Growing Unitarian Universalism

By guest blogger Sue Sinnamon

Everyday we see the numbers that point to the change taking place in our religious communities and the lives of our members.  Attendance is declining; RE enrollment is declining; families are changing; the young adults do not find our congregations relevant; youth are not retained and there are new life stages like emerging adulthood. It may seem as if we make some changes and another pops up needing attention. What does post modern mean anyway? Is the world moving too fast or are we moving too slowly? Multi Generational, multi cultural, racial diversity, mission driven, life span, congregations and beyond…. all new vocabulary for change.

Where do we begin?

We start with what we do.

Everything we do is Faith Formation

Everything we teach is Unitarian Universalism

The Congregation is the Curriculum.

We begin as a team from a congregation exploring the Vision and Practice of 21st Century Faith Formation models, approaches, and technologies.

Why a team?

Faith Formation 2020 is an emerging vision of 21^st century faith formation articulated by LifelongFaith Associates. As a team we can immerse ourselves in the research. As a team, we can explore the many aspects of the vision that make up the network of faith formation in our congregations. Worship, Learning, Social Justice, Community Building, and Leadership Development are the interdependent web in our communities. The change we are living into touches all of these aspects of our faith.  We need to be in relationship with one another and with all the parts of our communities that create our curriculum to be ready to live into the change.

Can you imagine a vibrant multi generational, multi cultural UU community that worships together, serves together, learns together and leads together? Can you imagine a place where there are experiences and content for all ages and generations that celebrate and challenge our UU Identity? Can you imagine a place where we all are deeply called to live our faith in the world, children, youth and adults together? Can you imagine our church beyond walls?

I am excited and inspired by the possibilities for creative collaboration. We are all the church and called to be the church in the world, to be the change.

Consider taking a team from all the corners of your congregation to this workshop.

The Vision & Practice of 21st Century Faith Formation is a three-day interactive educational program for professional leaders, lay leaders, and staff, which will help us acquire tools and vision to:

• Understand the new context of faith formation and the diverse religious and spiritual needs of all generations
• Understand the emerging vision of 21st century faith formation
• Envision faith formation in the “Age of Networks” and learn how to create a Lifelong Faith Formation Network for the 21st century
• Discover a variety of 21st century approaches and resources for faith formation in the congregation, at home, and online
• Learn how to use the new digital media and web technologies in faith formation
• Develop the skills for curating religious content and experiences for all ages and generations

Remember:

Everything we do is Faith Formation.

Everything we teach is Unitarian Universalism.

Our congregation is the curriculum.

A number of UUA staff members are attending these three day trainings across the United States.  If you are going to one this year, please contact Tandi Rogers at trogers@uua.org to be connected to other Unitarian Universalists participating.

Sue Sinnamon serves our  UUA in the SouthEast Region as the Co-Director for Evangelism and Growth. She served as MRE for Fountain Street Church, Grand Rapids, MI 1990 – 99 and The Unitarian Church of Evanston, IL, 1999 – 2007. She loves our faith and wants it to thrive to help our children youth and adults and future generations serve our world.

Ignited! 

Reflections on the Leading Edge Conference: Igniting Social Justice through Worship and the Arts (Middle Collegiate Church, April 21 – 24, 2012)  

By guest blogger Taquiena Boston, Director of Multicultural Growth and Witness 

Middle Collegiate Church in New York’s East Village is an intentionally multiracial/multicultural and LGBTQI inclusive congregation committed to equipping leaders for a world of radical welcome and inclusion of all people.  This past April I joined about 30 of my fellow Unitarian Universalists at Middle’s sixth annual Leading Edge Conference – “Igniting Social Justice Through Worship and the Arts” — where many of us got “ignited” to bring our learning and experience back to our UU congregations.

As a member of the Multiracial/Multicultural Transformation Team at All Souls/DC, I have learned through experience that lay leaders play a substantial role in supporting the multiracial/multicultural vision for the congregation.  At the Middle Conference three roles were highlighted:

1. Support clergy and staff in leading change in the congregation.  Lay leaders understand that ministerial leadership and congregational staff need to be on board with the vision, and that hiring needs to reflect a multicultural vision.  However, clergy and staff alone can’t transform the congregation’s culture.  Lay leaders are also required to project, support, and model the congregation’s multicultural vision.
2. Hold forth the vision of multicultural community in the congregation – speak it, share it, and continue to articulate why we (the congregation) are doing the change.  Listening to the congregation, working to create broad-based coalitions of support in the congregation, and addressing conflict effectively are essential change management skills for transforming congregations.
3. Examine what is blocking us as leaders from supporting change.  In her 10 Strategies to Grow a Multiracial/Multicultural Congregation, Middle’s Senior Minister, Rev. Jacqueline (Jacqui) J. Lewis, said that lay leaders as well as clergy and staff have to have a clear sense of direction, a clear sense of accountability, and a clear sense of call.  But sometimes our “stuff” can get in the way.  “Stuff” can include our own biases, growing edges, skills gaps, inner conflicts and grieving around change, and spiritual emptiness.  Professional and lay religious leaders build solid co-leaderships when they dream, study, and play together as well as work together.

A few more “sparks” of insight from the Leading Edge Sessions:

Why Worship?  Worship is what makes the church unique.  Worship brings the religious life into focus. (Stephen Cady, Igniting Millenials to Do Social Justice)

(When I) share story . . . I become vulnerable.  (When) the leader becomes vulnerable (it gives) permission for the community to be vulnerable.  (Miguel de la Torre, Storytelling, Theology, and Justice Making)

Prophetic preaching comes from listening (James Forbes, Prophetic Preaching: Igniting Social Justice)

Don’t rush implementation.  You can’t fake welcome. (John Janka, Changing Culture Through Worship)

Media is our public pulpit.  Who is your congregation outside your church walls?  What do they read, stream, podcast? (Jacqui Lewis, Igniting Social Justice Through Worship)

Singing songs from other cultures in worship makes people aware of communities beyond the congregation. (Barbara Lundblad and Janet Walton, Re-Imagining Worship)

Stewardship is responsibility to and for humanity. (Kathy LeMay, Raising Change: Opening Hearts for Stewardship)

The date of the next Leading Edge Conference is April 13 – 16, 2013.  I’m already registered.

Taquiena Boston is the Director of Multicultural Growth and Witness.  The blog for Multicultural Growth and Witness may be found here.  For resources from her staff team go here.

Back in 2005 the UUA gathered ministers from some of the fastest growing and most diverse UU Congregations in America to talk about growth. The result was a DVD I recommend to you called Listening to Experience.* I was on the Growth Team at the time and got to experience that weekend unfold.  I remember being giddy with anticipation – we were finally going to know what made these innovative ministers work. We could capture the checklist of success and send it out as a memo far and wide. Congregational leaders would read the memo and growth would just start happening.  Right?  Well, I’m not too proud to admit, that I’d hoped it would be something easy.

One by one these ministers got up in worship and prayer and discussion throughout our time together and declared their congregation’s saving message.  They each avowed a bold theology without apology and a spirited imperative to heal the world beyond their congregation’s walls.   In a very simple nutshell, these ministers acted as if they knew with ever cell of their being that Unitarian Universalism is a religion with the power to transform lives.

And siblings in faith, no slick strategic plan or clever billboard or innovative social media outreach tool is going to work until our congregations and everything we do within that context (worship, pastoral care, governance, justice making, faith development – all of it) is saturated in Unitarian Universalism.

So let us start with discernment as the beginning strategic plan before we jump into specific strategies for growth. And I promise, we will offer specific strategies both at the Associational level and at the ground level in the coming posts.

Discernment Questions

• What is the purpose of religion? What is the purpose of Unitarian Universalism? What is the purpose of our congregation?
• What is the saving message of our faith? Of our specific religious community? How do we reveal and extend that message in everything we do?
• What is our story that we tell ourselves?  Is it true?  Who are we called to be as a religious community? What do we want our story to be that they will be telling a generation from now?  What do we need to let go to get there? What do we need to learn to get there?
• What kind of leaders/ disciples of Unitarian Universalism do we need to fulfill our purpose and call? How are we identifying, differentiating, forming, sustaining, and giving permission?
• How can this congregation help individuals grow and deepen in their own personal Unitarian Universalist faith?
• To make our part of the world a better place, what can our surrounding towns and and our congregation offer one another during the next 3-5 years?
• At the end of the day/ week how will they have known we were Unitarian Universalists?

We are building something larger than our selves and beyond this time. That magnitude deserves faithful patience and reflection.  Please take the time to make discernment part of your growth strategy.

*Suggestions for how to use the Listening to Experience DVD as a learning tool in your congregation may be found here.

Numbers can obscure as much as they reveal, especially when it comes to measuring congregational growth, so I generally encourage congregational leaders to focus on the tangible things their congregations can do to serve people’s needs and let the numbers take care of themselves.  Nevertheless, measurement is important to get a sense of how we’re doing.  Using data from the annual certification process for congregations, which is one of our most reliable sources of information, staff at the Unitarian Universalist Association study the statistics looking for indicators of recent developments and longer-term trends.

One lens we use in looking for trends is congregational size. It’s important to remember that, while enormously valuable in understanding congregational dynamics, church size categories represent “regions” of size and not absolute markers of difference.  Yet by identifying differences between congregations of differing size, we hope to find opportunities, discover challenges, and try to better understand what factors drive the differences.

In looking for statistically relevant changes, we’ve identified a 3% change (positive or negative) as the benchmark for comparing annual fluctuations at a congregational level. Variations of less than 3% in a single year are relatively common and not necessarily a cause for either concern or applause, unless the trend continues in a single direction for three or more years and the cumulative number exceeds 5%.  By contrast, variations exceeding 3% in a single year usually indicate that “something’s up,” unless they can be attributed to “delayed housekeeping.”

With this in mind, here’s a snapshot of the numbers for 2012 compared with the previous year:

• The average size of a UU congregation’s adult membership is presently 148, which is down from a peak of 151 in 2007 but still higher than the baseline figure of 144 in 1998.
• 28.2% of our congregations reported annual increases of adult membership exceeding 3% in 2012, but they were more than offset by 32.9% of our congregations reporting declines in excess of 3%.  38.9% of congregations were within the normative range of fluctuation, although small declines outnumbered small increases in this zone.
• Declines exceeding 3% were significantly more common among fellowships (1-60 adult members) and midsize churches (161-300) than other size categories, with more than 37% of congregations in each category reporting declines of this magnitude.
• Growth exceeding 3% was most common among large program churches (401-600), with  37.5% of congregations reporting growth of that magnitude, followed by midsize churches (161-300), with 29.6% achieving that level of growth.
• The presence of midsize churches as a leading category for both growth and decline suggests that this is a relatively volatile category for membership when compared to others.  It suggests both opportunities and problems to solve.

In examining decade-long trends, we look at variations in excess of 10% and 20%, either way, as significant benchmarks.  Variations of less than 10% over the course of a decade are usually indicative of a plateau, since the annual changes involved are incremental.  When the trend is upward, it may indicate a consolidation phase, while downward trends will generally indicate a certain staleness or lack of energy in the congregation.  Increases of between 10% and 20% generally show a congregation that is relatively healthy, stable and quietly welcoming, while decreases of a similar range suggest that there are likely important problems to be addressed in the congregation, even if most of the change can be attributed to external demographics. When net growth exceeds 20% in a ten-year period, it’s almost always an indication of robust health and innovative leadership, while declines exceeding 20% suggest that there are major problems to be addressed and the congregation’s future viability may well be in doubt, especially if it was a smaller congregation to begin with.

Here’s how our congregations have fared over the last decade:

• The decade-long trend shows that 22% of our congregations have declined in adult membership by more than 20% over the past decade and an additional 12.7% have declined by between 10% and 20%, which means that fully one-third of our congregations have declined beyond a level that can be attributed to normal fluctuation. The percentage of declining congregations peaks among fellowships (1-60), with 43.4% reporting declines in excess of 10%.  The best-performing category is that of large churches (550+) but, even among these congregations, one-quarter have reported declines of 10% or more.
• 37.8% of large churches (550+) have reported increases in adult membership exceeding 20% during the past decade, followed by small churches (61-160) at 29.1%.  Fellowships (1-60) and awkward-size churches (301-400) bring up the rear at 17.7% and 19.6% respectively.

How does your own congregation compare with other Unitarian Universalist congregations in the United States?  More importantly, what are the major factors that have contributed to your congregation’s growth or decline?

If you could start over, what name would you choose for your religious community and why?

We invite you to share your answer below or head over to the Growing Unitarian Universalism Facebook discussion going on and join in.

InterConnections is an email newsletter that publishes tips and stories about vital congregations for lay leaders and the professional staff who work with them. The following is an excerpt from a recent article.

Things to Consider When Naming a Congregation

According to numbers submitted through February 2011, there are 1,046 congregations within the Unitarian Universalist Association, including the Church of the Larger Fellowship. An analysis shows that the vast majority are named for geographic locations. Most are cities and towns, but there are also congregations named for counties, valleys, mountain peaks, and ocean bays. A few are named for broader regions––Piedmont, prairie, mountain ranges, foothills, seashores, deserts, and forests.

Of those with names not tied to geography, at least two appear to be named for flowers: Columbine UU Church in Colorado and Wildflower Church in Texas. Around 30 are named for people––Starr King, Emerson, Thoreau, May, Throop, Goodloe, Jefferson, Channing, Davies, Murray, Follen, Parker, Servetus, Eliot, Dix, Pullman, Atkinson, Paine, Priestley, Cooper, Reeb, and Brown.

Twenty-two congregations use All Souls as part of their name. The oldest congregation with that name is the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, founded in 1819. With more than 1,000 members, it is one of the UUA’s largest congregations. In the past decade three congregations have taken the All Souls appellation.

A small number of congregations have taken names that evoke more than geography. Some express inclusiveness. There is “Tapestry, a UU Congregation,” in California, and “Mosaic UU Congregation,” in Florida. There are several that use “Open Circle” or “Circle” as part of their name. Several use “People’s Church” and there are a couple that use “Free Church.” Other congregations have adopted religious imagery. There is a “Chalice UU Congregation” in California, plus at least one that includes “Spirit of Life” in its name. There is also an “Epiphany Community Church” (a Christian UU congregation).

Of the total 1,046, 752 congregations use both Unitarian and Universalist as part of their name, 161 just use Unitarian, 58 only use Universalist, and 75 use neither. As for church, 473 use that identifier, compared to 271 fellowships, 142 congregations, and 102 societies.

The newest UU congregations have tended to stick with geography when choosing names. Of the 64 new congregations welcomed into the UUA between 2000 and February 2011, 47 chose names that tie them to a specific city or region. The benefit in that is that including a city’s name instantly tells a seeker where the congregation is located. Another ten or so chose spiritual, inspirational, or aspirational names, such as Harmony UU Church, New Hope Congregation, WellSprings Congregation, UU Peace Fellowship, Open Circle UU Fellowship, Pathways Church, Gaia Community.

Read the whole article here.

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Ask  the youth in your congregation about this process! Who are they voting for and why? How is youth leadership developed, decided, and utilized in your congregation? Do you have a Youth Observer on your board?  For more information about youth on boards and committees click here.

All our youth have an opportunity to vote! This Sunday ask the youth in your congregation about the all-congregation, Association-wide, virtual voting process going on for a national youth position.  Every year prior to General Assembly, the Youth Observer (YO) to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees is elected. The Youth Observer to the Board is an important, national leadership position held by a UU youth who is appointed by Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth in a national election.

What’s the Youth Observer?: Job Description & Mission Statement

The Youth Observer is the primary liaison between GA Youth Caucus and the Board, but represents a larger youth voice on the Board. In collaboration with the Youth Trustee At-Large, the Youth Observer is charged with:

• Informing GA Youth Caucus and Youth Caucus staff of relevant Board issues at the Youth Observer’s discretion;
• Staying informed about the planning and activities of GA Youth Caucus;
• Keeping abreast of national issues that are of interest to Unitarian Universalist youth in districts and congregations;
• Linking and nurturing relationships between youth leaders in districts and congregations across the nation;
• Seeking out qualified youth candidates as future Youth Observers and for other UUA volunteer positions.

1. The Youth Observer shall serve their term without vote.
2. Excluding matters of voting, The Youth Observer shall bear the same responsibilities and accountabilities as defined for trustees.
3. With consent of the Board, the enumerated tasks of the Youth Observer may evolve as the structures of denominational youth leadership evolve.

The Mission Statement for the Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees is:

“Guided by the vision embodied in the Purposes and Principles of the UUA and in anti-racist imperatives approved by previous Boards, the mission of the Board of Trustees of the UUA includes by is not limited to: Creation of goals for the Association, in cooperation with the General Assembly, administration, and our constituents; Establishment of policies for the Association, guided by those goals; Empowerment of our member congregations through Board leadership in cooperation with the UUA administration, staff, and volunteers; Modeling of UU values in our lives and in our roles as Trustees; Stewardship in developing and managing the resources of the UUA.”

Candidates for 2012-2013 Youth Observer to the UUA Board of Trustees

The following youth are candidates for the position of 2012-2013 Youth Observer to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees.

Erick Ditmars

Grade in school 2012-2013: Junior
Congregation: Pathways Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church, Southlake, TX

“Since beginning my time as a UU Youth, I have assumed leadership. From integrating the Gathered Here project into Small Group Ministry during the NTX Rally to participating in [the UUA's] Youth Leadership Recognition focus group to planning religious education at SWUUSI for Youth and Adults, I have tried to make a positive impact on our faith. But the ultimate reason I do all of these things and am applying for this position is because I care about our faith. I have watched UUism console the depressed, help the impoverished, feed the hungry, and now in Arizona be the voice for the voiceless. I rely on UUism and want to contribute my talents and time by learning leadership at the highest levels by the elders of our faith.”

Katherine Allen

Grade in school 2012-2013: Senior
Congregation: Unity Church-Unitarian, St. Paul, MN

“As a member and moderator of the Youth Ministry Advisory Committee [YMAC] to the UUA president for the last two years, I’ve gained a broad perspective on the issues facing youth ministry across the country. Through YMAC and my years at GA, I’ve also become familiar with the theory and practice of policy governance. My commitment to youth ministry extends outside the denomination as I’ve had a leadership role in my local Interfaith Youth Leadership Coalition. I’m also active in my home congregation’s youth group and am a member of a ministerial internship committee. I’m excited at the prospect of representing my peers on the UUA Board of Trustees.”

Daniel Martin

Grade in school 2012-2013: Senior
Congregation: Mountain Vista UU Congregation, Tucson, AZ

“We are at a crossroads, a crossroads where we the youth can either stand up and speak our minds, or sit quietly and let others speak for us. The UUA is changing, and I want to make sure our voices are heard. I understand the importance of democracy so I will make it my primary goal to get opinions from all over the country, while promoting events where youth gather, such as cons, camps, and trainings. Throughout my life, I have involved myself locally, regionally, and nationally. I want to give you a voice, so vote for yourself, when you vote for Daniel.”

Elissa McDavid

Grade in school 2012-2013: Senior
Congregation: Saltwater UU Church, Des Moines, WA

“I love our faith. I want it to shine, from all corners and cracks. Since my freshman year, I have served on my district’s Youth Empowerment Services team and have helped staff several youth conferences, most recently I was co-dean at this year’s fall conference and this will also be my second year as one of the Worship Coordinators for the Youth Caucus at General Assembly. As a youth leader within my district and nationally, I understand the issues youth face, I know how much heart and community we have. But more importantly, I want to bring my passion to the youth observer role. I want to bring our voices to the forefront of our association. So, us youth can shine. So we all can shine.”

Voting Process for Youth Observer to the UUA Board of Trustees

The voting process for the election of the 2012-2013 Youth Observer to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Board of Trustees is based on the process used to determine the number of congregational delegates at General Assembly.

Voting Eligibility

Voting youth must be active in their religious community. “Active” may be defined as regular participation, registration in the religious education program, or congregational membership. Each congregation determines what “active” means for their community.

Voting Formula

How many votes each congregation gets is determined by how many active youth are involved in the voting process: one vote for every 5 youth up to 30 youth, and one vote for each additional 10 youth or a fraction thereof.

Voting Process

Review the Youth Observer Candidates information (you may also print out ahard copy (PDF)) and discuss the candidates as a group. Use whatever decision making process works for the youth in your congregation to make your voting choice. Each congregation submits their ballot as a group. You have the choice to submit via an online ballot or a printed ballot.

Online Ballot

Complete the online ballot per the directions listed on the ballot, using the Voting Formula and Voting Process above.

Printed Ballot

1. Print out the Youth Observer Voting Ballot (PDF)). If you have more than twenty youth participating in this voting process, you will need to print out more than one ballot, but do not exceed your total allotted votes among your ballots.
2. Have each youth print and sign their name on one of the lines on your congregation’s Voting Ballot. Check the box(es) next to the candidates indicating your voting intention. Each box indicates one vote (per the Voting Formula above). You may split your total allotted votes among different candidates.
3. A minister, religious educator, or congregational president must sign the completed ballot for voting verification.
4. Submit completed Voting Ballots TO BE RECEIVED BY MONDAY, APRIL 23rd in one of the following ways:
   • Mail to: UUA Office of Youth & Young Adult Ministries, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108;
   • Scan and email to: youth@uua.org; or,
   • Fax to: (617) 367-4798.

Voting Deadline

Ballots must be received by Monday, April 23, 2012 at midnight (in your time zone) or postmarked by April 20.

Another Leadership Opportunity:  Luminary Leaders.

Luminary Leaders is a new initiative that will recognize youth leaders throughout the Association, highlight the tremendous gifts that youth bring to our communities, and provide opportunities for youth to connect with their peers, opportunities for involvement, and the larger Association. It encourages youth to seek out leadership roles and for our congregations and communities to invite youth into leadership and provide new ways for youth to be involved. Developed with a focus group of nearly thirty youth from across the country, Luminary Leaders recognizes youth with a diversity of leadership experiences and styles.

Beginning in June 2012, youth will be able to apply for recognition as a Luminary Leader.

The following is an excerpt from the full and dynamic report which can be found here.

Mosaic Makers: Leading Vital Multicultural Congregations conference (February 17-19, 2012) was exhilarating, energizing, meaningful, and deeply informative. The event grew out of the Multicultural Growth Consultation (March 2011) and was a by-invitation gathering for congregations that are deeply engaged in the work of building intentional multicultural community.

We spent two-and-a-half days learning together, building intentional multicultural community, and generating new energies around doing this vitally important work in our communities and congregations.

Participants, presenters, and planners alike learned much from one an- other,  and  we’re  delighted  to  share  some  of  the  wisdom  that  emerged  from  the  conference.  These  personal   reflections center around the four pillars of intentional multicultural community: Leadership, Worship, Justice Ministry, and Congregational Life.

Three themes emerged from the Mosaic Makers Conference:

1) Leading vital multicultural congregations is a “shared leadership” job. No minister, religious educator, board member, or committee chair can do this work alone. Religious professionals and lay leaders must work together to project a bold vision and lead the change that enables multicultural community to thrive.

2) Direct experience in multicultural community is essential to motivating and supporting multicultural leadership development. The partnership with All Souls/DC provided critical pieces of the learning that UU leaders took home to their congregations.

3) To “grow leaders” for this transformative work, UUA staff, UU congregations, and innovative UU leaders must partner with each other. All of our staff groups are allied in sharing leadership and supporting the many facets of this work.

Please see the full report for reflections from the perspective of religious educator, chaplain, presenter, justice-maker, worship, congregational life, minister. There is something for everyone.

Are you interested in growing multiculturally?

• Check out tools here.
• Sign up for the Catalyst, the newsletter from Multicultural Growth regarding racial & ethnic concerns.
• Contact your District Staff.
• Reach out to neighboring congregations and to other congregations doing this well. We’re walking this path together.

Over 100 leaders from the following congregations were represented at this conference:

• All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C.
• All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, OK
• First Parish in Cambridge, MA
• First Unitarian Church of Oakland, CA
• First Unitarian Church of San José, CA
• First UU Church of Richmond, VA
• First UU Church of San Diego, CA
• Mount Diablo UU Church in Walnut Creek, CA
• Unitarian Society of Germantown, PA
• UU Church of Annapolis, MD
• UU Church of Silver Spring, MD
• UU Congregation of Miami, FL

Yes, this is brought to you by April Fool’s Day. While some of  these may sound far-fetched, the not-so-funny reality is that these are actual quotes overheard and reported to me by District Staffers.  Please note that the congregations where these quotes took place are not growing (in most definitions of the word.) If you suspect some of these citations may have been overheard in your congregation, please contact your District Staff for an intervention. They’re here for you.

1. “We’ve always done <insert most anything> this way.” Or “We tried that once.”
2. “You can believe anything you want!  And we’ll never ask you what you believe.”
3. “We are intentionally lay led. We don’t want a minister in here telling us what to do.”
4. “Oh, yes, we do outreach.  We just gave (a lot) of money to National Public Radio.”
5.  “Spirituality, whatever that is, has no place in our congregation.” and “The word “religious” makes me very uncomfortable.  We are not a religion. I wish people would stop saying that.”
6. “I never wear my name tag.  I don’t need to. Everyone knows who I am.”
7. “Our board has young adults. Joe doesn’t have gray hair.  … Joe, how old are you?  43?  That’s close enough.”
8. “We don’t really have a Sunday School.  If you want something you’ll have to do it yourself.  … Oh, and children aren’t that welcome in the worship service.”
9. “Is this microphone on?” (Not one Sunday or two Sundays, but every Sunday.)
10. 25 minute lecture on waste disposal and called it a sermon.
11. To visitors: “Where have you been?” “Which religion did you give up on?” “Now that you’re in the building, what will it take to keep you here?” or even better, fill them in on all the problems and challenges the congregation is facing.

Horrors actually seen:

1. Worship Associate wearing a t-shirt, crinkle skirt, sneakers, and no bra.  I can’t make this up.
2. Announcement during worship to help pay for the coffee. Sign on coffee table reminding people to pay for the coffee. The offering consists of really bad (or instant) coffee, one tea selection, powdered non-dairy creamer, and a few crackers.
3. Announcements, newsletters, websites, sermons drowning in acronyms. Please stop the madness.
4. A building with a Hard of Hearing Room for older folks so they won’t bother people around them in the sanctuary. This was also used for people who didn’t like children in the service.  A room of their own. I think the intention was meant to be helpful… but really?
5. Catering to the strongest/loudest personality in the group.
6. Strategic plan based on the desire to have more members to do more of the work and pay more of the budget.
7. Websites that give no time of worship, address, or way to contact someone with questions. Websites that are months out of date.

I know we’ve missed some. What would you add?  Please share in the comments section!

What unique gifts, resources, and/or presence can your congregation offer to your wider community that no other group can?

 

Please share your thoughts in the comment section.