the past 7 years of our program at FUSF, each with different strengths and gifts, each bringing FUSF a different approach to Religious Education.  My tenure with you began in December of 2019; just three months later, the Covid epidemic began.  Since that time, our group has been “building the bridge as we are stepping on it,” creating programming that was responsive to the ever-changing needs of our community in the moment. While I feel that we have successfully navigated this journey together (whew!), it is time to assess where we are now and where we want to go.

As a group, the committee worked through a process to identify our Purpose (Finding our “Why.”  Why do we have an RE program at FUSF?), our Vision for the future (“Where” are we going?), and our Mission (“What” are we doing now to work towards the creation of our vision?).  We did so much great work!  In the past we have often spun our wheels just sort of brainstorming things that we would like to do and then running off in all kinds of directions; this work helped us focus on what is really important to us so that we can develop a program that is grounded in our most important values.  

This is still a work in progress, so I am not ready to share the final results with you all yet.  However there is one piece of our work that the committee didn’t get to, and which I would like to bring to all of you.  

My question for you is “What is it about FUSF that makes us special and different?”  If I was doing this project with an individual, I would ask “What do you love?”  In this instance, we need to imagine that FUSF is like a person.  What does FUSF love?  What are their favorite things? Music?  What kind of music?  Food?  What kind of food?  Is FUSF a fancy dinner party kind of person or a barbeque person?  A person who quietly reads by the fire or who is tromping around in the woods?  What is their favorite flower?  

This exercise is challenging, and also very creative.  Who would our community be if it was a person?  What do they care most deeply about?  The answers to these questions will help the RE committee design a program that is in alignment with our way of being, with our “flavor,” our “style,” if you will.  This will help us create a delicious program for our families!  Clarifying what makes us special will also enable us to effectively communicate who we are and what we’re all about to the larger world, attracting families who are seeking a church community just like us.  Growing our program is definitely part of the RE program’s larger vision!

So I invite you to consider this question as we move into this weekend’s joyful celebrations of Passover and Easter. What do we love? 

The earth awakens anew each spring…what blessings will the future bring?

Warmly, Diana Tesni, Director of Religious Education