Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme and the state of the church. The Soul Matters theme for March is Wisdom. This month’s post is offered by Becky Halat.

“Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”
– Martin H. Fischer

Simplification is a challenge. I know my natural tendency is to over-complicate things. At work, at home, everywhere. I think I do this because I want everything to be correct and accurate. If there are three obvious steps, why not make it ten? Ten is better, right? With ten steps, your process is more precise, and therefore better. I’m learning that more isn’t always better, though. Distilling ideas and processes to their most important components can be more challenging than taking everything into consideration. Maintaining simplicity is something that I have to work at every day. It’s almost a spiritual practice for me at this point. I try to do it in steps (and of course, not too many steps!): 1) Is all this necessary? 2) Where can I simplify? I’m lucky to have people in my life that are naturally good at this and are willing to help me out.

Right now, the board is in the midst of our ministerial search. Obviously, this is a significant moment in our congregation’s life: one of change and anticipation. As a board, I believe we have the knowledge we need to help us in this search. We’ve held listening sessions to understand what the congregation wants. We’ll be attending the upcoming congregational gatherings sponsored by the stewardship committee, and I’m confident that we’ll glean further insights into the needs of the congregation at those events. As we continue this journey to finding a new minister, our task is to do as Martin H. Fischer calls for in the quote above. The congregation has given us the information we need to make a decision, and we distilled that information to come to the goals that we’ve been sharing with you each week. These goals serve to help us understand the kind of minister we need.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the details and the nuances—and it can be overwhelming! I’m confident though that we can take that wiser, big picture approach to the task at hand.

— Becky Halat
Member, UUCM Board of Trustees