Small In Size, Big In Spirit
OMD Small Church Planning For Growth Project
It began in the fall of 2008. Six smaller congregations from the Ohio Meadville District signed on to take part in a new pilot program designed to help congregations grow in strength and vitality. Dubbed the Planning for Growth Project and based on curriculum developed by the UUA, this initiative has injected energy and enthusiasm into the program teams and has launched the participating congregations into many and varied areas of growth.
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The congregations, Southwest UU, UU Society of Cleveland, Oberlin UU Fellowship, Olmsted UU Congregation, All Soul’s in Bellville and UU Fellowship of Greater Canton, last met this past November. It was the third gathering of this group. Each congregation sends a team of four to six persons who are charged with setting goals related to growth and enrolling their congregations in meeting those goals. The “retreats” are lively, affirming and educational. Facilitated by UUA Consultant Ellen Germann-Melosh and Shared District Growth Consultant Mark Bernstein, and supported by District Executive Joan Van Becelaere, the sessions cover topics such as change, anxiety, affirmative inquiry, personal ministry, mission/vision and leadership. Participants gain support and ideas not only from the facilitators but from each other. It makes for a bonding, meaningful and spiritual experience for all. |
Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
by Cindy McPherson Frantz
The Planning for Growth program could not have come at a better time for our Fellowship. With a new minister hired and a Visioning process underway, we were poised to make exciting changes. But we needed guidance in how to actually make it all happen. The Planning for Growth program helped us identify key strengths and weaknesses, set priorities, and develop short-term and long term goals to move us towards our Vision.
With the help of a Chalice Lighter's grant, OUUF has taken big steps toward increasing its visibility. We have new, professional signs for our rented spaces, and a banner to display at community events. We have t-shirts with our logo on them that have been worn to social justice activities around town as well as by our youth at Cons. We have also created a TV ad targeted towards a key demographic group identified by our UUA percept study (families with young children).
Because we have a quarter time minister, 3 Sundays a month are led by lay leaders. To deepen our maturational growth, OUUF has begun the process of creating a Worship Associate's program. We have reactivated the Space Team's search for our own building. We also embarked on a year-long experiment with a different Sunday schedule -- one that makes it easier to welcome and get to know visitors.
In our second year of Planning for Growth, we are starting to experience some of the anxieties and rough spots that inevitably come with change. But our clear sense of purpose and faith in the process is helping us use these moments to grow spiritually and personally.
Southwest Unitarian Universalist Church: To Grow or Not to Grow?
By Rev. Christina M. Neilson
A few years ago we put together a “Space Committee” who’s charge was to look for long range options for meeting space and worship space. As part of the work that this committee did, they asked the church to decide, how big should we be? To my surprise, all but one person said that we should aim to be in the 150-200 member range. This was a huge tipping point to cross, as when I first came, the congregation was very conflicted about whether to grow or not. Our charge since then was to grow in meaningful ways, and in ways that we can absorb, so that all feel welcome and integrated into our community.
I can only speak for the past 8 years, as that is how long I have served this congregation. At that time, we only had meeting space on Sunday mornings. All other meetings took place in member’s homes, or an occasional additional rental at the college or another church. Our first big move was to acquire office space. This gave us an opportunity for confidential pastoral counseling, expanding our small group ministries, as well as a centralized place for all the files that people kept stored in their car trunks and basement for years.
We’ve grown organically. We nurture leaders, maybe not as well as we need to, but we’ve begun to create policies and procedures and reporting structures, updated bylaws, which were absent from our informal ways of doing things. We have achieved some clarity. We’ve learned how to handle difficult issues, set up a process to make major decisions and have a covenant of right living together.
We’ve matured. Just a few years ago we celebrated our sweet sixteen year, then our twenty year anniversary, soon a building dedication. We joke about it, but we really have grown up from meeting in an elementary school, then a middle school, skipped high school and then went to college. Now we have purchased our first church home. A fixer upper, maybe not everyone’s ideal, but a right size for our community. That’s a huge growth curve for a small church.
We have grown numerically. Numbers include increased pledges and increased fundraising. We’ve gone from a budget of around 80,000 to a current budget of 105,000 since I’ve been here. Our average pledge is over $1600/ per member. We’ve increased the building fund to 120,000 with pledges for more, and we haven’t even started our capital campaign for the building yet. That is substantial numerical growth.
But most importantly, in addition to how we care for each other, we bring our faith to the world, which is called incarnational growth. We moved from making a different focus collection every month to choosing important projects that make a statement about our values. We have a commitment to reach out to the homeless through THI and the men’s shelter. We helped to start a community dinner and created a fund to help bridge the gaps when people need assistance. We work in collaboration with Inter-religious groups like We Believe, Interact and the Gay and Lesbian spiritual leaders. We’ve expanded as a church, and developed some resources for those in need. We live our values.
That is our common mission no matter where our church is located, how much money we have, how many people grace our doors, or how many leaders take the helm. We are here to celebrate the mysteries of life, to care for our children and each other, and to nurture our world in a spirit of fairness. When that is no longer needed, then we will close our doors. Until that time, we will grow to whatever size we need to be, to accomplish this mission.
Olmsted Unitarian Universalist Congregation
by Kelly Lynn Aiyanna Nvwoti Adanaho Elisi Dagaduga Harris
When we planned our goals for the first part of this 3 year journey we had joined in on, the outcome seemed to be out of our reach. However, we quickly learned that with a little guidance from the Growth meetings we had attended and a little cooperation and elbow grease we were able to get much accomplished.
Our three goals were to establish a better line of communication within our congregation, make a better path to membership and to focus on the appearance of the building. Lucy Carney focused on our bulletin boards in the fellowship hall that had long been neglected. What was once a mish mash of papers thrown up willy nilly is now a beautifully organized flow of information with pictures and a place dedicated to each portion of our church community. There are now pictures of the Board, as well as the names of everyone that is in charge of the various committees and a brief description of what those committee's do.
Ellen Carvill-Zeimer and Kelly Harris worked on a path to membership brochure and Ellen has started a series of three classes for prospective members to attend that tell some of the history of UUism and of our church, what is expected from as well as what are the privileges of membership and also presents ways for the new member to become involved in the church.
We have also focused on the appearance of the church by painting, cleaning and planning the makeover of our lounge. We had had a mold issue for some time that took away from the appeal of the church. That is now being taken care of thanks to a Chalice Lighter's grant! Our outside walls have been excavated and waterproofed. We are now ready to tear up the carpeting, replace the furniture and make our lounge a place people want to congregate in! Being involved in this program has inspired us to action and to help our church grow. We are so grateful to be able to be a part of this!
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton
Renee Ruchotzke
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Canton, 57 members, is committed to provide a liberal religious community in conservative Stark County, Ohio. With the help of a bequest and an anonymous gift, they were able to end their nomadic existence and purchase and renovate a former motorcycle dealership into a beautiful worship space, 3 classrooms, a library and a small kitchen. At the same time, they developed and adopted a right relations covenant.
Last year, they hired a part-time consulting student minister, Renee Ruchotzke, who has helped them develop more polished Sunday Services, deeper adult programming and stronger lay leadership.
Last fall, they invited and included members from New Vision UCC church to participate in a Cakes for the Queen of Heaven class.
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On December 20, they commissioned their first Commissioned Lay Leader, Deb Chaney, who shares the leading of Sunday services and also leads a weekly Wednesday night vespers service. The Canton congregation realizes that the key to growth is to look beyond their four walls. They have been working with a local anti-racism group called Coming Together Stark County, hosting a "community conversation" and inviting the director to speak at a Sunday Service. They also are working toward Green Sanctuary Certification. The steering committee, nicknamed the “Green Team” and led by Ron Boyd, also sponsored a holiday fundraiser where they made and sold earth-friendly cleaning supplies made from vinegar, baking soda, etc. and recipes to make more all packaged in a lovely caddy with labels designed and made by member Patti Auber. The congregation also takes a special collection once a month for an outside social service or justice organization. As part of their planning for growth, they realized that most new people who walk through the door find them on the internet, so they have gone to an on-line calendar and make sure the website is updated regularly. They also have installed wireless internet, which has been used to watch streaming video from the UUA website using an LED projector. The youth religious education committee, chaired by Kate and Brad Taylor, currently offers programming for three different age groups, including a Coming of Age program for the teens, which is being run by Erin Finan DuBois, Elizabeth Mitchell and Lisa Maxey. The YRE committee hopes to offer the Spirit Play curriculum for the smaller children next year. |
 Green Sanctuary Fundraising Items |
Unitarian Universalist Society of Cleveland
by Kelsey Fischer
Members of the UUSC participated in their third “Planning for Growth” workshop in November. Planning for Growth is a series of workshops conducted over the course of three years that focuses on helping small congregations grow. This growth not only means increasing membership but also growing spiritually, improving the day to day functioning of the congregation and making UU values real among ourselves and in the greater community. UUSC participated along with congregations from Canton, Bellville, Southwest, Oberlin, and North Olmsted. Pat Solomon, Glenn Solomon, Kelsey Fischer, Jesse Honsky and Rev. Colin Bossen attended.
The workshop helped UUSC participants realize that the Society has accomplished a lot since the last Growth meeting in May! In the last six months, the Society launched its first Adult Religious Education Series. It achieved greater visibility in the Cleveland Heights and surrounding area through an article in the Sun Press and participation in several community events, and it welcomed a growing number of young adults and families through its doors. The Society also received a grant from the Ohio-Meadville District which allowed it hire a part-time Membership Coordinator.
As a result of the workshop, the group plans to facilitate a series of discussions beginning in January on three “essential questions”. Essential questions are designed to help us explore our identity as a spiritual community and as individual members of this community. We hope that this exploration process will help us grow spiritually both as individuals and as a congregation. The essential questions we plan to discuss are:
- What does it mean to be a religious community?
- What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist?
- What does it mean to belong to this Unitarian Universalist religious community?
We will all stay tuned to see what shape these discussions will take. We hope to engage as many friends, visitors and members in this process as possible and are exploring options from engaging covenant groups to holding forums.
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
Due to a recent transition in leadership, many of All Soul’s projects have been placed on hold pending the installation of a new board. They report, however, that they have been able to hang a beautiful new copy of the Blake Covenant and a copy of the 7 Principles in the church which were two things they wanted to accomplish since there was nothing specifically Unitarian Universalist visible on their sanctuary walls.
