Outreach Revolution Workshop on Congregational Outreach: Part 1 (Leora)

One of the most illuminating workshops I attended at GA was about congregational outreach. It included a discussion of how congregations should be "designed" in these times and about use of social media. I'll put up a separate post on the social media piece.

Congregational participation is up since the election. New people are showing trust by showing up. We have to show them our actions fulfill our words.

The old paradigm was to measure success by the number of people who attend services on Sunday. It should be whether the congregation is growing its mission and growing its actions and energy. 

Why should people come to our UU rather than to an Indivisible meeting? They will only come and stay if we offer a culture and experience that is healing and spiritually grounding, in addition to facilitating their involvement in justice work and resistance. 

So, our challenge is to invite ourselves to meet the needs of people in our community so that our congregations truly offer something that other organizations don’t. The Outreach Team recommends we watch the Fortification podcasts about the spiritual lives and spiritual sustenance of leaders in social justice movements (not necessarily UUs).

It’s significant that 85% of UUs were not raised in this faith. People get closer and become UUs because we invite them in.

There is a spectrum of affiliation with a UU congregation from Curious to Welcomed Visitor to Connected Friend/Member to Engaged Participant to Integrated Leader.

Most congregations put most of their time, energy and resources into people who Integrated Leaders and Engaged Participants and too little into Connected/Members, Welcomed Visitors, the curious and wider community. The UUA Outreach team thinks it should be the opposite: Our focus and energy, and our programs, should be directed to people on the margins of our faith.

Congregations need to ask who the organization was “designed” for.  What design choices are we making? Here’s an analogy: A chair can be designed for easy stacking, not for comfort. So, designing a chair requires a choice of what is important to the user of the chair – stacking or comfort? 

The way we design our congregational life tells us what is important to us. It reflects who is at the center of our concern.

Who are our congregations designed for? Grown-ups? Donors? People who appreciate Protestant style worship? Able bodied? English speakers? 19^th century intellectual elite (with sermons that include references to people and events that only an intellectual would recognize)? If we center our congregations around just these characteristics, we cannot expect others who visit to come back.

The Outreach Team recommends we design our congregations for Access and not just Organization. In many congregations, the structure/organization makes it difficult for newcomers to break in. (I think this is the case at our congregation.)  But, how do you design for access? The Outreach Team suggests:

•  Don’t insist on weekly attendance. That isn't the correct measurement of the size or effectiveness of the congregation.
• Have a bite-sized mission statement.
• Activities should be subject to the “friend test.” Is it an event you would invite your friends to and that they would enjoy?

Some audience suggestions: interfaith yoga, camping trips and other family-oriented events for families with kids, providing child care, etc.