Going Electric

“If congregations can change, they can grow.” That is one of the major findings of a survey of American congregations titled “Facts on Growth: 2010.” The survey produced by The Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership (CCSP), analyzed responses from 11,077 randomly sampled congregations of all faith traditions in the United States. It measured change in attendance between 2005 and 2010.  You can read the full report at www.faithcommunitiestoday.org

Here, in a proverbial nutshell, are the other major findings:

• Congregations located in downtown or central city area are more likely to experience growth
• Congregations started since 1992 are most likely to grow
• Growth in predominantly white congregations is less likely
• Growth is correlated with a clear mission and purpose
• Joyful worship services and worship services that include children are associated with greater growth in the congregation
• Congregations whose members are heavily involved in recruiting new people have a definite growth advantage, as do congregations that use multiple methods to make follow-up contacts with visitors, that regularly invest in special events or programs to attract people from the community, and whose senior clergy spent priority time in evangelism and recruitment.
• Having congregational programs of all kinds is related to growth, especially young adult activities, parenting or marriage enrichment activities and prayer or meditation groups.
• Congregations with strong leaders, especially leaders 35-39 years old, are most likely to be in growing congregations.
• Congregations that say they are willing to change to meet new challenges tend to be growing congregations.
• Congregations with little or no conflict are most likely to grow.
• Congregations that saw themselves as not that different from other congregations in their area tended to decline in growth

So what are we to make of this? Some factors, like location, age of the congregation, and community demographics may be difficult to impact. But look at how many of these factors are well within the ability of congregations to do something about: Having a clear mission and purpose, having joyful worship services (the study finds a positive correlation between electric guitars in worship and growth in congregations), engaging the congregation in recruitment of new members (see my previous blog on Friendship Sunday), implementing a variety of programs for people of varying ages, cultivating strong leaders, managing conflict, creating a niche. These are not all easy to establish, but they are certainly well with in the range of possibility if we are truly committed to growth.

The Reverend Dan Dick, Director of Connectional Ministries for the Wisconsin Annual Conference, said this, “Turnaround churches almost all agree: They knew what they needed to do before they did it. Churches that truly want to grow do so. Churches that want to serve do so. Churches that want to climb out of financial hardship do it. For every declining church you can name, there is a growing one just like it in most ways. The key difference? Declining churches expect their answer to come from the outside; growing churches take responsibility for their own solutions.” Rev. Dan goes on to say that, “The hard reality is that our own health, vitality and future rest squarely with us—no one else will guarantee them for us . . .”

And David Roozen, Director of Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research, which oversaw the Facts on Growth 2012 study, concludes, “The clear message…is that in today’s world growth and decline are primarily dependent upon a congregation’s internal culture, program and leadership, and therefore a congregation’s own ability to change and adapt.”

So it seems like it’s up to the members of the congregation to make the decision to stay or grow, to roll up their sleeves and to go about the difficult work of creating a stronger and more vital spiritual home. As a consultant, I would hate to think that you couldn’t do it without me. But I know this. Without a willing and committed congregation, you couldn’t do it at all. So find your focus, commit to your vision, prioritize your tasks and get to work. And it wouldn’t hurt to get out that electric guitar either.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein
CERG Regional Growth Development Consultant

Tossing Stones

A few months ago, my home congregation, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County (UUCDC) in Media, Pennsylvania, decided to host a “Bring a Friend Sunday” in an effort to increase awareness of our church and bring more potential members through our doors.  They approached me for assistance and I was only too happy to help since I had already been thinking about ways of making personal contacts as a way of increasing outreach in our congregations.

An early study (1984) conducted by the Institute for American Church Growth found that 79 percent began attending church after receiving such an invitation. Later studies reinforce this quite surprising finding that 70% to 95% of those that visit a congregation do so because someone invited them.  Yet, according to Rev. James Kubal-Kumoto, author of Making a Case for Unitarian Universalism, we UUs invite someone to our congregation, on average, once every 26 years.

So if “Bring a Friend” Sunday was to be successful, we knew we had to find a way to motivate our members to buck a very alarming and depressing trend.  One of the obvious barriers that we had to overcome was the tendency of Unitarian Universalists to reject any sort of evangelism, as if spreading the good news of our faith was somehow antithetical to our beliefs.  Certainly the idea of bringing a friend to our church with the intent of converting them to Unitarian Universalism would be a turnoff to many in our congregation.  So we decided to shift the focus of what we renamed as “Friendship Sunday.”  We announced to the congregation that the short term goal of Friendship Sunday was not to increase the membership of UUCDC.  The short term goal was to enable our friends, neighbors and loved ones to experience the place that has brought us such joy and meaning and to meet the other people in our lives who have also helped to enrich and inspire us.

In our forums with members of the congregation to discuss Friendship Sunday, I told the following story:

There was once a blind man sitting on a street sidewalk begging for money. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in his begging bowl.  A woman walked by, took a few coins from her pocket and dropped them into the bowl. She then took the sign, turned it around, wrote some words on it and then put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the bowl began to fill up as more and more people dropped in money.  Later that day the woman who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The man recognized her footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?” The woman said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”  What she had written was: “Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it.”

When we invite people to Friendship Sunday, we told the congregation, the sign we’re displaying should not be, “We need more members.  Please help.”  It should be, “We have a beautiful congregation and a beautiful building and you haven’t seen it.”

Instructions were available for all members of the congregation on how to make the “ask.”  We suggested that they use the following as a template:  “On Sunday, March 17th, my congregation is having a “Friendship Sunday.”  There will be a service featuring a sermon by our minister and an informal reception following the service.  As you know, this is a community that is very important to me, a place where I feel at home.  As someone who is also important to me, I want you to see this place and to meet the people who mean so much to me.  Will you accept my invitation?”  We pointed out that in making this invitation, members are  only asking the person to experience something that is important to them, not to convert to Unitarian Universalism; that they are honoring the person by inviting them to meet others who are also important in their life; that they are being very clear and honest about the agenda and content of the day; and that they are making a straight forward invitation without bargaining, pleading or coercing, one where the other has the right and opportunity to say “no” without consequences or diminishing of the relationship.  We even offered suggested responses to questions like, Do people pray? Do I have to sing? Will I have to sign anything? Will I be asked to introduce myself?

We held Friendship Sunday yesterday and it was a huge success.  We estimate that at least 40 people came as invited guests (we have a total membership of about 300) and our worship attendance at both services was much higher than average.  There were gifts for our visitors, a banner commemorating Friendship Sunday, an inspiring sermon on friendship by our minister, and wonderful music that filled the building and reached our souls.  The energy and the excitement in our building were palpable.  One member of the congregation told us that her friend grabbed extra information to give to her daughter and her family and then sent quotes from the order of service to her email list.  Cool, huh?

Not all of our guests in attendance yesterday will become members of our congregation.  But they now have a better understanding and appreciation of what our faith tradition is all about and perhaps they will help us spread the good news of Unitarian Universalism as they travel about their world.  Like a stone tossed into a pond creating ripples that radiate out, Friendship Sunday created ripples that may influence others we have not yet met or in ways we may never know. Or, one day, may bring another stranger seeking faith and hope to our doors.

If you’d like more information about our Friendship Sunday, contact me at mbernstein@uua.org.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein

CERG Growth Development Consultant

Communication: Keeping it Real

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The problem with communication is the illusion that is has occurred.” Is communication in our Unitarian Universalist congregations an illusion…or are we taking steps to ensure that information is shared openly and in as many different ways as we can think of? One sign of poor communication in an organization is the presence of rumors and gossip, the terrible twos of congregations.

Rumors are misinformation that is fabricated in the absence of accurate information. They begin when evidence pertaining to an important topic is ambiguous, concealed, or otherwise unavailable. When normal channels of communication break down, people seek alternate means of obtaining information and theorize on their own and with others to try to explain what is confusing or mysterious. Rumors are an attempt to provide structure in an uncertain situation, bring a sense of closure, and simplify complex situations.

Gossip, on the other hand, is information that may be more accurate but becomes problematic because it is spread outside formal informational channels. Gossip tends to be more trivial and nonessential than rumors. Gossip fills an information void, but it is also a way to bind people and communities together. It is talk with a social purpose and can create a sense of shared intimacy which enables bonding and a greater sense of belonging. It is when gossip is deceptive, arbitrary and mean-spirited that it begins to break down a community.

It is tempting to point fingers at people who gossip or spread rumors. But such behavior exists only if the system itself permits and enables it. In a congregation where such behavior is extreme, leaders should ask themselves several pointed and difficult questions:
• Do employees not feel safe communicating directly and truthfully?
• Do rumors or gossip hint of high anxiety or negativity in the organization?
• Do the rumors or gossip indicate that necessary information is being concealed?
• Do the rumors or gossip require a response from the leaders?

In an Alban Institute article entitled The Sabotage of Rumors, Arthur Paul Boers describes two primary principles for disabling rumors, gossip, secrets, and third-party complaints. First, since secrecy is one of the primary problems, churches and leaders should not keep secrets about secrets. Exposing secrecy can be risky, but when secrets are revealed, anxiety usually decreases. Refusing to keep secrets about secrets, Boers continues, means naming and addressing unhealthy behavior, not ignoring it and hoping it just goes away.

The second principle, according to Boers, is this: “viruses cannot be spread if we do not spread them. We disable rumors, gossip, secrets, and third-party complaints, by refusing to pass them on or perpetuate them. Rumors can be undermined by providing prompt and accurate information about decisions and process. Correct information is especially important when rumors are apt to spread or are already spreading.”

Transparency is the watchword. The more trusting and honest the leadership and the more willing it is to share information willingly and lovingly, the less room there is for unhealthy communication habits to germinate and grow. It’s also helpful to develop a “communication road map” that outlines appropriate channels for finding out needed facts, expressing concerns, and relaying information. If you are worried about the safety of a child, whom do you talk to? If you have a concern about the minister, where do you go to express that concern? If you are angry about the worship service going on too long, where do you go to be heard? And if the concern isn’t addressed at the first stop, whom do you talk to next?

Above all, what leaders need to instill in their congregations is a sense of trust. As Jack Welch said, “Trust happens when leaders are transparent, candid, and keep their word. It’s that simple.”

And that’s no illusion.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein
Regional Growth Development Consultant

Religion is Wasted on the Young

Following are some of the findings from the 2008 online YaYA Resolution Survey completed by congregational leaders during the period February 1 – April 1, 2009. http://www.uua.org/documents/yaya/08-09_cong_report.pdf

• 29% of young adults (ages 18-25) never lead or help lead worship services
• 26% never provide music in worship
• Only 20% of the congregations surveyed actively assess how welcoming its worship services are to young adults
• 23% provide young adult small group ministry
• 33% provide intentional pastoral care to young adults and their families on a regular basis
• 78% do not have young adults serving on their worship committee
• 87% do not have young adults serving on their governing board
• 40% do not have young adults volunteering as religious education teachers
• The median annual budget line for young-adult-specific ministry and programming is $500.
• 83% do not provide financial support for district young adult programming
• The median number of young adults who served as a delegate for their congregation at General Assembly over the past ten years was 0.

So, what are we to make of this?

Is it that young adults are not interested in congregational life? Perhaps to an extent, but it would be a circular argument to say that this is so based solely on the above statistics.

Is it that there are simply too few young adults in our congregations to make a statistical difference? Maybe so. The survey does reveal that 59% of the congregations surveyed report fewer than 10 young adults among its membership.

Whether it’s a question of attraction or inclusion, it’s clear that young adults have very little impact in influencing life in most of our UU congregations. And the problem can easily compound itself. If a visiting young adult sees little activity among other young adults, he/she will be more reluctant to either join the congregation in the first place…or to get involved in congregational life if they should join.

I believe that we need to cultivate our youth. We need to lift up young adults in our congregation by asking them specifically what they want from the church community and then doing our best to give them that. It may mean changes in traditional worship or modifications to traditional rituals that have defined church life. It may mean revisiting our mission or the way we engage in community. We need to move over and let our younger members share and act on ideas that stimulate them and excite them about being part of a church community. We need to ask and we need to listen and we need to change.

In the YaYa Resolution Survey, congregations were asked for the top ways in which they believe the congregation could improve its young adult ministry. Answers included increasing outreach, having more attractive worship services, creating small group ministry, developing a campus ministry, and inviting young adults to serve in leadership roles.

But here’s the kicker. When asked if congregations currently had plans in place to make these changes, 59% responded “no.”

Let’s stop talking about it, and start doing it…before we waste more time and more young adults.

With Respect,

Mark Bernstein
CERG Regional Growth Development Consultant

Small Wonder

A few years ago, the state of Delaware hired a marketing firm to come up with a new motto to represent their territory.  What they came up with was “It’s good to be small.”  Now, if I had paid a firm what was probably a lot of money and that’s what they came up, I would ask for my money back.  But if we want to apply this motto to the small congregations in our faith, I think it would work well.

Goodness knows, there are certainly a lot of them.  In the Winter 2010 issue of The World, we were informed that there are more congregations in the UUA with fewer than 100 members (534 to be exact) than there are with more then 100 members (510).  While the percentage of small congregations is large, however, the percentage of actual people who are Unitarian Universalists and go to small congregations is relatively small as well.  According to the UU World article, only 16% of the voting members of UUA congregations belong to churches with fewer than 100 members.  The article concludes that individual UUs are more likely to be familiar with mid-size to large congregations than small congregations, even though there are many more small congregations.  These statistics are not dissimilar when compared with other religions in the United States.  In the article, Small Churches Struggle to Grow Because Of The People They Attract (The Barna Group, 2009, Ventura, CA), we learn that the average church across all denominations attracts less than 90 members on a typical weekend.

So size does matter…and one can see how easy it is for UUs in small congregations to get a complex about all this.

So it is important to emphasize the advantages and the blessings of small congregations, what one might call “the bigness of smallness.” During a workshop at the Metro New York Defying Gravity Conference last November on Long Island, I asked participants to call out the positive aspects of being a small congregation.  Their responses included, a deeper more intimate community, quieter and more contemplate worship services, room to grow, and the opportunity to become a niche congregation.  Kennon L. Callahan, in his book, Small, Strong Congregations ( Jossey-Bass, Inc., 2000), cites several positive characteristics of small congregations.  They include a focus on “one excellent mission”, “compassion-driven”, offer “widening circles of belonging”, maintain a “consistent spirit of self-reliance”, consistently “live and share as a team”, have facilities that are “just enough” for their one excellent mission, and open “many doors of giving.”

I believe that a strong and vital small congregation is one that emphasizes quality over quantity.  The mistake that many small congregations make is thinking that their identity is only defined by how much they can grow in numbers.  In fact, the congregation that focuses on making a clear and distinct difference in the community; that focuses on developing their UU identity and richly exploring our faith and its meaning in their lives; that creates a sense of belonging where all members feel a commitment to contribute to congregational life; that creates and lives by covenants that enhance communication and reduce conflict; will be the congregation that remains strong and vital and stands the best chance of attracting new members to the fold.

In their excellent book, Big Ideas for Small Congregations (Spirit of Life Publishing, 2007), Jane Dwinell and Ellen Germann-Melosh list six steps to change and growth.  They are:

1. Determine who you want to be: what size, how long it will take you to get there, and who you will attract.

2. Make sure your worship and RE program is strong, interesting, and spiritually relevant

3. Clean up any old conflicts or tensions that may drive away newcomers.

4. Become truly hospitable.  Check your appearance, parking, signage, order of service, newsletter.  Create a greeting and follow-up protocol.

5. Develop an organizational structure that will be the best one for the size you expect to be.

6. Commit to one social action project that will express your faith and bring your congregation into the life of your local community.

The irony is that these suggestions are not very different from what one would make to larger congregations.  In small congregations, however, without the bureaucracy and the complexity of the organizational structure, it might be easier to implement these suggestions.

One thing is for sure, though.  Small congregations are not going away any time soon, nor should they.  As the Barna Group notes in the study cited earlier, ”Small churches play an important and valuable role in the religious landscape of America. They reach millions of young adults who have no interest in a larger church setting. They have tremendous potential for building strong community, as well as spiritual foundations. And small churches often grow into larger churches once they develop significant internal leadership and creatively overcome their resource limitations…After all, the goal of every church should not be numerical growth but spiritual health and vitality.”

In other words, small rocks!

With respect,

Mark Bernstein

CERG Growth Development Consultant

See You Later, Elevator

Last year, I was leading a workshop in my home congregation. The topic was “What do you say when someone asks you what Unitarian Universalism is?” In attendance was a little girl, about 10, who had accompanied her mother to the session.  She enthusiastically raised her hand to answer the question.  A little surprised, I nonetheless eagerly called on her. “I tell them I’m Jewish” she said. “It’s easier.”

One of the greatest challenges we Unitarian Universalists face is clearly and succinctly telling someone what our faith is all about. It’s the old “elevator speech” concept. You get on an elevator and someone asks you to describe Unitarian Universalism. How do you give them a complete answer by the time the elevator reaches the desired floor? Many of us stutter and stammer a bit before answering and then we offer disclaimers like “It’s hard to put into words” or “You really have to experience it.” Or we talk about what it isn’t: “We don’t have a creed” or “We don’t have to believe the same thing.” When we do try to describe it, we struggle to find the right words and often give up in frustration. As a result, our faith comes off as “wishy-washy” or vague. Worse, it is often dismissed as something less than a religion.

Faith development in our congregations should include discussions of what to say when someone asks us about Unitarian Universalism. Members should be reflecting on this, rehearsing it, and then going out into the world to practice saying it. Our ability to clearly and enthusiastically articulate our faith to others not only strengthens our resolve as Unitarian Universalists, but might be so compelling to others that they may want to come and check it out for themselves.

But maybe we’re being too hard on ourselves. After all, how do people from other religions answer questions about their faith? Do they have a polished speech or do they speak about what their faith means to them, in their own words, and in their own time?

When asked about our faith, I believe we need to be less concerned with being efficient and more focused on describing how Unitarian Universalism has impacted, changed, and yes, even saved our lives.

So here are some of my suggestions for how to handle the challenge when someone asks “What is Unitarian Universalism?”

1. Don’t feel you have to put it all into one sentence. Our faith is too important and too complex to articulate during a short elevator ride.
2. Decide which of the aspects of Unitarian Universalism are most important to you and articulate them one at a time.
3. Use your own words and put it in language that people can understand and relate to.
4. Instead of speaking for all Unitarian Universalists, speak to what you believe in “as a Unitarian Universalist”.
5. Don’t feel you have to cover every aspect of our faith, such as listing all seven principles. (We can’t remember them all anyway). You’re not a Wikipedia page. Paraphrase only those principles that mean the most to you.
6. Transition into a description of why you are a Unitarian Universalist; how it has changed your life; and how your faith continues to sustain you.
7. Turn your answer into an invitation by inviting the asker to join you one Sunday to experience Unitarian Universalism for themselves.

As an illustration, here is what I might say were someone to ask me about Unitarian Universalism (with thanks to Rev. James Kubal-Komoto who provided some of the language in his excellent DVD entitled Making a Case for Unitarian Universalism. It’s available on Amazon.com.) Keep in mind, though, that my answer may not always be the same. It depends on the venue, how much time I have, and who is posing the question.

Me: “I’m really glad you asked me about my religion and I appreciate your interest in hearing about something that is so important to me. As Unitarian Universalists, we draw on many faith traditions, but we believe that individual conscience and individual experience is the best authority for our beliefs. As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe that every human being has worth and should be treated with respect and dignity. As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe that I am intimately connected to every other living thing, to my community and to the world. As a Unitarian Universalist, I believe that our time here on earth is what matters and that we have a responsibility to pursue justice and to do everything we can to heal ourselves, our neighbors and the world.”

“But let me tell you what my faith has done for me. It has enabled me to develop meaningful and lasting relationships with some of the most remarkable people I have ever met in my life. It has enabled me to feel part of a community and to know that I belong and that I am loved. It has given me strength and confidence to be the person I was meant to be, and it has given me hope that good intentions and good work can transform a hurting world. “I would love for you to see the place and meet the people that have helped to transform my life. Won’t you join me this Sunday?”

The asker: “Wow. I am so moved and so overwhelmed by your answer that I have no choice but to accept your invitation. I need to see for myself what this Unitarian Universalist faith is all about.”

See? It works.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein
CERG Regional Growth Development Consultant

The Warmth of Other Chalices

Our Unitarian Universalist congregations vary widely in character and personality.  Some feel warm and welcoming the minute you walk through the door.  Others feel a little stiff and formal.  A few unfortunate communities almost quiver with the tension of unresolved issues and unconsciously “leak” their anxiety, then wonder why visitors never return.

When someone with an identity that is marginalized in our society (a person of color, someone who is transgender etc.) walks through our doors, how they perceive us has much more to do with our own emotional reactions to that person than do the words that come out of our mouths.

I’m just finishing the book The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson.  (I read this after reading Taylor Branch’s compelling trilogy on America in the King Years:  Parting the Waters, Pillar of Fire and At Canaan’s Edge.  These books describe in detail the Civil Rights movement in the South from 1954 to 1968.)

The contrast of the experience of the Jim Crow South to the experience of the African Americans who migrated to the North and California highlights the insidious nature of  institutional racism (and other isms) in our country and the toll that it takes on so many of us.

UUA General Assembly 2009. Photo by Nancy Pierce

We have a core group of congregations whose ministers and lay leaders have been working to recognize, understand and dismantle the ways in which the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) DNA manifests in our congregations so that our values of inclusiveness and diversity can become a reality.  It usually starts with ministers who are committed and make themselves accountable to this work. But it for there to be real change in a congregation, a critical mass of lay leaders also needs to commit to the work.   This means more than just taking a workshop or two.  Instead it is a spiritual engagement with the underlying causes and effects of racism in ourselves as well as in our institutions and society.

There are many stories and examples of congregations who have chosen to do the soul work of building anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multi-cultural (ARAOMC) communities.  This doesn’t necessarily translate into a visibly diverse membership. But it does create a community with a warmth toward difference that is worthy of our chalice flame.  (For more on what a multi-cultural UU community looks like, see this article. )

As our demographics in our country shift further and further away from the WASP identity of our Unitarian Universalist forebears, our congregations will also need to shift to remain relevant.  I consider multicultural sensibility to be core competency of every leader and a key aspect of any leadership development program. I hope that you encourage your leaders to take the time to attend the conferences that we offer and to check out the free resources on the UUA website to help your congregation be ready for the next 50 years!

In faith and service,
Rev. Renee Ruchotzke
Regional Leadership Development Consultant
Central East Region of the UUA

This Time Its Personal

We're on a mission from (fill in the blank)

Much attention has been paid recently to the role of mission in helping congregations to grow.  Several articles and a couple of books have made it on to my radar, all touting the importance of having a clear and compelling mission in helping congregations transition through periods of change and upheaval and into a bright new future.

Now I’m not one to discount the importance of mission.  In many, if not most, of our congregations, the mission statement is a mystery to its members.  Almost no one can cite it verbatim and very few can even paraphrase it.  So, in those congregations, when there is conflict or differing opinions on which programs to offer or what issues to tackle, how can the congregation know what to decide without knowledge of a guiding mission?

So I get all that.  What I think is missing, though, is the role of leaders in driving the mission in their congregations.  It seems to me that leaders can’t hold up the congregational mission if they don’t have a personal mission statement of their own.  It would behoove us, therefore, to pay more attention to what leaders stand for and believe in if they are to be more effective and influential in moving their congregations forward.  Stephen R. Covey wrote, “Your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values.  It allows you to connect with your own unique purpose and the profound satisfaction that comes from fulfilling it.”

So for those leaders who are interested, here’s a suggested format for developing your own personal mission statement, with assistance from Laurie Beth Jones, author of The Path.

1. Write your legacy.  Consider the following questions: How do you want to be remembered? What have you done as a UU that you are most proud of? What have you received from your UU experience that has been most significant?  Answer these questions in no more than three or four sentences total.  Don’t be modest.  Its okay to toot your own horn…and remember it’s a legacy, not an obituary.

2. From your legacy, select the three verbs that most inspire you from what you have written.  They’re in there.  This is an important step because every mission requires action and action words are verbs.

3. Referring again to your legacy document, identify those values inherent in the statement that have meaning for you.  Mahatma Gandhi called them absolute values, those universal principles that guide our conduct.  (His were truth and nonviolence.)  Our absolute values are not things that we do, but who we are.  They are also unchangeable.

4. Next, consider, in your leadership role in your congregation, what it is that you are passionate about.  Who or what are you committed to serving?  What are the most important connections that you make?  One could be committed to serving members of the congregation…or the minister…or Unitarian Universalism in general.  One could be committed to growing the church, to deepening the faith, or creating strong and competent leaders.  What’s important here is to have a sense of clarity on who you really want to serve, inspire, learn from, and impact in a positive way.

5. Finally, now that you have identified your actions, values and passions, it’s time to pull it all together into a mission statement.  Your mission is the sum of these three components:  verbs, values, and cause.  Once you have crafted a statement and engaged in a healthy struggle with it, you can test it according to the following criteria:

Is it you? Is it true? Does it make sense? Is it inspiring? Does it excite you?  Does it excite others?  (ASK!)  Would you be willing to have your congregational life be about this and only this?

This can be a quite powerful exercise and particularly more so if you do it in the company of other leaders.  If you have any questions about this process or want to just chat about it, please call or email me.  And if you do engage in the process and come up with one terrific personal mission statement, please share it with me.  I’m always up for being inspired.

With respect,

Mark Bernstein

CERG Growth Development Consultant

Discussing the “E” Word

“Evangelism” is a word that we UUs prefer not to be associated with. Perhaps because it raises images of missionary work or a preacher delivering a “fire and brimstone” sermon, we think it intrusive and somehow immodest to engage in evangelistic activity.

Yet spreading our faith and inviting more people into our fold is a goal of nearly all congregations in our district and, like it or not, this is evangelism. So maybe what we need to do is get comfortable with the word. Writing in the book “Salted with Fire: Unitarian Universalist Strategies for Sharing Faith and Growing Congregations”, Carolyn and Tom Owen-Towle of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego (UUCSD) describe several principles of evangelism that might help with any possible discomfort you may have. Here are a few of them:

1. Hospitality is practiced. At UUCSD, the relationship between guest and host is considered to be a religious bond. From the moment guests enter the building until they exit, hosts greet and anticipate their needs with the goal of creating a warm, inviting place for all.

2. Beauty and Justice are interwoven. In this religious community, beauty and service are equally holy adventures. One sings as passionately from the hymnal as he/she works at a soup kitchen or serves clients with AIDS who use the building. Art and music restore the spirit while service to the community reforms society.

3. Our religious life is intentionally diverse. The place of worship at UUCSD is not called a sanctuary or a hall, but a “meeting house” where people of various races and classes, beliefs and orientations, are welcomed. Through activities such as an Interfaith Gospel Choir and the Beyond Racism Task Force, the congregation immerses themselves in the community to demonstrate the power of being together in song and in purpose.

4. Joy fills the air. Laugher and playfulness permeates the atmosphere at UUCSD where people engage in the simple practice of enjoying each others’ company…and, mindful of the social activist Emma Goldman, who wrote, “I don’t want to be part of any revolution where there isn’t dancing”, they dance a lot at UUCSD.

5. Members are comforted. Through support groups, a caregiver’s network, and community building activities, members of UUCSD minister to and care for each other. They consider the ministry of the church to be the charge and gift of all the members, lay and professional linked in service. Sound evangelism, they believe, is balanced by genuine gestures of inreach as well as outreach.

6. Loyalty is summoned. Members are encouraged to deepen their commitment to their special areas of interest and to the overall church as an enduring institution. Through bonds of covenant, members of UUCSD make promises to each other through good times and bad.

Perhaps the greatest lesson we can learn from the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego is that evangelism begins at home. We must first create a loving community that helps to spread the faith within our own walls. We must, as our principles dictate, love, respect, understand and support each other. Only then can we stand on mountaintops and speak proudly of our religion to those who wait for and need us.

With respect,
Mark Bernstein
CERG Growth Development Consultant

‘Tis a Gift to Be Simple

My shelves full of leadership development books are a lot like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates…”You never know what you’re gonna get.”  This summer I’ve discovered the equivalent of a smooth, rich truffle. 

I picked up the book Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples by church consultant Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, pastor of a thriving multi-cultural congregation in Florida. Using case studies from 400 congregations, they show how de-cluttering your church’s programming can lead to growth and vitality.  Their main message?

Vibrant churches keep it simple.

This should come as no surprise Today, marketing folk and savvy leaders know that people can only take in about 7 bits of data at a time. 

Look at the Google homepage:  7 links at the top. Lots of white space. Clean.  Simple.

In spite of this knowledge, many leaders still insist on bombarding with information—they have the space, so why not use it?

Look at the Yahoo! homepage.     
        Rotating news stories.     
                          Ads.     
                                        Twenty links to applications.       
                                                            More links to more news stories.      
        Cluttered.

Or the one at MSN. 
        Rotating news stories AND rotating ads. 
                                 Twenty pull-downlinks at the top of the page.  
                                                       Opinion polls. 
                                                                         Links to dozens of news stories.
        Overwhelming.

Google offers similar information to Yahoo! and MSN. But they present it smaller packages and—in the long run—give you more options.

So how does this relate to congregational life?

The members of your congregation have only so much time, so much energy and so many resources. A lot of that time, energy and those resources are spent spinning our wheels: in meetings, in running programs that—while good in some ways—are not connected to a larger vision and in competing for resources of time, space and talent.

Rainer and Geiger suggest we do 4 things:

1. Develop Clarity:  What kind of Unitarian Universalists do you want your congregation to nurture?  Translate that purpose into the process of your membership journey—from first-time visitor to fully-active wholly-formed member. Then decide how each one of your programs contributes to that process.
2. Enable Movement: This means removing the congestion in your congregation. Just like removing chest congestion helps the breath flow and removing traffic congestion helps the morning commute, removing church congestion helps the spirit of life and creativity flow in your faith community.  By only offering programming that contribute to your membership journey process—clearly marking each step of the way—you offer a welcoming, well-marked passage into your congregation.
3. Align and Assess:  It is essential to integrate all parts of your congregation in alignment with your process, and constantly assess how your programs are faithful to your vision.
4. Focus:  This mean not being tempted to add programs that are not in alignment with your mission.  It means saying no to a lot of good programs.  But the good news is that you learn to say yes to the ones where you have the best gifts and where you will have the most impact.

Although the book Simple Church is written from an evangelical Christian perspective, the process is solid for any faith community.  The ministry team at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY—one of our fastest-growing congregations and the creator of the popular Wellspring  faith development program—are using many of these ideas in their own membership journey  process  as described in this workshop at General Assembly.

Let’s get simple. 

In faith and service,
Rev. Renee Ruchotzke
Leadership Development Consultant
Central East Regional Group
rruchotzke@uua.org