By Connie Goodbread

Our Legacy

We often think of our congregation as a human being, a person. We behave as though, like a human being, our congregation will need savings for illness, retirement and a distant rainy day. What would happen if instead, we thought of our congregation as our legacy? As our legacy, our congregation will carry our spirit, vision and transformative work into the future effecting the lives of countless others. If we thought that way what would we be putting in motion today?

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is
woven into the lives of others. – Pericles

We are but a moment’s sunlight fading in the grass. -Youngbloods
Oh very young what will you leave us this time; you’re only dancing on this earth for a short while. – Cat Stevens

We are building on a foundation that we did not lay. Hard work went into its construction and it was not our hard work. We need to honor and respect the revolutionary, brave and hard working people who came before us. They had great vision. We need to include their vision in ours, add our vision to theirs and respectfully make it one. I pray that our vision can live up to the vision of Channing, Emerson, Thoreau, Brown, Parker and Fahs but also that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha and Chief Joseph.

We are the leaders we have been waiting for. We are the prophets of our time.

But still we need to understand that our vision is limited to our time. Others will come along and add their vision to ours. Hopefully we will be the thoughtful, brave, hard working people who came before. Therefore, we are building our faith community on a foundation we didn’t lay, for people we do not know.

In other words Unitarian Universalism does not belong to us. It is not our club. We are its caretakers and stewards. It has a life saving message. We have no right to close the door on others who need that message. We need to be generous with and about Unitarian Universalism.

The congregation should not be saving for illness, retirement or some long awaited rainy day. It should be planning for a bright and sunny future. Our job is to transform lives, not amass large sums of money. That is not to say that we should be irresponsible. But how often does what we think of as being responsible translate into holding onto money out of fear and squashing innovation and creativity? Endowments are wonderful things but all of our efforts should be going toward making the world a better place.

What is your congregation’s legacy? A congregation is not a building. A congregation is people moving from the aloneness of “I” to community of “we”. A congregation does not exist to pay the electric bill or the mortgage. A congregation must exist to transform lives, to make a difference, daring to be all it can be with a loving and adventurous heart.

What will we leave them this time?