As leaders of a congregation, it may be tempting to assume everyone else has (or should have) the same level of commitment to the institution of the church as we have....

The descriptions of the values of many "spiritual but not religious" people line up pretty nicely with what our UU religious communities could be, or at least what they should at least aspire to be....

Young Adult ministry has been a challenge for congregations of all liberal protestant denominations for decades but the game is changing in ways we couldn't have imagined back in the post WWII church building boom. There has been a lively conversation on the UU-Leaders email list about how to...

Are all of the members and friends of your church aware of all of the outreach ministries of your church? Is the wider community aware of who you are serving and how? Churches need to tell their stories, advises a r… article in the Christian Century. Author George Mitrovich explains When my...

Congregational leaders are often tempted to go through the motions of creating mission, vision, planning and covenant documents without taking a holistic view of the process.  Do the congregations systems support the process?  How do we reflect the core values...

All congregation sizes based on certified membership at the time the stories were shared.

In my last blog post I wrote about the Baby Boomers and the Millennials.  I received a few requests to write about the generational cohort labeled Gen X (rough birth years 1960-1985), sandwiched between the two and much smaller than either.  Most of the ministerial settlements...

There can be a significant cultural divide between baby boomers and millennials in our congregations, which is obvious to the millennials, but often invisible to the boomers.   I was reminded of this after seeing various reactions on Facebook to a recent article on...

How do we find volunteers for the different jobs in our congregation?  How do we fire a volunteer who doesn't perform?  How do we renew a committee stuck in stale ideas and that repels any new committee members and their potential energy? Volunteer recruitment and dealing with...

Many years ago, I was working with employees of MBNA Bank at their branch headquarters in Newark, Delaware.  Over every door in the building, in big block letters, were the words, THINK OF YOURSELF AS THE CUSTOMER.  I was struck by that phrase and with the idea that putting yourself in the...

Unitarian Universalists tend to use a lot of words when we attempt to explain our religious beliefs and values. We have a complicated faith that does not fit into typical questions about religion from outsiders. This makes sense at a national level. We have a big tent that makes room for a lot of...

Shifting from a humanist fellowship to a more spiritual and inclusive community helped them reach the goal of owning their own building.

Making welcoming part of everyone's responsibility, and putting energy into small group ministry helped this congregation achieve sustained growth.

They chose to give up a historic building they dearly loved in order to build a new, larger home as their gift to the future.

A multiracial congregation offers a liberal sanctuary in a conservative area.

This congregation thrives because "This congregation says 'yes!' "Newcomers feel warmly welcomed, there are lots of activities aimed at getting people together, people feel their talents are appreciated.

They moved beyond their former mentality of scarcity and invest in new facilities, programs, and personnel, and…we needed to become a fair compensation congregation.

A church where people grow spiritually, and then out of that give to the larger world.

The congregation's leaders said there were seven values that sustained and guided them: we value everyone's voice; it's okay to ask for help; we value the advice we receive; we value the generosity of angels; we value the growth of liberal religion; we value social justice; and we value fun.

A family-oriented and welcoming congregation