Lay Ministry Training

The kickoff to my Lay Minister training was at a retreat a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to blog about it, but been practicing the art of procrastination instead. Tonight there was a worship planning meeting and I'm all fired up again. So let me rewind and tell you about the retreat.

The retreat was planned for a Saturday that a friend was getting married. I managed to do both by only attending half the day at the retreat. I still got a lot out of it. We started the day with introductions. There were current Lay Ministers in attendance and they reflected on the genesis of the lay ministry, some good stories, and talked about what Lay Ministry meant to them.

There are two main aspects of the program: Worship and Pastoral Care. You can pick one or go for both. I am going for both. The rest of the morning, some framework was laid to establish what the two programs entailed.

Pastoral Care is interesting because of the fairly strict boundaries that differentiate it from therapy, psychology, and other ways to get help. We play a specific role that, if we're not careful, could spiral into a inappropriate situation. That being said, it is a very important role. The other interesting thing that was mentioned was about confidentiality. As Lay Ministers, we can promise confidentiality except when it come to communicating with the professional ministers. We have to able to communicate with our "bosses".

I initially did not intend to do both worship and patrol care, but after reading a good bit more about UU and reflecting on my own past, I think I have a lot to give when it comes to pastoral care. And I am sure I will learn a lot more about myself in the process.

Being part of the Worship service is very exciting to me. The last part of the retreat that I could attend was Rev. Anthony David telling us a bit how we plan the "Spiritual Theater". He has several core values that helps us make decisions about the service. We went into more of this tonight.

Tonight started with us discussing and agreeing on a covenant for the group. This allows us to understand what we are doing as a group and what we hope to achieve. The next discussion was around the values that we will focus on: Flow, Impact, Diversity-in-Unity, Good Stewardship, Hospitality, Reverence, and Growth Orientation. All aspects of worship will be evaluated on these value to ensure that we are giving the best worship service possible.

The last part of the meeting was focused on the planning of the upcoming Sundays. It is amazing to how much goes into each service.

All in all... I am very excited. This is very inline with my desires and goals and look forward to the experience of a Lay Minister.