What Are We Listening For?

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Hello, Dulin Church. It is me, Henry, your pastor. And what a delight it's been to be together with you over this last fourteen and a half months as your pastor and certainly since last, I want to say September that we began the Dulin Weekly Podcast and Dulin Weekly Moment. We are right at 50 episodes of the podcast in the moment. That's how engaging it's been.

And we've had the opportunity to reflect together about what and who Dulin is. So recently, for four Sundays in August, for an upcoming Sunday at the end of September. And the first Sunday in October, we are doing some more listening. But also this week, we are introducing the same seven questions I ask in these groups as a questionnaire. So for people who cannot come in person for whatever reason, can't fit in your schedule or something else, that you have a way for us to hear you.

Now, people have asked me about this process and it's very interesting to look at what visioning is all about, what dreaming is all about. I believe that this process is about gently and carefully listening for what is already sort of going on beneath the surface of our community at Dulin. When I first came to Dulin in the first six months or so talking to various leaders and other folks in the community, I've heard words like energy. I've heard words like engagement. And those are words.

And they mean different things to different people. People talk about my energy, about my engagement, about the congregation's engagement, about the congregation's energy and where it needs to be and think about. So let me say something more about this listening process that we're doing. What are we listening for? Well, I've already mentioned that we're listening because we believe spirit is working in the life of our congregation even before we began listening.

And what we're trying to do by listening to different groups of people and individuals through the questionnaire is we are trying to hear and discern what spirit may be moving subtly amongst us. We're not looking to put together a simple five year plan. I know for many of you who are very task oriented, that may be a disappointing sounding thing. We may come up with a five year or ten year plan based on the kinds of things we're hearing. But the purpose we're trying to hear is what are the dreams of this congregation?

You as a group of people, what dreams are being stirred up amongst you? In addition to what dreams are being stirred up amongst you, what are the things you grieve as a congregation, the things that seem to be missing or that you wish were still around or that you wish would happen that have never been around? What are the kinds of issues that seem to be rising up? What are the commonalities that we share? What are the disparate pieces?

What are things that maybe none of us ever imagined before until some person, perhaps new to our congregation, perhaps been here for fifty years, suggests or says in one of our listening sessions. We're just trying to discern and discernment is a process. It doesn't happen all overnight. Yes, I've heard a number of voices and we've had four meetings already and perhaps by the time you are watching this, we will have received some responses to the questionnaire. And we've begun to sort of look at that.

I can tell you that just from the listening episodes, this may overwhelm you, hope it doesn't, but just from the four listening sessions we've had, I have roughly 200 pages of transcripts of people's thoughts and dreams and possibilities. We record those sessions and then transcribe them with no names attached so that it's not about, oh, that important person said this, or oh, that young person said that or oh, that person who's new said that. It's more about just hearing, just listening, just trusting that indeed spirit is moving amongst us here at Dulin Church and that we want to take the time, the effort to listen for what spirit may be saying. I think sometimes what happens in churches, and I've been a part of this process, is we decide what God's will is, which is really a pretty big thing to do. We decide what God's will is and then we drive towards it, sometimes without even asking if it really is God's will from the one who is the origin of the will, that is God.

So rather than just rubber stamp what we already want to do, we're trying to listen to hear all the voices. Not just the voices of people who've been at Dulin for a really long time, but people who've been at Dulin for a shorter period of time. We're hoping to hear from people who've been here less than a year, less than five years, less than ten years, and then for people who've been here longer than that. We want to hear from all of those folks because we believe that the dreams that will rise up amongst us, scripture tells us that the spirit of the Lord will fall upon us and that our we'll dream dreams and have visions, young and old alike and all in between. And that sometimes the person who steps into a community most recently is the one who has something to offer that we didn't know, that we hadn't heard, and that only God could introduce into the mix in ways that will matter.

I can already tell you from some listening and from sort of some correlations I see that, you know, there are some things that we do and that our budget seems to focus on that don't seem at least at face value from the first listening sessions to be the focus of the community. And what we're ultimately hoping to do is listen and bring the way that we spend our money, give our money, make a difference in our community in alignment with what Spirit is speaking into the folks of Dulin. You know, we have a vision statement that says we're a caring congregation. And we are. Every church you want to meet will tell you they're a friendly congregation.

My experience has been that one in 10 of those congregations is telling the truth. The other ones imagine they're friendly and they are to each other, but not to anyone else. Over and over again, one of the things that I hear about Dulin, not only from people who are already a part of the community, but people who are new, who come for one time, You are indeed a caring congregation. You welcome people who come. You make sure that first time visitors get spoken to and second and third time visitors get spoken to because that's who we are.

But we want to also imagine together, dream together, vision together, what might we be becoming and how can we align what we believe God's heart's desire is for us at Dulin with what we're actually doing. I mean, in little ways, we're starting to engage more people in what we're doing about. I'm so excited to say that our mission team, our outreach team, we put together a team. It used to be a person and now it's a team. And those folks have met together once and I'm a part of their email chain and they are just looking at what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we're doing it so we can tell better stories about what we're doing in the community and around the world as a church.

Mission Moments help us hear the stories of the difference you as a congregation are making. You want to know what you're doing. You want to support what we're doing. You want to be engaged. But the stories help you see how lives are transformed in and through Dulin's work in our community.

So they're already working on that. It's very exciting to see the content of theirs and they are just running with spirit. And that's exactly what we hope all ministry will do. I'm excited to be your pastor. Fourteen months in, I'm still excited to be your pastor.

And that's why we're listening. We anticipate that we will hear echoes of God's work amongst us. So I hope you'll be part of the listening listening process if you haven't been already. Whether you sign up for the end of September meeting or the October 1 meeting, which sign ups will go out this week, or if you respond to the questionnaire, and let me say this, if you're coming to a listening session, I would discourage you, discourage you from filling out the form because we're already hearing your voice in a listening session. But if you're not going to be able to come to a listening session, and by the way, if you want to have a listening session, you say, James, just can't do it right after church on Sunday.

Could we do it at X time or a different day or less different evening? If you approach me about that, I would be delighted to offer a different timing our listening sessions. But if you're not going to be able to make one and you don't want to ask for an alternative time or day to do it, I encourage you to just do the questionnaire and let us know what you are thinking. Your name doesn't go on the questionnaire. It asks for how long you've been at Dulin and your age range.

Those are required. And then you can respond to any or all of the seven questions I've been asking people who come to the listening sessions. And then we'll take that information and we'll put it together as a part of what is now, you know, 200 plus pages of transcript. We'll put that all together, all those responses together in a way that we'll be able to sort of look for the little threads of God's spirit moving amongst us and bring our mission and our vision and our budget and all of our work together into a cohesive work on god's behalf here in Falls Church, Virginia. Thank you so much for joining me and thanks for being a part of the listening process.

I just thought it's helpful for you to know why we do it. What are we listening for? And to tell you your voice matters. It always does. We are listening.

God is listening. I am listening. And so be a part of this if you will and know that you are loved and we're so delighted that you're a part of our Dulin community in whatever form that takes. All the best to you until our next time together.