May 7 Update from Tali Hairston

In our seriously divided and pandemic world, many of us are probably longing for being together. The Thriving Congregations Program has been a kind of coming together. We have had two virtual gatherings and Rev. Maggie Breen has checked in regularly with everyone. The content is coming along but our work initially is to create the context for being a learning community on a learning journey.  

As some of you know, my own learning journey will soon come to an end as I complete the last few chapters of my PhD dissertation. I was forewarned this moment would be emotional. It has been! Tim Shapiro (2017) talks about the learning journey as anything but a straight line that is full of starts and stops. Believe me, I discovered every roundabout and stop sign possible. The learning journey is never idealistic because if done authentically you will follow your curiosity, discover vulnerabilities, and explore your doubts.  

The Seattle Presbytery’s Thriving Congregation’s Program (TCP) can best be described as a learning journey as well. Congregations have begun building relationships with each other, forming their teams, and assessing their starting point. Soon, congregations will move from the perceived and aspirational, to the real and doable. Like when you realized there was more homework in a particular class. Remember that feeling? Every participating congregation is on this learning journey. And there is good evidence to suggest congregations will experience the non-linear, start-stop, and those circuitous roundabouts. This is the learning journey.  

Using the model presented in the book by Shapiro, “How Your Congregation Learns,” we are experiencing what it means to define the challenge. That means asking and answering, the dreaded “why” question. Why are we doing this? And this is not an easy question to answer. Not because the question is hard, like doing statistics. Rather, the answers can be hard to hear, believe, and accept. Yet, to skip over the “why” is problematic and possibly detrimental to the learning journey. Overwhelmed with books and papers and confusion, I learned to put my “why” front and center. Undoubtedly many of you have done the same in different circumstances. 

How else do we manage the learning journey and engage the difficult and vulnerable? We are learning the benefit of doing this work in community. The best advice I received about the learning journey is to never go alone. My wife once put a weekly schedule in the middle of the kitchen. I had to write down my study plan and my actual study hours. Our children could see my daily failure to meet my goals while grabbing a snack. And it made all the difference. As participating congregations look to each other, these may be new muscles to be exercised. But no matter the roundabout path we may take, we are doing it together. And it makes all the difference. 

Isn’t this what our world lacks right now? Don’t we need more opportunities to be the kind of community that learns together, even in our differences? As we continue to share this journey with you, we seek your prayers and hope you are curious.

God Bless, 

Rev. W. Tali Hairston
Director of Community Organizing, Advocacy, and Development & Thriving Congregations Program Dir.