mission

Tops Picks for Growth at General Assembly

Are you looking for new ideas to grow your congregation? General Assembly is just around the corner, and there are a dozen workshops on growth to choose from.

Here’s a list, sorted by topic for you to mark in your Program Book or Mobile App.

Small Congregations

LEGACY OR RENAISSANCE: SMALL CONGREGATIONS ON THE EDGE
#210 Thursday, 10:45am – 12:00pm E160
Some small congregations are realizing that the way they’ve been operating is no longer sustainable. What’s next? Is it time to move towards a holy death? Or are you ready to make a vibrant new start with radical re-envisioning? How can you decide which choice is your congregation’s? This workshop will provide a framework and examples for both paths.
Megan Foley & Rev. Mary Grigolia
SUCCESS IN SMALL CHURCHES: HOPE IN UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM’S HEARTLAND
#410 Saturday 3:00pm – 4:15pm CC C226
Small churches, the heartbeat of our faith, are uniquely positioned to innovate and experiment with new ways of being healthy, vibrant, and relevant – if they put mission and covenant first. Learn to identify your small congregation’s gifts and plan strategically for innovations to grow new possibilities for our faith.
Rev. Megan Foley & Karen Bellavance-Grace

Hospitality

THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF WELCOMING ALL
#228 Thursday 1:15pm – 2:30pm CC E162
Many congregations have mastered the process involved in opening their doors for newcomers but are they opening their hearts? What would that welcome look like in our greeting, programs, and emerging ministries? We will consider together how our spiritual baggage could be preventing us from truly being welcoming to all.
Marie Blohowiak, Rev. Tandi Rogers & Tina Lewis
BRINGING ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION MINISTRY TO YOUR CONGREGATION
#330 Friday 3:00pm – 4:15pm CC C223-225
Heard the buzz about the Accessibility & Inclusion Ministry (AIM) Program for congregations? Wondering how to bring this new ministry to your congregation? Learn how to form an AIM Team to widen the welcome to people with disabilities. Become an AIM Congregation – moving ever closer to the beloved community.
Michelle Avery Ferguson, Rev. Barbara Meyers, Michael Sallwasser & Suzanne Fast
WE MET ONLINE! GREAT VISITOR EXPERIENCES START WITH GOOGLE
#432 Saturday 4:45pm – 6:00pm CC Union Station Ballroom A
From the first online search to an in-person visit, emotions are a key part of what makes a visitor stay or go. User Experience (UX) approaches uncover the emotions we’re evoking to create positive and integrated experiences. Learn how to apply UX to your congregation to improve the visitor experience.
Sarah Gibb Millspaugh & Carey McDonald

Outreach

OUTREACH 101: JOIN OUR CAUSE, NOT OUR CLUB
#317 Friday 1:15pm – 2:30pm CC C223-225
Religion is changing, and just preaching to the choir ain’t gonna cut it. Learn how to reach out to your community as an extension of your congregation’s mission, get the tools you need to move forward, and hear inspiring outreach stories from congregations like yours.
Carey McDonald
INNOVATING IN COVENANT: EMERGING MINISTRIES REACH OUT
#422 4:45pm – 6:00pm CC E161
Emerging ministries are new endeavors that are grounded in our faith and formed by covenant.
How do some of these innovative ministries fulfill our UU mission in the world? Come learn
from the stories of a new campus ministry, a network of interdependent communities and a forming congregation.
Kevin Lowry, Rev. Nathan Hollister &Lori Stone Sirtosky

Innovative Ministries

UU MODELS OF PARTNERSHIP AND MULTI-SITE MINISTRIES
#328 Friday 3:00pm – 4:15pm HR Union E
We’ve featured various models of congregational Partnership & Multi-site over the years: branches, yoked, mergers, etc. This year we’re highlighting Clusters and Partnerships just starting their covenantal relationships, at the beginning of the continuum of collaboration. Especially useful for lay leaders discerning deeply partnering with other UU communities.
Joan Van Becelaere & Rev. David Pyle
LIVING THE PRINCIPLES: THEME-BASED PROGRAMMING FOR ALL AGES
#352 Friday 4:45pm – 6:00pm CC Hall E
Many of us are seeking new ways to support multigenerational faith formation in our congregations. Living the Principles is an engaging full-year, theme-based program for congregation-wide exploration of the Unitarian Universalist Principles. This workshop equips professional and lay leaders to use this program, with free online materials, in your congregation.
Ellen Quaadgras, Ann Kadlecek & Halcyon Westall
INNOVATION AND INSPIRATION FOR UU STEWARDSHIP
#358 Friday 4:45pm – 6:00pm HR Delaware CD
This workshop will equip lay and ordained leadership for effective stewardship in our congregations and our Association. This will be a “flash” presentation of the most innovative and successful fundraising ideas. We will close with an inspiring word from Peter Morales.
Mary Katherine Morn
ANNUAL GIVING: THE BACKBONE OF CONGREGATIONAL STEWARDSHIP
#420 Saturday 3:00pm – 4:15pm HR Delaware CD
This workshop will equip lay and ordained leadership for effective stewardship in our congregations and our Association. This panel of on-the-ground congregational staff and volunteers will discuss their greatest successes in annual fundraising.
Dr. Marlin Lavanhar, Rev. Trisha Hart & Rev. Peter Friedrichs

Rev. Renee Ruchotzke (ruh-HUT-skee) has served as a Congregational Life Consultant in the Central East Region since September of 2010. As program manager for Leadership Development, she is responsible for providing consultation, programming and training material (including webinars and videos) on various aspects of congregational growth, leadership and congregational dynamics. She writes for the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Blog Growing Vital Leaders and tweets at @Vitalleaders.

Posted by:
Rev. Renee Ruchotzke

June 11th, 2016

Associational, Organizational Maturity, Resources, Spiritual Vitality

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Announcing (new and improved!) UUA Support for Emerging Ministries

There are so many ways to be a Unitarian Universalist religious community today! And these diverse communities provide more possibilities than ever to live our faith in the world.

Emerging Ministries are any new group or project that is grounded in Unitarian Universalism and brings people together in covenanted and intentional ways. New congregations are emerging ministries and so are campus ministries, multi-site ministries, intentional housing cooperatives, missional communities, prison ministries, military ministries and more. They are emerging within congregations, beyond congregations and in between congregations.

These new ministries are all moving in the same direction: toward covenanted UU living. These groups and projects are like diverse vehicles – cars, bikes, scooters, vans, and skateboards – moving in different lanes depending on the form and function of their ministry.

However, there is no magic road map or GPS that can chart the perfect path for these groups. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) knows we need versatile responsive support systems to get these new endeavors ready for the journey. A cross-department, cross-regional team of UUA staff is ready to maintain this multi-lane highway toward UU living and is set to staff the tune up stations and rest areas along the way. We can help vehicles figure out which lane is right for them, connect them with experts who have made similar journeys before, and support them in raising the money they need to make this trip. We’re also working on making it easier to get on this road by adding on-ramps such as contacting your regional staff or checking out our Emerging Ministries webpage.

For example, a skateboard might ramp on through the Church of the Larger Fellowship and get into the Meeting Group lane and then through experience with an on-line group coaching webinar realize they want to switch lanes to explore MultiSite options. The highway is about resourcing projects and groups in their early development and getting them the connections, perspective, community of pioneers (convoys, if you will,) and tools the need to realize their vision and answer the call of their wider community. An integrated, dynamic support system will make it easier for innovators to get what they need. We will live into a refreshed expression of our congregational polity and covenant in the way these ministries will be connected through learning communities and peer support.

In the short term, the Congregational Life, Outreach, and Ministries & Faith Development staff groups of the UUA have joined together to inspire, support and sustain emerging ministry efforts. By mid-fall of 2015, this comprehensive network of support will include programming such as: Innovative Learning Circles, online material sharing systems, a centralized online “hub” for UU emerging ministry efforts, and a Congregational Life Emerging Ministries Coaching Team. In the initiative’s second year a Mentor Program will connect established ministries to emerging ministries to amplify synergistic learning, connection, and sustainability. We will also add lanes to the highway and improve capacity. In the third year our attention turns to a proactive ministry-planting strategy for the UUA.

Over the course of the next couple weeks we will feature different aspects of Emerging Ministries Highway on this blog: overview of preliminary UUA.org resources, introduction to the Emerging Ministries Regional Coaches, preview of the General Assembly Emerging Ministries Laboratory.

Support for Emerging Ministries is made possible through generous gifts from UUA President’s Council members and friends like you. Thank you!