Like most churches, Live Oak’s “program year” runs from September though August. Our worship services and faith development classes begin new themes and curricula, we often begin new discussion groups (like the upcoming “Big Ideas” group) at this time, and there will be a new liturgy starting in September. (Liturgy is the standard worship service, with responsive readings, short repeated songs, etc.)

And, not unlike how we feel at the end of December as we look to the new year, it’s a time of stepping back and assessing where we are, and what we’ve done together.

This begins Year 12 of me being here with this congregation. As I wrote on Facebook:

…my heart is full. It is such an amazing, tender, and hopeful thing to be part of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. I don’t think most people realize it when they’re signing the membership book, but then they look up and years, even decades, have gone by and this is their chosen village. They go to each other’s weddings, funerals, baby showers. They become each other’s “in case of emergency” contacts. They share rides down to justice rallies, break the news of a diagnosis, celebrate new jobs, new treatments, new honors. Talk about the things that scare them. Discuss things they’ve realized they no longer believe in and the vulnerable new ideas they do. And we are shaping each other, all along the way. We are becoming, together. And I get to be their minister! It’s even more of a thrill today than it was 11 years ago. I love these people.

I make videos on TikTok about Unitarian Universalism and it’s there that I get to interact with people who share our values, but don’t know about our faith. Many of them do not go to a church and can’t understand, (especially if you’re agnostic or atheist) why you would want to.

I get it. And I also think they’re really missing out.

Once a week, we gather together to stop just being on autopilot, and we think about big things – questions of meaning, of how to do justice, why our values matter. And we’re gathering with people whom we know and who know us. (We’re even pretty fond of most of them!) We watch each other’s children grow. We watch each other grow, too. And age. And start new things. And go through sorrows, triumphs, birthdays, new hair colors, and experiments with new talents. We sign petitions, register voters, march in protest, and host Pride gatherings.

What an amazing, counter-cultural idea to do in 2025. Church.