1st Annual Leadership Workshop a Success!

The Leadership Development Circle enjoyed hosting our first workshop of the new church year. Our workshop Growing Our Community: Practicing Our Mission of Radical Inclusiveness was well attended, with 31 participants onsite and six online.

The workshop began with Rev. Crystal Zerfoss by calling us together for the purpose of creating a community for this important topic and continued throughout the day to be the glue that held everything together.

Our speaker, Rev. Jennifer DeBusk Alviar, presented us with ideas for creating the beloved community where a variety of people can thrive. She opened our eyes to what it would be like if we truly engaged in so that all brains and bodies can experience dignity, respect, and belonging. We were grateful for her vision and her ability to articulate how we can make space for everyone at the Welcome Table.

We had a quick review of the Member Page on our website and how we can utilize it fully. Linda Moulder and Scott Fitzgerald were presenters from Communications Circle. They explained what tools are already in place and how we can get assistance in using them. One of the many practical tips we received was how to calendar events/meetings on our website We are grateful to the Communications Circle for offering us tools to keep the information flowing in our community.

The afternoon session was an opportunity to learn what the non-anxious presence can bring to our church, how we cultivate the skill in ourselves, and how we might create a non-anxious community. The second topic that we discussed was how to create personal boundaries, which is one aspect of being a non-anxious presence. We participated in small group sessions to get just a taste of what that might look like in practice.

At the end Rev. Crystal challenged us to take what we had learned and make it actionable for ourselves, the circles that we serve, and our entire community.

A great big thank you to the kitchen crew ably led by Stephanie Samson; Ann-Scott Ettinger for answering the door; and MaryAnne Winniford and Elizabeth Love Sheehan for cleaning up.

If you were unable to attend the presentation, you can watch a recording of it at https://vimeo.com/863298270?share=copy. If you have topics that you or your circle would like for the LDC to explore in further offerings, please contact us at leadershipdevelopment@inuuc.org.