Every now and then no matter how hard I try to avoid it, I find myself asking really deep questions like "What am I doing here?" and then by extension, since I am your designated spiritual leader, "What are we doing here?"

I feel my job is to help you grow an ever larger and more expansive and inclusive sense of your self and the world. I can try to do this through sermons, classes, chance conversations and, hopefully, through personal example.

I always like to see how other minister's view their roles, and I came upon a great article by retired Unitarian Universalist minister Gordan McKeeman. He puts it this way, "Ministry is participating in a leadership role in a process by which people are invited to become mature religious persons." He adds, "Churches are communities of people engaged in offering resources and opportunities to help themselves and others in their religious growth."

To help us think more specifically here is a list of the possible facets of this developmental process. I think we are here to do these things and I hope you agree with me so we can continue deepening our journey together. We are here to be:

1. Cultivating an awareness of the depth dimension in life - "Things are not what they seem - they are so much more."
2. Examining our own life story, looking for clues to values, practices, and viewpoints learned in our very early lives, many of which persist into adulthood.
3. Enlarging our self-concept, being aware of the ways in which our self-boundaries are enlarged by the inclusion of "others" and occasionally narrowed by conscious exclusions in response to hurts of many kinds.
4. Embracing a cosmic story, an attempt to answer a fundamental question "Where am I?"
5. Expanding our knowledge of the world's religious traditions.
6. Practicing spiritual disciplines as a means of refreshing our convictions and commitments.
7. Developing a comprehensive value structure and a commitment to living in accordance with it.
8. Playing an active role in a religious community.
9. Having fun as we do all this.
10. Taking all we have learned out into the world and making a difference of some kind.