Monday, September 15, 2014

It’s Ingathering Time! Thinking About Spring Yet?


Bill Clontz, UUA Stewardship Consultant

It’s that time of year. UUs all over the country are “coming home,” catching up with each other from Summer adventures, and starting to think about the coming holiday season. If you are part of your congregation’s stewardship team, now is the time you should be thinking still further ahead.

If your primary budget drive or similar activity takes place soon after the first of the calendar year, you should already be well into your planning cycle. If your campaign begins in the Spring, now is the time to start laying the ground work. Why plan so far ahead? Let’s take a look.

Some congregations go into their campaign with two handicaps that need not exist. Don’t let yours be one of them.

First, they start too late in their planning cycle, resulting in a rushed program that is exhausting for the stewardship team, amateurish in the eyes of the congregation, and unsatisfactory in results. Do the math when looking at the calendar; it may appear that there are weeks and weeks ahead of you. But subtract holidays, other church activities that make demands on volunteer and leader time, personal and working obligations of key people – before you know it, there is little or no time available to carry out a good campaign.  A good rule of thumb is to start planning 6-9 months out before your campaign begins. Allowing enough time changes everything – better results, better energy, better everything.

Second, some congregations suffer from what I call the “One Year Syndrome.” They don’t have 10 or 20 years of experience (or however long the congregation has existed). They have 1 year of experience 10 or 20 times. Every year seems to carry some surprise in what a good campaign requires. This is not unusual in volunteer based organizations, but it’s not all that difficult to ameliorate.

Start a good information capture process by ending every campaign with a team session (including at least some of your visiting stewards if that was, as I hope it was, a part of your campaign) dedicated to a lessons learned review. It need not be a long and complex review. Just review the components of the campaign, what went well or less than well, what needs to be preserved or changed, and who will own the process of ensuring its right next year. When the planning for the next campaign starts, begin with reviewing these notes.

Now, institutionalize those lessons learned by building a reference book over the years. Review the set every few years to isolate trends, both good and bad. This provides institutional memory and builds on success.

Follow these guidelines and you can expect to have a better campaign, have more fun doing it, and help institutionalize excellence in your congregation. Enjoy!

Bill Clontz is the Southern Region’s UUA Stewardship Consultant and a member of the Congregational Stewardship Network. You can reach Bill through the CSN, through the Southern Region staff, or at bclontz@uua.org. Learn more about the CSN at http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml.

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More Programs, Less Committees

by the Rev. Susan Smith, Congregational Life staff member

Does your congregation have too many committees and too few programs? Since I’m out on the road doing ministerial start-ups this time of year, I am repeatedly explaining the work done by Rev. Arlin J. Rothauge in his foundational 1986 book Sizing Up a Congregation for New Member Ministry about how congregations function at different sizes of attendance. Many of you have seen this at our Leadership Experiences, a workshop on mission/vision/growth or maybe at a training held in your own congregation. It is both a sociological model about how homo sapiens organize themselves according to the number of people of all ages gathering at one time and a developmental model in which the lessons learned when we are smaller will make or break us when we attempt to serve more people.

In brief, Rothauge identified:

Family or Matriarchal/Patriarchal (0-50) congregations operating literally as a family where newcomers must be “adopted” and ministers serve as family chaplains;

Pastoral (50-150) congregations in which the minister becomes the nucleus of the congregation and the touchstone for all members even as groups within the main body develop their own identities;

Program (150-350) congregations which attract new members through their various mainly lay-led programs and where the minister can no longer have a personal relationship with each member and primarily assures that all of those programs are of high quality and aligned with the mission; and

Campus or Corporate (300-up) in which the minister is CEO and head of staff and a significant public figure while other professional staff manage programming.

Susan Beaumont has gone on to further parse the organizational lives of larger congregations in her book Inside the Large Congregation.

What I’ve noticed is that it is difficult for Unitarian Universalists to understand these models because we tend to be so focused on committees. We see the word “programs” which means softball teams, study of sacred texts, Habitat for Humanity work days, women’s and men’s groups, dinners for 8 and small group ministries; and we interpret it as “committees” like finance, fundraising, membership, faith development, socials, social justice, etc. Often when we break down what the congregation actually does, we find that the needs of members to see their friends, hear about what is happening in congregational life, and feel that they are making contributions to and have a say in the work of the congregation are being fulfilled by going to committee meetings. When this happens, leaders may avoid participating in small group ministry or attending worship because they have already been at the congregation 3 times this week and need to get on with the rest of their lives. In so doing, they fail to participate in the very things that would energize, feed and deepen them, but this is a path to burnout. Also, we might forget to plan actual programs so that the only way a newcomer can participate and get to know people is by serving on a committee.

From our “congregationalist” background through our Unitarian forbearers and by observing our cousins on the tree of American religions today, we know that any size congregation can actually be operated with only two committees. Our ancestors called these “deacon” and “elders” by which they meant those who are stewards of the congregation’s resources and those who are stewards of the congregation’s spiritual life and covenantal commitments. All of these positions were elected and ordained to their particular ministries. Some of our “congregationalist” cousins have added a committee for faith development and/or one for social justice and philanthropy over the years.

So, I recommend that you take those 13+ committees that you have (I’ve never found a congregation with less than 13) and first figure out which are actual programs. Divide all of them up into four teams:

Worship (including music, lay readers, rites of passage);

Membership Inreach and Outreach (including caring, socials, new members processes);

Faith Development (including social justice, affinity groups, small group ministry); and

Stewardship (including finances, fundraising, building and grounds, communications).

Have them all meet at the same time on the same night. Remember to provide child care and supper so that a variety of folks can serve more easily. In small congregations, you can even do this at separate tables in one room. This will keep overfunctioning eldest children from spreading themselves too thin. (You can only sit at one table at a time and must make a choice.) It brings together those one-member committees into team of persons with very similar interests. It also allows one group to immediately ask a question or arrange an event with other groups. Have the Board members and staff do some floating about or assign them to a certain table as observers. They should serve as resources and encourage the teams to make all possible decisions that can be made at their level of ministry. Have a brief gathering to coordinate calendars. The board meeting held after this need only be 30 to 45 minutes since all decisions that can be made at a lower level have been made by this time, and there is no need to dabble inappropriately in programs since the need to feel connected to and knowledgeable about what is going on will have been satisfied.

Having knocked out what usually takes many, many, many hours of the congregation’s leadership, everyone can proceed to participate fully in the kinds of programs that will enrich our lives, spread our values, lighten our hearts and strengthen our mutual ties.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Fall: A Time for Rituals and Reconnections

by Rev. Carlton Elliott Smith
Congregational Life Staff


I can feel the intensity in the air. Now that Labor Day weekend is over, we dive headlong into the fall and the new program year for the Southern Region and for our local congregations!

From my years as a parish minister, I remember the rituals of autumn: new and seasoned religious educators attending teacher trainings, ministers returning from vacation and study leave, and choirs rehearsing special music for Ingathering Sunday, which, for many congregations, includes a Water Ceremony/Communion. We, as Congregational Life Staff, will be out among you, leading start-up weekends for ministers and congregations beginning their journeys together, as well as ceremonial occasions, as our budgets and schedules permit.

We hope lay leaders and ministers alike will avail themselves of the programs being offered by and within the Southern Region. You can increase leadership capacity within your congregation through learning from UUA staff and experts, while building relationships with your peers in other congregations near and far. Please register early! Early registration helps us plan and prepare the best programs possible.

We offer for your consideration:

The Southern Region Fall Multi-track Training Events

This year, we are building on the success of the Southwest UU Conference’s annual Fall Harvest conference by offering similar intensive experiences in the Mid-South and Southeast. We encourage teams from congregations to come and spend a weekend delving into track themes such as the fundamentals of congregational leadership, ‘hot’ worship, personal stories as tools for social justice, and the spiritual dimensions of personal finance. Specific tracks vary by location. See our events page for additional details and to register.

Multi-track Training Event, October 10-12, 2014 – Gallant AL
SWUUC Fall Harvest, November 7-9, 2014 – Glen Rose TX
Multi-track Training Event, November 7-9, 2014 – Richmond VA


Also please note that the Presidents of the Four District Boards (Florida, Mid-South, Southeast and Southwest) voted recently to offer scholarships so that more members of small congregations can be a part of these multi-track events. You can apply for scholarship assistance as you complete your online registration form.

LREDA Fall Conference, October 17-20, 2014 – Decatur GA
While this is not an event sponsored by the Southern Region, we are thrilled that the site of this year’s largest gathering of Unitarian Universalist Religious Educators is within our borders and will be convenient for many of our own. This year’s theme is “Best Practices of Shared Ministry.” Topics include staff relations, finance, continuing education, radical hospitality, self care and pastoral care. Look for our Executive Lead Staff for the Southern Region, Rev. Kenn Hurto, and me in the hallways. For additional details and to register, click here.

In addition, check our calendar for other leadership development and retreat opportunities, including those at The Mountain.

Here’s to a season of inspired beginnings, renewed covenants, deeper connections, and reaffirmed commitments to justice, equity and compassion for all.