Rev. Phil Schulman's Blog

Author:	PastorPhil	Created:	5/14/2009 6:34 PM
I try here to speak from my heart and invite thinking, caring and support for the thriving of the congregation. I'm grateful for your participation!.

Looking in the Mirror Of Our Teens

By PastorPhil on 6/6/2010 4:18 PM

wrtten 5/19/10 OOps wrote this in May, never published it.

Last month I met with several of the teenagers who attend our church. They expressed excitement about their group, that they enjoy "hanging out" together. They also told me that they had received complaints from adults that their talking had been disruptive during worship service. My sense is that their main hope for attending is to connect with each other. With limited alternative means for meeting this need, the service is probably experienced as getting in the way of their primary task.

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Called To Serve

By PastorPhil on 6/6/2010 1:05 AM

If your girlfriend or buddy from church calls you and tells of some troubling event in their life, you probably don't see this a religious task, as part of the work of the church. You simply do what a friend does. And if you are one of the many UU religious skeptics, you may conclude that church exists to provide opportunities to make friends, be friends, and hang out with friends.

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Worship, Learning, Fun and Socializing at the same time?

By PastorPhil on 4/29/2010 6:15 PM

Greetings Lovers and Leaders of Lifespan Faith Development,

I have some very tentative proposals, and would appreciate your feedback.

Last month, I offered a "Rainbow Shabbat Celebration." It was a real experiment. I was wondering if the group would be interested and willing to help me "translate" the Jewish Shabbat tradition that has been so meaningful to me, into a format that would speak, nurture and inspire this UU congregation. My experience of Shabbat has been a warm and wonderful time of singing and praying in Hebrew in celebration of the marvel of creation and of having a day of rest. My guess was that some of it would translate, but not all. My guess was that although the form would be entirely foreign to most UUs, that the spirit would resonate. I also hoped that people could find ways to maintain this spirit and express it in ways that would be personally meaningful.

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Greetings from SWUUC!

By PastorPhil on 4/26/2010 12:17 PM

Greetings from SWUUC!

I'm writing from the SWUU Conference and annual spring meeting, this year held in Plano. I wish to send out some of the good stuff that's in the air here. No, I'm definitely not talking about pollen. I'm talking about the beautiful things that happen whenever our congregations get together.

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Esprit De Corps at NWCUUC

By PastorPhil on 4/18/2010 8:22 PM

I have completed one year of service with NWCUUC, and I'd like to share what I've observed and concluded. It is my hope that this "report" will help some of you come to a greater awareness of the meaningful work that is underway within your congregation.

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Learning from Mothers and Motherhood

By PastorPhil on 4/18/2010 5:29 PM

I hope you will consider participating in the creation of our upcoming Mother's Day Service. You can help by answering one or both of the two following questions

1- What did you learn from your mother?

2- (If you are a mother) What has your experiences raising a child/children taught you?

Feel free to answer the questions as a comment to my blog. Or if you would prefer to have privacy in your response, send it directly to my email: khesed at g mail dot com (no spaces and use the at sign)

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Transition is the stuff life is made of

By PastorPhil on 4/5/2010 9:24 PM

There has been much in my life that has been in flux lately. Can you relate? ... I'm celebrating some recent spiritual growth, celebrating having reached a "place" where I realize that transition isn't something to get through, it's what's life is all about. I haven't quite reached nirvanna, but am amazed and grateful for relatively new found abilities to stay in faith through the process. ...

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Journey to Emotional Freedom

By PastorPhil on 3/26/2010 6:37 PM

It is the time of year for the Jewish holiday of Passover. In the spirit of remembering the journey out of slavery, I wish to pass on something liberating. Marshall Rosenberg wrote of stages people pass through from emotional slavery to freedom. His stages move in parallel to the three phases of the biblical journey.

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Middle East Peace, What's it to Us?

By PastorPhil on 3/26/2010 2:14 PM

This will be my next sermon. Challenging subject? you bet! So I'd (we'd?) love to hear your thoughts, feelings, challenges, questions, wonderings, dreams etc. Don't hesitate, bring it on!

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Talking with our Teens

By PastorPhil on 3/23/2010 10:45 PM

Cheryl P. surveyed several of the teenagers who have been attending lately and shared the results with some of adult leaders who have been thinking and talking about opportunities and challenges present. I reflected on this discussion, shared some guesses as I made sense of what I had heard. I also asked several questions of the adults. Now I am posting so anyone interested it the lessons we are gaining from thinking about our teens.

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