{"id":2499,"date":"2022-12-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=2499"},"modified":"2022-12-19T11:28:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T19:28:29","slug":"belonging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=2499","title":{"rendered":"Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week I wrote that I&#8217;m enrolled in a class\u00a0this year for UU ministers serving congregations in transition. \u00a0I shared an insight from that class having to do with the danger of viewing individuals or communities\u00a0through a single story. \u00a0(If you missed that message and want to read it, I post all of my messages and my sermon manuscripts, too, on my personal website: \u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">rhmcd.com<\/a>).<br><br>Here&#8217;s another insight I&#8217;m learning. \u00a0We&#8217;ve been talking about how our congregation can better extend a hearty and heartfelt and true welcome to all kinds of people who come through our door. \u00a0What people are looking for from a spiritual community, and what is so rare these days in our fractured, isolated, social lives, is a true sense of belonging. \u00a0We want to belong. \u00a0But what does it mean to belong?<br><br>Sociologists have identified four components of belonging. \u00a0To belong in a community we need to feel\u00a0we are\u00a0<em>seen<\/em>. \u00a0Belonging means we are\u00a0<em>connected<\/em>\u00a0to others. \u00a0Belonging means we are\u00a0<em>supported<\/em>\u00a0by the community. \u00a0And belonging means we are\u00a0<em>proud<\/em> of our community. \u00a0Seen. \u00a0Connected. \u00a0Supported. \u00a0Proud.<br><br>I hope that\u00a0in our welcoming we will do more than just extend an invitation, but that we will strive to create a sense of belonging for everyone who seeks to join our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I wrote that I&#8217;m enrolled in a class\u00a0this year for UU ministers serving congregations in transition. \u00a0I shared&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=2499\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Belonging<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministers-messages","category-writing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2499\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}