Spirit Expressing 2010

On Sunday, August 29, First Unity of St. Petersburg commenced Spirit Expressing 2010, our annual 7 week series that includes Sunday lessons and home study groups around a particular theme or text.  Historically we’ve studied and processed the wisdom contained in a spiritual book.  Last year it was Soul Currency, by Ernie Chu.

At the conclusion of Spirit Expressing in October 2009, Ernie lead our congregation in a visioning process to determine the future course for First Unity.  What emerged from the processing of that data – a process lead by First Unity Communication and Design Director Ami Bowen -was a new Mission and Vision for our spiritual campus.

As we continued to prayerfully observe the unfolding of our community’s calling, we realized that instead of offering another book for the Spirit Expressing 2010 curriculum, we ourselves would be the curriculum.  The Spirit-given idea was that our new mission and vision would become the curriculum for Spirit Expressing (which you can download by clicking the preceding link).  Senior Minister Rev. Temple Hayes provided the inspired title for this year’s program:  LOVING LIFE – A Journey of Gratitude and Being.  Just as coming to understand Spirit’s calling for First Unity was a loving journey filled with gratitude for how blessed we are as a community, we realized the same process could be engaged by participants of Spirit Expressing 2010 to find that same joy for themselves.

On Sunday, August 29 I presented our new mission statement:  We are a spiritual campus dedicated to teaching and demonstrating principles that inspire people to live their greatest life by discovering Spirit within. Individuals participating in Spirit Expressing groups (or for those working independently at home), are this week answering questions about their life’s calling or mission.  I have come to believe that one’s mission in life (at any given time in one’s life), is revealed by answering three easy questions:

What brings me joy?

What do I find meaningful?

For what am I most grateful?

We will naturally gravitate towards those things that bring us joy; in which we find meaning; and for which we are most grateful.  So I encourage you to download a Spirit Expressing workbook from our website and watch our Sunday lessons live on the website at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings to participate in this experience.  Can’t be with us live on Sunday mornings?  Then visit the video archive on the website so you can get caught up.

I would like to close with some profound words about gratitude by Melody Beattie, author of Codependent No More:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

As you let your Spirit Express, your life is bound to be a “journey of gratitude and being.”