Reverend Thompson
Rod’s Ruminations
Your church – your faith – your neighbors in Southern New Mexico – all need your help – and you need theirs.
Your church needs to attract new members so it can better fulfill its mission and grow its programs and be more responsive to the spiritual, social, and economic needs in your community. That means you need to be even more welcoming of visitors and prospective new members when they come. On Sunday morning (as well as other times when visitors come) you are all on the Membership Committee! Overcome your shyness, stop doing business (even church business), spend less time with your friends, and spend your time and energy speaking to and welcoming the stranger in our midst.
Your faith – Unitarian Universalism and its saving message as embodied in the Unitarian Universalist Principles – needs to become better known in this part of New Mexico. That means you need to be willing to identify yourself as a Unitarian Universalist and proclaim these Principles whenever and wherever possible.
Your neighbors need to know that there is an alternative to the religions that they may think are the only choices out there. As you have learned yourself, this church and Unitarian Universalism offers a faith that is inclusive rather than exclusive, offers hope rather than fear, and welcomes diversity rather than promoting sameness.
So, I leave you with this one question: Would you have liked to have known about this congregation earlier than you did? If so, you are the one who can make a difference in the lives of others. Please do so!
Rev. Rod Thompson, Interim Minister
