What becomes possible when we awaken curiosity about the community we are shaping together?
Over the past year, a series of spiritual companions has shaped our life together at Peoples Church. We have practiced choosing hope, cultivated gratitude, and embraced possibility as communal ways to connect with and strengthen one another. As we move into May, our journey continues through the month’s Soul Matters theme, Awakening Curiosity.
This past year, through Sacred Conversations, we practiced sacred curiosity together. Trained listeners sat with members and friends of Peoples, asking open questions and making space for stories, hopes, and concerns without rushing toward conclusions.
Sacred Conversations helped us hear who we are. Now we have another opportunity to listen.
Each May, we gather for our Annual Meeting, tend to the practical responsibilities of congregational life, and receive our annual report.
At one level, the annual report functions as a business document. At another level, it tells the story of how we have spent our time, money, energy, and love. It shows when hope took concrete form, where gratitude might emerge, and how we paid careful attention to one another and to the work we share. It also points to efforts still unfolding and work not yet finished.
We can easily skim a report for reassurance or reasons to worry. Curious reading works differently. It invites us to slow down, to notice patterns and surprises, and to pay attention to what catches our eye rather than rushing to judgment.
In the days before our Annual Meeting, I invite you to set aside a few quiet minutes to read the report in this spirit. As you read, you might sit with questions like these:
What surprises me about who we have been this year?
Where do I notice energy, care, or commitment showing up in ways I had not seen before?
What questions or possibilities begin to shimmer for me? What am I curious to learn more about?
I invite you to engage with the report as a loving act of attention, focusing your curiosity on the community we are shaping together.
This season also brings leadership transitions, ongoing committees, and many people continuing to give generously of their time and heart. Sacred Conversations revealed both the depth of that generosity and the real risk of burnout if we are not attentive to one another.
Curiosity invites us to look beyond “who will do this” to “what do we need to understand about each other’s gifts, limits, and circumstances so that our yeses remain joyful and our nos are honored?”
Co‑authoring Peoples’ next chapter does not mean that everyone takes on more. Instead, it calls us to become more curious about our own capacities and the capacities of one another, and to let what we learn shape how we share the work and care for the people doing it.
As we approach our Annual Meeting, I return to this question: What becomes possible when our annual report sparks curiosity about our next chapter?
Deeper gratitude for what each of us has given?
A gentler understanding of our limits?
Fresh energy for the priorities calling to us now?
Or a renewed commitment to shared and sustainable leading and serving?
Hope, gratitude, paying attention, and embracing possibility have been our companions on the way. Curiosity keeps us walking, eyes open, listening for the next faithful step we are called to take. Together.
Submitted by Robyn Miessler-Kubanek, Board President