Rolling Up Our Sleeves Together

My wife (Dr. Mandy Todd) and I moved from Colorado to Kansas just a few months ago. A return for her (she grew up in Junction City and went to college in Lindsborg!), we are already starting to feel at home. And we are beginning to get a sense for our place here in ministry and in the community. 

Dr. Mandy Todd and Russell Ware

Between the two of us, we have over 40 years of church ministry experience, with a significant focus on worship, music/arts, and communication. Currently, Mandy is serving as the Chaplain for Bethany Village in Lindsborg, a mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and she is wrapping up her ordination with the Rocky Mountain Conference of the UCC. Both of us are excited about the possibilities and potential for our work in the KOCUCC as well as the ELCA, due to her unique placement at this time.

I share all of that as a preface to something with which I think you will all identify. We are constantly at work finding, refining, creating, and curating resources for the work that we love to do in this world. For us, that revolves mostly around arts and worship experiences. But, like many of you, we have a keen passion for bridging the gap that often exists between our weekly worshiping and every-day work in the world—our liturgy and our living, if you will. 

I’m so happy to have joined the KOCUCC staff, and believe that one of the most valuable things we can do as a Conference is to nurture a culture, and build mechanisms for more connection, collaboration, resource sharing, and missional synergy. As the UCC often represents a leading edge in terms of social justice, equity, and other cultural issues, we often find ourselves at a loss for resources that appropriately reflect our theology and represent the voice we want to have in our communities. 

And yet, I believe these resources are sprouting up and beginning to grow in number, emerging from the soil of practitioners like you, and like us—both within, and beyond, the KOCUCC. We’re doing the work!—and we’re better together. We just don’t always realize it. And we don’t always feel like we have the tools to maximize shared resourcing and collaboration. 

This is something I want to focus on over the next year—making sure the Conference website, for instance, has the information we all need, and that it is easy to find. And, I want us to figure out how we can begin to build ways to learn more from each other, sharing ideas and resources, and telling our stories. 

And this is where I have a big ask of you. I’m going to start reaching out over the next many weeks and months to learn more about the things you are doing, resources you are using, and the successes and challenges you are experiencing. But I also want to encourage you to take the initiative when you can. I know you are all busy! But send me information about things you are doing whenever you can. Pictures are great! And remember, we’re also looking for great resources within and beyond the KO Conference. This is a situation where less is not more. More is more!  

As an example, I’m sharing a little something here about Jesus Has Left the Building, a podcast produced by my wife Mandy and her friend and ministry partner Marta Fioriti, a UCC pastor in Colorado. Check it out, and feel free to flood me with your favorites podcasts, websites, music, and other resources.

Bring it on.

My email is rware@kocucc.org. Let the floodgates be opened.

Peace to you all,

Russell