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I have an unpopular opinion: dislike open floorplans in houses and open-concept kitchens. I especially dislike open-concept kitchens in houses that were not designed with them in mind, where the owners have renovated the old floorplan to include the modern open-concept kitchen. If you love them, great! We can disagree on this. I know that I am biased on this subject. I live in a 1950’s house on a street with a dozen identical houses with identical floorplans. Or at least, a dozen houses that were originally built with identical floorplans. Over the decades, each owner has renovated these houses in unique ways. When I go for a walk down the street at night, I can occasionally see into their windows and see some of these changes. Some owners have taken out the center set of walls that divide the first story into three separate rooms in order to retrofit an open-concept kitchen into the 1950’s house. And I HATE it. The idea is to open up the space by making one giant room that is subdivided by use while allowing people in each area to still see and talk with one another. In reality, it makes the first floor feel small and there is no way to hide the mess in one area of the house from the other: i.e. a messy kitchen makes the living room feel dirty and a messy living room makes the kitchen feel cluttered. The open floor plan also gives the feeling like there is little difference between eating together at the kitchen table and each on the couch. Lines are blurred as to what room should be used for what and the original flow of the floorplan is disrupted.
In contrast, I have come to appreciate the divisions between the rooms of my house. Something happens when I cross the threshold from kitchen to the dining room: I can ignore the mess it took to make dinner and focus on spending time with the people around me. When I enter the family room, my body knows that I can relax and rest from the work I have been doing. This is the same reason why I change clothes after I come home from work: it is a signal to my brain that I no longer have to be productive. Graduations, weddings, baby showers, and funerals are all social thresholds. We hold big celebrations for these things like we are crossing from one room to the next. Some of them are arbitrary lines in the sand but we celebrate them to mark that things have changed, even if the change has been slow and gradual. Without some of these social thresholds, life just blends together like the open-concept floorplans. This Sunday we are crossing a social threshold: worshipping at 11:00 a.m. instead of 10:30 a.m. This is preparation for the Congregational Church of Birmingham to be worshiping in our building at 9:30 a.m. the following Sunday. I know there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in crossing this threshold: excitement for new opportunities, fears about our future, hope for what could be, and grief for a future we once envisioned that is now out of reach. While we are crossing this threshold in a very obvious way now, this threshold represents changes in the world and the Northminster community that have gone unacknowledged for years. It is as if the mess from one room in an open-concept floorplan has been spilling over into another area. By talking with CCB, negotiating building use, and decluttering our space, we are having to confront these changes head-on and acknowledge that we have already crossed a threshold. This Sunday’s change represents a different threshold however: transitioning from being passive in the face of change to being proactive. Many congregations in recent years have ignored the changing world and the thresholds they have passed over until they blip out of existence. By confronting things head-on, we are able to recognize what has changed and make efforts to adapt before it is too late. None of this is easy and there is still a lot of difficult work ahead of us as a community; but I fully believe that it is far less painful to do this work now than wait until the last hour to change. So, thank you all, for everyone working to make this transition a smooth one. Thank you to those who have been working on the details of our plan. Thank you to you who continue to have trust and hope for the future that encourages us all. I fully believe that this is not Northminster giving up, but Northminster defiantly stepping out in faith that God is still calling us to minister to this community here and now. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Pastor Chris Last week, I shared a walk through with what Sunday morning would look like. Details are still being worked out, so I won’t promise that is exactly how things will go, but it will be something similar. If you missed last week’s Notes, here is a link to read it: Notes November 12
This week, I want to do something similar but instead do a walk-through of what a Committee Night could look like. Like last week’s walk-through, this is not a guarantee that this is what things will look like, but a tool to help folks better understand what is being proposed. As such, I have put together two mock-agendas for two ways we could meet: January 19th & February 20th. You will notice some celebrity names in them to help with the illustration. With that, let’s put on our imagination caps and jump into Sunday morning on January 19th: “Aaaah-AAAhhh-aaaMEN!” With that, the sending hymn concludes and the congregation begins shuffling about, grabbing their coats, purses, and “… wait… where did I put my phone? I had it right here… oops! Gotta pick up the bulletin I just dropped.” Luckily the service didn’t go long today so there is still time to grab a cup of coffee and chat before the next part of the day beings. A few of the folks who love doing hospitality sneak out of the sanctuary to make sure everything is prepared in the Lounge for lunch. At twelve noon, a bell is rung and lunch is officially served. Still in the sanctuary enjoying Coffee Hour, Pastor Chris prays over the food before the Session and committee members begin to make their way into the lounge. The meal is open to everyone, committee member or not, but most folks decide that this is their chance to go home and get started on their afternoon nap. As people enter the lounge, the smell of warm soup crashes over you like a wave. Only then do you see a series of soup and bread is laid out on the back table; a Northminster classic. You think to yourself, “Which committee was responsible for bringing food again? Last time we had our all-committee meeting, B&G arranged to bring sandwiches for everyone. I think Community Connections brought the soup and bread this time.” Tables are set up in smaller groups around the room. Each seat has a short agenda in front of it for the joint part of the meeting. But you don’t have to worry about that at the moment: you know that you have about 30 minutes to enjoy the food and the company of those at your table. You get to chatting and hearing what is going on in other people’s lives. At some point, they bring up what they are doing in the committee they are on. You make a mental note to bring that up in your break-out meeting as a point of collaboration. Some folks are still eating, but Pastor Chris begins the joint part of the meeting. The Clerk gives a Session update about what they are working on and any motions they passed at their meeting on January 2nd. The treasurer then gives a quick update on how the finances are doing before Pastor Chris gives a quick update on anything else that she’s been working on. She concludes by saying, “Is there anything that one committee needs to check in with the other one about? No? Okaaaayyy… BREAK!” At that, the next shuffle begins. The Building & Grounds team chose to have a standing meeting in the Sanctuary: they found that this was an excellent way to keep the meeting short and to the point. Pastor Chris pops in with them at the start, updates them with something that the Community Connections team is planning, and then continues on to the next group. In 15 minutes, B&G shared all of their updates, planned the work to do, and delegated some tasks. After that, the group prays and then disperses. The Community Connections Committee gathers around a few tables pushed together in the lounge. Since this committee does a lot of planning, they have broken the work downs into categories that the coordinators manage: mission (serving others), outreach (making relationships in the area), fellowship (spending quality time with each other), and education. Since it is the beginning of the year, they are working together to put together a 2025 calendar, so events are even and spaced out. Some work will have to be saved until the February meeting, like choosing which organizations to give benevolence funds to; but this is a passionate group, so some work is delegated to work on between now and the next meeting on February 20th. Pastor Chris pops in toward the end of the meeting to hear some of the ideas for the 2025 calendar. She gives some suggestions and asks about what support she or Suzanne can give to get the word out about a few of these. At 2 p.m., Pastor Chris gives a closing prayer, and the Community Connections members head out. The Church Operations Committee is meeting in Pastor Chris’s office for now. They gather around the table and give updates on the 2025 Budget, Pastor’s Terms of Call, and review anything else needed for the Annual Meeting in a few weeks. After those updates, the Worship & Music and the Tech coordinators give updates with how things are going on Sunday morning with the new worship schedule and sharing space with CCB is going. The Church Operations Committee troubleshoots a few issues and makes a motion to send to Session about a tech issue. The Session liaison makes a note to bring it up in the February 6th meeting. After that, they pray and continue on with their day. As everyone departs once their Committee is done, some think about how nice the fellowship was before the meeting. It is always nice to share a meal and catch up with people that you don’t always talk to during coffee hour. Others are happy that the next All-Committee meeting is on Thursday, February 20th at 7 p.m. on Zoom. While it is nice getting to talk to people face-to-face, Zoom meetings tend to be faster (and then you aren’t at church all day!). As I said above, this is just what things could be like. I am more than happy to adjust this plan as we see fit. My recommendation is to try one in-person and one Zoom All-Committee meeting before we choose one style over the other. If you have any questions, let me know. Blessings, Pastor Chris As things continue with our conversations with the Congregational Church of Birmingham, details are getting solidified. Last Thursday, the Session met and one of the many things discussed was when the start of worship would be starting in December. Taking all of the feedback we received through the after-church discussion on October 13th and through one-on-one conversations, Session took time to consider the pros and cons of various start times.
In the end, the Session voted to have a 11 a.m. worship service starting on December 1st, 2024. This was chosen because this new time is only a 30-minute shift from our current 10:30 a.m. worship time and because whole-hour times are easier to remember than quarter-hours (10:45 or 11:15). It was decided to start at our new worship time on December 1st to give us one week of adjustment before CCB tentatively plans to hold their services in our building on December 8th. The Session also set the February Session meeting – projected to be on Feb 6th 2025 – to discuss whether or not the 11 a.m. worship time is working or if additional changes need to be made to our Sunday Schedule. With that in mind, let’s talk briefly about what Sunday mornings are going to feel like, not with charts or timetables, but from a narrative perspective: It is 10 a.m. and the first Northminster members begin to arrive. There are already cars in the parking lot and a second row of cars has already started to form. You, a choir member, laugh because it turns out that the CCB folks are about as skilled at starting the second row as we are; but it is in good humor because Building & Grounds said that they were looking into getting the parking lot professionally striped. The South Entrance is already unlocked and when the choir members enter, they can hear that the CCB service is still happening, but it sounds like they are beginning to wrap up. The choir members then turn to their right to find Brandon waiting in the music office to begin choir practice. While the choir is practicing, other congregants gather in the lounge. Some of the folks here are spouses of choir members, others are just the ushers and greeters that like arriving early. These folks who have gathered early have been encouraged to bring their morning coffee with them and it looks like someone brought bagels with cream cheese to share. At 10:15 a.m. the CCB service ends. Both the choir in the Music Office and the folks in the lounge can tell because they hear the sound of people shuffling down the hallway to the Ark where they will be having their coffee hour. At that point, the Ushers will grab the Northminster Bulletins from the main office and lay them out on the Usher’s table. Then they will set out the attendance sheet on the podium and make sure that the collection plates are in the sanctuary. Greeters will take up their stations at the two entrances, and the tech team will make sure that everything is set for our live stream. The Choir or Bells will have a chance to practice in the sanctuary before service if need be. Otherwise, Brandon will be free to practice some of the hymns on the organ. But true to Northminster’s culture, folks will still likely roll in close to the start of service. Most people will wander into the Sanctuary at 10:55 a.m. and a few might make it to their chairs by 11:03 a.m. Our service will continue as usual, but Pastor Chris will watch the clock a little bit more closely in order to ensure that the service is done by 12:00. Toward the end of the service after the Lord’s prayer, the coffee servers will sneak out to the Nursery to put the coffee and cookie cart together. And by the end of the benediction, coffee hour begins as always. People linger for a bit, but eventually drift away because it really is lunchtime now. On the way out the door, we might run into a few CCB folks. After their coffee hour, they had a "Comma Conversation". You might ask them about what they discussed this week and linger in the parking lot as you get to know them a bit more. Then you both get in your cars to drive home, knowing that you might just see them next week (and remember their name this time!) While we are moving the time of our service, if it goes similarly to what I just described, a lot about our Sunday worship stays the same. For all of December, I will make sure there is some sort of breakfast foods provided for those who want to come early and have a pre-church coffee hour. And if this doesn’t work as seamlessly and I described, make sure to share your feedback with a member of Session before Feb 6th or make plans to attend that Session meeting to share your feedback with our leadership yourself. If you have any other questions about our new projected schedule, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. Blessings, Pastor Chris When it comes to doing chores at home, there are few things that annoy me quite like dirty dishes. On good mornings, the kitchen is clean by the time I leave for work so that I can easily come home and cook dinner. On truly bad days, every dish is in the sink, the dishwasher is full, but nothing is cleaned. I feel most accomplished when I can cook dinner and, whilst cooking dinner, clean the dishes that I used for cooking so that I have a finished dinner and a clean kitchen at the same time. I feel most discouraged when I have to clean the entire kitchen just to cook dinner and then by the end of dinner, the kitchen is a mess again. It amazes me just how much time I spend every week cleaning and putting away dishes just for them to reappear in a matter of minutes the next day. I dream about being able to do the dishes, put them away, and never have to do the dishes again! Alas, unless I either hire someone to do them for me or eat takeout on entirely on disposable dishware, I will be doing the dishes for the foreseeable future.
Today is Election Day. If you haven’t voted already, go to your polling location and vote! They are open until 8 p.m. There is still time! While today is no doubt an important day that will decide what direction our country takes for the foreseeable future, I wonder if we put too much importance on this one day, and not enough on the other 1,460-ish days until the next Presidential Election. I wonder if civic engagement in politics should be more like doing the dishes: a frequent task if we want to live in a clean, organized world (even if it is annoying to do). Therefore, if we want to make the Kingdom of God a reality in our midst as our faith instructs us to do, we must work toward that goal more than one day every four years - and so, we mustn’t put all of our hopes and fears into the outcome of this election. Never mind if our preferred candidate wins or loses, we must continue working towards a greater goal. Like doing our dishes, I wish we could do it once and then sit back and enjoy the results. However, if we do that, we are signing away all of our collective power and voices to those we elect rather than choosing them to represent our voices at a higher level. So, know that our calling as the People of God is to be active and engaged with this world. No matter the outcome of the election, we will still have work to do. What kind of work we are called to do might change, but the need for us to stay active and engaged with our community will not. I hope you all have gone out and voted. I also hope that you all are not overcome by worry and fear. God will remain with us and God’s call to engage with our community will remain. 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
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