Team Leadership Group

Comment

Comment by Sue Browning on March 14, 2010 at 5:50pm

I know the leadership team has discussed making time for personal spiritual development. The What Do I Believe? Workshop is next Saturday. A few of the folks in this group are signed up already. Others may be curious about the day. The workshop provides an opportunity to reflect on what feels most important to you now…on where you find meaning and purpose. It is a gently structured way to explore your identity – particularly your religious and spiritual identity. The day includes a series of individual and group activities. It is mostly it is about taking the time – from 9 until 2:30 (morning refreshments and lunch provided) -- for this reflection and interactive learning. To make the day work well Heather Crombie and would like to round up a few more participants! So, if you are on the fence -- go for it. Most likely it will not be offered again until fall. Signup under RE/Adult Ed registration. Hope to see you there. Sue



Sue



Sue Browning

703-276-9846

Comment by June Herold on March 11, 2010 at 5:13am

There will be a webinar with Michael Durall on April 20 at 7:30 p.m. It costs $12. Register at http://durall1bcd.eventbrite.com/
Peter Bowden, The UU Growth blog author and owner of UUPlanet, hosts a coversation on the health, growth and future of Unitarian Universalism with Michael Durall, parish consultant and author The Almost Church Revitalized.

This webinar will utilize both a telephone conference call and the UUA’s Persony webinar website. All information will be emailed to registered participants 24 hours before the webinar.

Michael Durall is an organizational consultant for churches with the CommonWealth Consulting Group and the author of The Almost Church, The Almost Church Revitalized, Creating Congregations of Generous People, Beyond the Collection Plate: Overcoming Obstacles to Faithful Giving, and editor of Living a Call: Ministers and Congregations Together.

Comment by Judy King on December 22, 2009 at 10:04am

I like your answer.
For myself, I would probably say life is not easy but we're all in it together. For that reason I'd like to share positive vibes when possible. I try to translate "I hate this cold weather" to
"I'll open the curtains to see the beautiful snow and I'll get things done in the house." Sounds a bit Pollyannaish, but
it doesn't pollute the atmosphere.
But I like your four reminders and, though I might not use the word "spiritual", I'll be thinking about what I believe and how to act accordingly.

Comment by Bill Fogarty on December 21, 2009 at 9:49pm

Good question, Judy -- I might toss the question back to you --- how would you interpret the phrase "spiritual development"? In the context of my notes, the full phrase used (in talking about a mutual covenant between and among all of us) is a covenant to "pay attention to my own spiritual development." In my personal translation, I would say that in paying attention to my own spiritual development, I am continually probing my response to two very important questions --- what do I believe? (theologically speaking) and, how should I live my life? (what's my philosophy...and from there, what practices and disciplines do I undertake to help me get through this life?). Part of my own spiritual development may consist of my own Fogarty-brand of yoga each day; it may consist of creating my own philosophy and trying to live that out each day....for example, what I call my Four Reminders....each day, I try to intentionally Listen, Breath, Smile and Give Thanks. Stop and really listen to that person talking to you; when encountering a difficult situation, take a deep breath before responding; smile at people; thank someone every day. I could go on and on....but what are your spiritual practices? What contributes to your overall well-being? (these are rhetorical questions, Judy -- there is no need to respond.) But I hope my response makes some sense? Shouldn't we all be working on our own spiritual practices? I know the word "spiritual" is a vague word, but I can't think of anything better. Trying to create a short, snappy summary is like trying to nail jello to a tree! Thanks for reading all this!!

Comment by Judy King on December 21, 2009 at 9:21pm

What do you mean by "spiritual development".
Deepening what capacity?

Comment by Heather Crombie on December 15, 2009 at 3:23pm

I've enjoyed what's been written here & I'm sorry I wasn't in on Sunday's meeting. There are some very sophisticated e-mail campaign models we could build for soliciting funds for stewardship obligations. An advantage we have is knowledge about the individual members of the church. Once we build propensity models for giving we'd have a better understanding for what drives giving on an individual message basis. Yes....I'm sounding like a marketer. I work in a transaction driven division of a company that makes a good chunk of change online. I guess I can't help it. I'd be happy to help out in this arena.

Comment by Bill Fogarty on December 14, 2009 at 9:14pm

This is a summary of the Congregational conversation from Sunday evening, December 6, with about 20 people in attendance. This summary includes my notes from the meeting, with some additional comments from me, based upon my reflections after the evening. Please read through to the end, where you will find my thoughts about a voluntary covenant --- can you buy into that covenant?


SUMMARY OF DECEMBER 6 CONVERSATION:
We discussed the characteristics of leadership, including the following:
1. an inspiring vision
2. effective communication skills
3. willingness to take risks

The Durall quote, that a leader must recognize that you can't please everyone, resonated with the group. It was acknowledged that you can't get everyone to agree, and you may even lose people along the way, and that's okay, but you do need to listen to everyone.

How do we learn to be leaders? one answer -- by leading. Or to capture an old ad campaign, just do it.

How can we encourage leadership? by providing a safe environment that will allow for risk-taking. A strong element of trust is needed. To me, that involves being as non-judgmental as possible. It also requires us to know one another better --- which is another reason why a church built on relationships is so vital.

Speak in the positive, is one phrase I scribbled down on my notes.

"Love people up" was another suggestion (taken from the works of Mark Hicks).

The discussion moved to membership, discussing elements of both the Leadership Covenant expressed by Durall, and the Expectations of Membership. The conversation moved very swiftly here, with lots of good questions discussed. Should we even frame it in the language of "expectations"? Is the expectation of regular Sunday attendance unreasonable in today's day and age?

What are the religious needs of people in their 20's and 30's? How will we ever know unless we talk to this group? (I would frame it as the group of people born after 1970). Individual discussions are good, but perhaps we also need to formalize this with a focus group devoted to this age group.

Another way to ask some questions: who do we want to attract? What are the needs of those groups? I think it was acknowledged that Durall is right, that we UUs can no longer think we are trying to attract everyone and anyone. We need to focus.

These questions led to an even broader question-- what are people's spirituality practices? Is this a question that we UUs are afraid to ask each other? There was a suggestion to promote our religious diversity.

These questions relate to another question that was raised --- what is our identity? Who are we? How are we unique? As I reflect more on this issue, and on another question that was raised (how do we reach the unchurched in that post-1970 group?), I am coming around to thinking that something like the following should be our very short elevator speech/statement that follows our name on our web site: A Religous Community for Freethinkers.

Mottos like "Nurture Your Spirit. Heal The World" are accurate, but don't distinguish us from the Presbyterian church down the street. "We Don't Have A Creed" is too negative a concept.

And a question that flows from "Who are we" might be "Who do we want to be?" I mentioned my recent reading of various church literature, where one challenge was captured in the question, Do you want to remain the church of yesterday, or become the church of tomorrow? What would the church of tomorrow look like to you?

Here is another good question that was raised: Why don't we evangelize?

This question flows from one of the membership expectations : invite others to your church. Why don't we do this? Why don't I do this? I mentioned the example of a young couple I know who I think would really relate to UUism, but I have hesitated to invite them to a service. One response on Sunday night that got me thinking is that there are multiple entry points. Invite them to a Buddhist meditation. Or to join a specific covenant group. Or even just point them to our web site. I realize now that an easy invite will be to say, hey, check out this video, The Story of Stuff, that was mentioned in a recent sermon.

Another interesting comment: we have a "wall of assumptions" in our church life (with the implication, I believe, that we need to identify those assumptions, and work our way around them). What are those assumptions?

I think we settled on a smashing together of the elements of the leadership covenant and membership expectations of Durall, with the trinity expressed by one of our participants, and with the elements (as I see it) expressed in last June's Strategic Plan. These three elements can be listed as follows:

1. Individual spiritual work (grow a soul)
2. Outreach for social justice (the larger community)
3. Caring for one another within the church community

And so...I think we may be building toward that pronouncement that Durall recommends....This is our journey. Come join us! Not in a coercive way, but in a joyous way. It's not a "you're either with us or against us" but merely, "Please join us in community".

In conclusion....I might suggest we are working toward a covenant, which I would not characterize as being solely in the domain of a leadership covenant, and is not as heavy-handed as a "you-must-do-this"membership expectation. How about this...

Team Covenant (for all who are part of the Church....we are all in this together...Members, Friends, leaders, whatever you might call yourself...we are not limiting this at all....newcomers can join this team!)
The covenant: I will...
--pay attention to my own spiritual development
--get involved in promoting social justice in the larger community
--gather regularly in community with those from our church
--be a good steward for the church
--invite others to check out our church
And I will do all these things on an ongoing basis, renewing my covenant each year.

People can translate as they like. What do I need to do in paying attention to my spiritual development? Is it a class? being part of a covenant group? What does it mean to "gather regularly", or to be a good steward? I think we should be flexible.

Let me end with Rev. Mary's definition of faith, which came up during the conversation:
Faith is not about belief, but about saying "yes" to life -- and knowing, in the time when you can't possibly say "yes", that there will come a time when you will once again be able to say "yes".



Your comments and thoughts are all welcome and encouraged...

Comment by Natalia Averett on December 13, 2009 at 9:11pm

Why collect an offering?:
Protestantism- some non-Christian religions and other Christian denominations do not have baskets. Member families are expected to budget in giving and give through the pledge process or, like in Kingdom Halls, there are collection pillars around the facility and people are welcome to donate at will, at any point not just on Sunday, in the seconds after hearing a sermon. I think this sends the wrong message to me in that it suggests you are paying for the message and has an air of judgement attached. By this model why not also have a pop up solicitation at the end of the sermons posted on online? It might be good source of income.
History- A UUA consultant said that at some point in history (pre WWII I think), most UU churches had no budget. They just collected money and spent it. They probably collected it in cash and made payments by cash or check, spending in a reactionary way and soliciting funds in a reactionary way. By this model, if you have another payment system in place for sustained giving, the only value of the collection is for occasions like give the plate. I have been a part of churches where the way to get money is through the plate collection and it didn't work that well but then again those congregations didn't have a membership whose disposable income was consistent so relying on a basket and a weekly "ask" was not the best method of collection.
Also, the value of the plate is lost in the age of auto check account debit and credit card payments. On that topic, I saw on the news this week that even the Salvation Army bell ringers now have collection boxes equipped with card readers because the average cash donation is under $5-10 across the country while people donate around $20 across the board when given the charge card option. I think passing the plate sends a bad message when the people present think that the plate matters. But there is a whole group of people raised in a society where people who want your money email you with a link to donate, ask you to send a text that will extract money by charging back to your phone account or offer you a "membership," creating the impression that you are joining a community when you donate. These people (myself included) probably think nothing of seeing people pass the plate because we assume this practice exists as a historical layover and a mechanism maintained for a handful of people who prefer its use (like using paper instead of computers or landlines instead of cell phones).

Comment by Bill Fogarty on November 22, 2009 at 11:03pm

I am not sure whether to post a comment or start a discussion --- I am looking forward to the December 13 workshop that June Herold has organized for group work on the web site! But for now, let me experiment here by posting a comment, even though this may be premature, since I have just started this Group, and there are only two members....but assuming that others will join, and then can add comments, away we go...
This is related to the initial question of whether we should give away the plate every week, instead of once per month. Here is my additional question --- why even collect an offering (on Sundays where there is no designated charity) when most people do not put anything into the basket? Michael Durall would say that when fewer than half the people are putting money into the basket, a church is sending a bad message to visitors. What do you think?