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Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris |
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Rev. Anthony David |
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Meryl Gunter |
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2097 Growing Our Faith
Congregational Services Staff Group
The Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris
The Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris, Director of the Unitarian
Universalist Association’s Congregational
Services Staff Group, presented information on two of the UUA’s
exciting new initiatives for increasing membership in – and
access to – the Unitarian Universalist tradition.
In Kansas City, the Staff Group developed and test-marketed a media
campaign to increase attendance and membership at four of the five
existing UU churches in town. The fifth, a small fellowship, elected
not to receive new members but supported the campaign financially.
The Staff Group worked with a local marketing consultant, Arthur
Parks of Parks Marketing Communications, and with focus groups to
develop and place material in local media. They also staged seven
welcoming events, including an appearance by UUA President Bill
Sinkford, and developed
a special web site to welcome and inform people seeking more
information. The campaign used four new billboard messages and targeted
print and broadcast advertising to increase awareness of the denominational
name and to attract people to the welcoming events.
The Kansas City campaign was conducted in the spring of 2003, and
concluded just before the 2003 General Assembly opened. Baseline
data and raw data from the end of the test marketing have been collected.
Analysis has been started. Materials for use in other markets should
start to become available in the fall.
In the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, the UUA is working with the ten existing
congregations, through the Congregational Services Staff Group,
to launch a new, large church. By starting with more than 300 members,
Pathways Church expects to avoid most of the obstacles which often
prevent smaller congregations from becoming large.
Pathways Church presently has an administrator, Meryl Gunter, who
has been working since early 2003, and a minister, the Rev. Anthony
David, who arrived in June. Over the next year, the focus group
will form a board to oversee the church, and continue work toward
an opening Sunday with at least 300 persons in attendance. Home-based
– or house church – meetings, interest group meetings
and community-building events are planned to be held with increasing
frequency as the congregation grows. Additional staff will include
a Director of Religious Education, to be added soon, and a Minister
of Music. The administrator and the focus group conservatively project
that Pathways Church will be self-supporting within three years
of its opening, and will be in a position to reduce debt within
five. This includes the expense of acquiring land and constructing
a church.
This launch of a new, large church in an urban area is also a new
effort which the Congregational Services Staff Group is testing
with the Dallas-Ft. Worth project. This is a concept which other
denominations have used with success in recent years, and the Staff
Group is drawing on experience which those groups have shared, adapting
the process to Unitarian Universalism. The target audience is currently
unchurched persons, especially families, who live in the rapidly
growing area, near Northeast Tarrant County, where the church will
be built. The UUA and the Staff Group plan to develop materials
from this first effort which can be used and adapted to support
similar efforts elsewhere.
Reported for the web by Bill Lewis, edited by Jone Johnson
Lewis; Web Design by Julie Albanese
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