“I don’t even know who I AM anymore!” I laughed to my best friend.

She’s known me for more than twenty years. There’s a conversation I’ve seen on Facebook before where people ask, “What could I say that would indicate someone was trying to impersonate me?” and then you answer with something the person would never ever say. She probably would have said, of me, that they would either have to do with gardening or going to the gym, two things I had zero interest in, if not outright antipathy.

But here I am, obsessed with houseplants and my hydroponic herbs and lettuce, and getting up early to go to the gym to lift weights. If it’s a surprise to her, well that goes double for me. To quote Christmas Vacation, “If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn into the carpet I wouldn’t be more surprised than I am right now.”

But isn’t that one of the curious and fun things of life? For all the talk about how people never change, we, in fact, DO. Our tastes change, our interests change, and we change.

This is often apparent in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. People who have had zero interest, if not antipathy, for church somehow wander in, looking for a liberal community to be a part of, or to explore some spiritual ideas they’ve been thinking about, or to find a group of people whom they can do social justice or service with, and then look up one day and they are a gosh-darn church person, making coffee, greeting people at the door, serving on a team, or leading the Board.

(I literally cannot tell you how many ministers feel the same way. Who even am I?)

People change and you know what, churches change, too. I’m feeling a new energy in Live Oak, and I’m not the only one. Ideas are popping, plans are being made, and things are happening.

If you’re new to Live Oak (or even if you’re not, because you may have forgotten this), know that you are not in a static organization. I talk sometimes about the concept “We’re always in beta,” a line I picked up from one of my mentors, the Rev. Meg Riley. It doesn’t mean that we don’t improve upon ourselves, in fact, it’s the opposite. We want to keep changing and improving. We want to keep alive a spirit of experimentation and innovation, and not be afraid of failure…because one failure can be exactly what we need to take us to a better success.

Ecclesia semper reformanda (the church must always be reforming) was the cry of theologian Karl Barth, who proposed that the church should always be re-examining itself and improving. Are there programs that you would like to begin at Live Oak? Things you’d like to see and are ready to put some time and energy into? Let me know! minister@liveoakuu.org