Dear WellSpringers,
Early in June, we let you know that Beth Trandahl’s role on our Staff Team would change in the coming year. Today we are pleased to announce that, effective July 1st, Beth will begin serving as our Community Engagement Coordinator. In keeping with the limitations of our budget – and Beth’s request to let go of her regular Sunday morning hours – this will be a 12 hour per week position. As Community Engagement Coordinator, Beth will work the following regular hours:
- Mondays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays: 1-3pm
- Tuesdays: 1-5pm
- Fridays: 8-10pm
This new role will also require shifting some of Beth’s tasks onto our volunteer teams – particularly, our Tech Team, Setup Team, and Belonging Team. If we want to continue to livestream our Sunday services, set up our in-person worship space each week, and ensure that newcomers are welcomed and supported as they get to know our community, we will need more of us to show up and pitch in. The specific needs for each Team are listed below.
- Tech Team: 4-5 new volunteers
Learn how to run our livestream video cameras, support our Band as they rehearse by running our sound board, or just tap a button to advance the slides on the screen – no prior experience required, Tech will train you! Serve 1-2 Sundays each month, depending on how many new volunteers step up. - Setup Team: 2-4 new volunteers
Set up chairs and tables, hang signs by the road, learn where things are stored under the stage. Hear the band rehearse in the morning – and no more coffee setup required! Serve 1-2 Sundays each month, depending on how many new volunteers step up. - Belonging Team: …feels ready to take this on, but if more want to join, they are always welcome! Congregants can help this Team anytime by:
- Signing up here to Greet on a Sunday morning in person, or
- Volunteering as a “Chat Host” for the livestream, which can be done as often as you’d like, from home.
We all know what kinds of marvels and wonders are possible in our community, when we support each other and work together. 🙂 So if you can help, please reach out to Rev. Lee at lee@wellspringsuu.org, and she will connect you to the right Team leader, to learn more.
Finally, July 1st also marks the official start of our 2025-2026 congregational year! At our Congregational Meeting in June, we introduced our goals for the coming year – and I already heard one congregant delightfully telling me, just this Sunday, “I’m spilling our tea, Lee!” I want to invite each of you to consider, as we start this new year, what part you wish to take in helping to make these goals a reality.
WellSprings 2025-2026 Congregational Goals
Spill Our Tea
Tell folks about us. Share us with your neighbors. Talk about something that moved you on Sunday, or about a person you know in the congregation who inspires you. Practice doing it with anyone and everyone – even people who you think may never want to come here. That way it’ll be easy to tell the people who really need us – and you may never know when that’s exactly who you’re talking to.
Build Our Bonds
Attend or host a small group gathering. Sit next to someone you’ve never spoken with before, and introduce yourself to them. Invest in our community and help us build a strong foundation with the folks here now, so that we can continue to support newcomers – and other communities beyond our doors. Strong bonds make us resilient, and help us show up for those who are afraid and hurting.
Fund Our Future
Find your way to give back to WellSprings, so that you can feel a part of what sustains our community into the future. Participate in learning opportunities and planning conversations, to help us build and fund our next era. Thank others freely, for the ways you see them supporting this community – and, by extension, supporting you, and the people you love.
This community is what we make of it – for ourselves, and for each other. In these times, we all need places where we are fully known and seen, encouraged and emboldened, and restored and recharged for all the days to come. I know we will continue to be – and share – that place with the world. Thank you for allowing me to join you for another year of ministry, WellSprings, and for always being who you are: a community charged-full with the charge of the soul.
Take care,
Rev. Lee