Faith Statement in a Jiff
Despite having only two and a half days with at most five hours of time to prepare, I leapt on a speaking engagement last week. The opportunity arose to speak in front of my church congregation on behalf of my capital campaign committee. Part of being in a community is participating in that environment. It doesn't have to be significant, but one does reap greater rewards through active as opposed to static existence. For the past five years I have sat on committees at church and have declined the opportunity to lead due to time constraints. However, the act of sharing my faith statement and providing an update on our capital appeal alligned with my current goal of writing. Since it was done in a jiff, I am sharing how I did it and what I said.
1. Defined what needed to be included in the speech.
2. Reflected on past experiences (think college essays, interview questions, deep conversations) where I've explored similar concepts.
3. Researched what a faith statement is.
4. Thought about it during my alone time (driving, watering plants, cooking).
5. Tossed ideas around with others,
6. Wrote, rewrote, read it outloud, wrote, rewrote, got feedback, wrote, rewrote, read it outloud, rewrote, got feedback, wrote, rewrote, read it outloud and got feedback. Let it all ruminate and rewrote again and again.
Below is my faith statement part of the speech:
I believe my presence at Church is God at work. From 1991 to 1995, I followed my dad’s career from Iowa to Ohio to Pennsylvania and now Maryland. The concept of a home, nonetheless a church was synonymous with instability for me. At the time my parents arrived here, I was fighting against my birthright of being the daughter of social entrepreneurs. The church’s action in the city was too close to the reality of my childhood.
As I chose Baltimore for my own hometown, church kept reeling me in. My sister was married in this stunning room right as the sanctuary revitalization project came to an end. Thereafter, I visited church on my own accord because the sermon helped me reflect and make sense of the weekly occurrences of my life in relation to the greater world. Then my husband George, a carpenter at the time came into my world and was introduced to Director of Music Emeritus, John Walker’s office window. Like me, he fell in love with the gothic structure and we joined the church together before our marriage here in 2007. This church became our home.
Many view Baltimore as a patch-work quilt. I view it as an extensive experiment in mixed-income housing gone wrong. From my Midwestern perspective the intrinsic interconnectedness gives us an opportunity to learn from one another across socio-economic, racial, religious and other differences. Our community is organized like this for a reason. We are meant to help one another grow and develop, not just exist statically side by side. This vision, nurtured through our church’s engagement with the world is what makes it possible for me to live in Maryland. This foresight has been nurtured in our tutoring program, our Sunday school, the fellowship and youth gatherings that happen in our assembly room, even through the Bolton hill nursery school created by our church of the 1950’s. According to church documents, Bolton hill was the second racially integrated preschool program in the city. Our buildings define what it means to be a neighbor. Our buildings have been home to that vision. I pray that our investments in those buildings will nurture that vision for many to come.
