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We are one week away from the US’s Presidential Election. Michigan is a battle ground state. That means that we are being flooded with campaign ads, political mailings, and incessant text messages asking for more money. If you are experiencing what I am experiencing, politics feels unescapable at the moment. And while it is an important election (I hope you all have voted or plan to vote), this inundation of politics to every aspect of our lives can also be detrimental to our mental health.
This fall, we are discussing what it means to be a steward of faith. Part of being a good steward is making sure that we are being mindful about how we use our mental, emotional, and physical energy. When talking about stewardship, we don’t always think about our time and energy as a resource in the same way we discuss money as a resource, but it is easier to see how our attention, mental energy, and emotional energy are resources in an election year like this one. Campaign ads are trying to use your emotional energy every time they try to make you afraid or anxious. It takes mental energy to sift through headlines for the truth amongst the exaggeration truth and the outright lies. And many campaigns are asking for your physical energy as we engage in conversations about politics or as people help to canvas for particular candidates. While I am supportive of people who willingly choose to participate in campaign efforts, if you are feeling tired, anxious, or afraid due to this election, here are some of my tips on how to be better stewards of our time and energy: Set a timer for how much time you want to spend on the internet or watching television. Then, turn it off. By setting a timer or time limit, you set you intentions before engaging in an activity. This can prevent doom scrolling on the internet or watching the news for longer than you intended because of gripping headlines. Make plans to do something that is not technology-based. Schedule time to read a physical book. Make plans to spend time with family or friends. If you know that you will be tempted to scroll the internet or binge-watch the news, make plans so that you are too busy doing things to interact with the internet or tv. Remember, it is easier to avoid temptation if you don’t go near it. Set boundaries around conversations or topics that makes you angry, frustrated, or anxious. Take some time to plan out responses to conversations that you are not in a place to have. This can sound like, “I care a lot about this election, but talking about it right now is not helpful for me. Can we discuss something else?” “I can see that you care a lot about this topic. However, we don’t agree on this topic, and I don’t think we will be able to change each other’s minds. Can we change the topic?” or “I want to be able to listen to what you are saying because I care about your opinion, but I am not in the right headspace right now to give you the attention you deserve. Can we discuss this at another time?” Make a plan for how you are going to spend Election Day next Tuesday. The best time to make a plan for how you want your election day to go is to plan it out this week. How much time do you want to spend watching the news and election results? How will you let yourself know when to go to sleep? If you feel anxious or angry, how will you deal with those emotions? If you don’t follow your plan, how will you remind yourself of the intentions you have set this week? Your time, energy, emotions, and mental bandwidth are all important resources. Unlike money, we all have a limited amount of them to use and when they are gone, they are gone. So please be good stewards of your time and energy these next two weeks. There are many things that will be trying to get you to use those resources for their own purposes. By making plans, you can gain more control over how you use those resources and be able to allocate your time, energy, and emotions for things you really care about. Blessings, Pastor Chris When you are thinking about creating a painting, most art instructors will tell you to start with a gesture drawing. Gesture drawings are loose and messy. They are meant to help the artist figure out what elements to include, proportions, and a general layout. But you can’t get attached to the gesture drawing: even the best gesture drawing will be covered up by paint. After the gesture, many artists will do an underpainting. The goal of the underpainting is to help with the color palette and the tone of the paint on top. Like the gesture drawing, the underpainting will largely be unseen by the end. Next, many artists will paint color blocks: each element of the painting will be given a base color. Slowly by slowly the images will be added to. Larger details will give way to smaller and smaller details. The general will give way to the specific. If you want to see this magic happen, click here, or here for short videos showing this process.
While there are styles that will start with the small details and end with the background, most paintings follow this patter I just described. However, many young artists know the struggle of wanting to draw the small details that they enjoy first. I loved drawing faces, and I had a habit of finishing all of the small details of the face before refining the details of the body or its surroundings. However, my drawings always looked unbalanced when I did this because you could tell what I found interesting and what I was bored with. When I saved my favorite details for the end, the drawing was much more likely to have a uniform, or at least harmonious, level of detail across the drawing. Details were included that made sense for that piece and details that were interesting but distracting were left out. When thinking about our ongoing conversation with CCB about them potentially sharing space with us at Northminster, I find it helpful to think about it like the process of refining a painting. We started with brainstorming conversations and created a gesture drawing to see if this idea was even possible. We presented them with an initial offer that laid out some of the brainstorming ideas with a first attempt to put the pieces together. This was like the underpainting that set the tone of our continued conversations. We are now in a stage of color-blocking: we are trying to figure out how the larger details will work together before we can address the smaller details. It is easy to want to jump straight to the details on the face and paint the curve of the lips and capture the twinkle of someone’s eyes. But before we can do that, we have to make sure that the facial proportions are correct. On Sunday in our after-service meeting, more questions arose about where the conversation between Northminster and CCB stood. There are details that were being asked that I don’t have answers to yet because they are contingent on information that we do not yet have. Here are some details that I can share:
Thank you to everyone who has been asking questions and giving feedback. Your input has helped this process immensely. If you have additional thoughts or would like to talk about things in detail, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or the members of Session to talk about this. I have never claimed to be a mind-reader, so unless people come forward, we are not able to address your concerns or needs. Gratefully, Pastor Chris Dear Northminster,
For the past two days, I have been thinking about the word consensus. Defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, consensus is 1.a) General agreement, unanimity b) The judgment arrived at by most of those concerned 2) Group solidarity in sentiment and belief Most of the systems we work with in society are not based on consensus but a system of democracy where the majority wins. Setting aside the complexity of the Electoral College where that isn’t the case, the closest our country gets to consensus is the system put into place for amending the US Constitution. Constitutional Amendments require a 2/3 vote in both the House and the Senate and then to be ratified by 3/4 of state legislatures. While 2/3rds and 3/4ths both qualify as super majorities, creating a supermajority is not the same as building consensus. Building consensus is not about ensuring that the majority of people agree with a position, but working on an issue or a solution until almost everyone is in agreement. We tend to pass over consensus building in favor of a simple majority because building consensus can be extremely difficult. While consensus is more difficult to achieve, consensus is what I am aiming for when it comes to the various changes happening at Northminster. I know that some of the changes we have discussed sound similar to previous plans that previous Northminster leadership teams have suggested. Folks have not been shy about sharing how similar plans didn’t work and the reasons why they fell apart. The Session and I has been taking notes on why those plans didn’t work. Moreover, by aiming for consensus rather than a simple majority agreement we are hoping that these changes fit our needs today. Knowing that not everything will work straight away, we are also planning check-ins to adjust our plans as we encounter issues. I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has come to the Lunch ‘n Learn sessions after worship the past two Sundays. Your feedback on our plans has been invaluable. Not only has your feedback pointed out some places where we need to fine-tune our plans, it has provided ideas we had not yet considered. Furthermore, it is only by this process of feedback, change, and more feedback that we are able to build consensus on how to move forward. If you haven’t made it to either of the previous two meetings, click here to get a copy of the committee restructuring plan, and click here to access the document that discusses the initial ideas for a CCB/Northminster rental agreement. This Sunday, we have one more Lunch ‘N Learn discussion after worship to discuss the 2025 Preliminary Budget. This Budget is not finalized but will give us an initial idea of what to expect for the following year. Blessings, Pastor Chris I am fully aware that the Northminster event calendar has been full so far this fall.
From joint worship services, to educational talks, to potluck picnics, I am touched by how many folks have dedicated much of their Sundays to eating together, learning, and fellowship with one another. And a special thank you to everyone who contributed to the potluck this past Sunday. Whether you helped set up, brought food, or stayed to talk with folks from Congregational Church of Birmingham, our guests were touched by your hospitality. While I know that the fall remains a busy season for many of us, I hope that you can make time for our next three after-church conversations: Oct 6 – Committee Restructuring Plan Oct 13 – Informational Session about CCB Rental Negotiations and Q&A Oct 20 – 2025 Budget Presentation. With each of these topics, we are hoping to present a plan or an outline in order to receive feedback from the congregation. That means we want to hear from YOU! And while these are three separate conversations, they are also interconnected. Therefore, I hope as many people as possibly are able to make time to be a part of these conversations. If you are not able to make it to one of these conversations but would like to know more about what is being presented, please send me an email and I will be happy to send you my presentation and answer any questions. The next presentation will be about restructuring our committees at Northminster. The proposal that Session has forwarded on to the Congregation for comment includes two main pieces: 1) Reducing the number of Committees down to 4, in addition to Session and Deacons 2) Changing when and how these committees meet. With these changes, our committee structure will only require 26 volunteers (down from the 38 to 53+ volunteers currently needed). Yes, this proposed plan requires less people in order to function. Since we are a smaller congregation, a smaller structure is required for our long-term viability. However, I am aware that, in the past, similar attempts were made to lighten the load of committee work but those efforts instead made people feel like they were pushed out of life-giving work they enjoyed doing. Our goal is not to push people out of positions they enjoy but to give people who are tired an off-ramp and to make all committees have a similar workload throughout the year. If you enjoy the volunteer work that you are already doing, we will find a way so that you can continue doing that work. Lastly, if you are planning on being at any of the next three after church conversations, consider volunteering to bring food to share. We are looking for three people each Sunday: one to bring soup, another to bring salad, and a third to bring bread. Let us know if you would like to volunteer to bring food. Blessings, Pastor Chris |
AuthorPastor Chris Hallam earned her degree at Princeton Theological Seminary and moved to Michigan to become a pastor. Also trained as a studio artist and graphic designer, with an interest in pop culture and social science, her passion is thinking creatively about the future of the church. Archives
January 2025
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