{"id":2692,"date":"2019-09-06T11:59:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T15:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/?p=2692"},"modified":"2019-12-09T18:04:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T23:04:16","slug":"a-letter-from-rev-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellspringsuu.org\/new\/a-letter-from-rev-lee\/","title":{"rendered":"A Letter From Rev. Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Re-Introduction…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first Sunday at \nWellSprings was a cold, cloudy February morning in 2013. I brought along\n a friend, and we parked in front, taking that long, icy stairway to \nBell Hall nice and slow. One of you handed me a folded piece of paper, I\n topped off my coffee, and found a seat in the back, hoping to go \nunnoticed. I was considering WellSprings on a short list of possible \ncongregations to serve during my ministerial internship \u2013 the last step \ntowards becoming an ordained UU minister. I was not yet thirty, three \nmonths still, from graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You fascinated me. At the time, \nyou\u2019d been together for just six years of Sundays. I could tell that Ken\n \u2013 infinitely creative and prolific, at the time not yet forty-five \u2013 \nwould be a gift, in a mentor. I trusted I\u2019d learn things from all of you\n that I couldn\u2019t learn anywhere else. I could see that because of who \nyou already were: open-hearted, original, purposeful, and connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month begins my 7th<\/sup>\n year at WellSprings, and I can\u2019t tell you how glad I am, that I stayed.\n Truth is, you proved all my hopes to be true within the first six \nmonths, and in the half-dozen years since, you\u2019ve shown me so much more \nthan I could\u2019ve imagined. Ministry with all of you has helped me uncover\n a better, kinder, more tender-hearted version of myself. It has made me\n stronger, more open, and more connected \u2013 to you, and to so many others\n beyond our doors. If our community can do that for me, it can do that \nfor others. I know, because you\u2019ve told me, that it\u2019s done that for so \nmany of you. How, and where, we grow more fully into ourselves, together\n as a community \u2013 that\u2019s the question before us in these next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\n the beginning of the summer, Ken & I shared a note with you to mark\n this new season for each of our ministries here. I began serving as \nyour second-ever full-time minister in July, while Ken began a new \nthird-time role, making space for his new primary role outside our \ncongregation, as a therapist. It\u2019s our plan to continue this way, for \nthe next two years. Your Board of Trustees will be leading conversations\n in that time, about the future of our congregation and its ministry \u2013 \nit\u2019s actually the first item on our list of congregational goals, for \nthe period from now through 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of you will see Ken \npreaching, about half the time, on Sundays. A few of you will work with \nhim through our Spiritual Development Ministry and Small Groups, Worship\n Leaders, and Addictions & Recovery Teams. Now and then, he\u2019ll lead a\n retreat or a training, as his schedule allows. Everything else that had\n been held in our common ministry is now in my hands. We\u2019ve revised our \nprofessional covenant with each other to reflect this new reality \u2013 it\u2019s\n available on our website, and you can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\n a strange and beautiful thing, to sort of re-introduce myself to you \nall, seven years later. I\u2019m not quite the same\u2026 and you all are a big \npart of that. I\u2019m hoping to make it as easy as possible for us to \nconnect, particularly over these next two years \u2013 so I\u2019ll be starting \ntwo new practices, in September:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n