InterConnections: A Newsletter for Congregational Leaders

InterConnections is an email newsletter that publishes tips and stories about vital congregations for lay leaders and the professional staff who work with them.

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Recent Articles

Sponsoring Congregation Program Aids Small UU Groups

A fundraising campaign that began in 1993 at the First Unitarian Society of Wilmington, Del., now the First Unitarian Church, was supposed to be all about raising money for a new building project. But along the way the campaign came to be about more than just First Unitarian.

Karel Toll, chair of the fundraising campaign, explains what happened: “In one of our congregational meetings about the campaign a member of the congregation stood up and asked why our large church was raising all this money for bricks and mortar and why we were not sharing some of it with some new or small congregation that did not have our resources?”

It seemed like a reasonable question to Toll. He took it to the board of trustees and asked it to set aside one percent of the money that would be raised. The board agreed. As a result, at the end of the three-year campaign, which raised $1.5 million for a new religious education wing, there was a fund with $15,000. Read more.

Annual Themes Inspire, Motivate Dallas Congregation

It is, of course, every congregation’s desire to have most of its members actively engaged in personal growth, in deepening their spiritual development and working to improve the larger community and the world.

There’s a lot of all of that going on at First Unitarian Church in Dallas, which has embraced a congregation-wide theme this year: Year of Engagement and Service, or YES!

The YES! theme invites friends and members to get involved in social action and civic engagement projects outside of church, ranging from increased involvement in their neighborhoods to engaging with the world at large. They are encouraged to join one of three YES! “tracks,” focusing on their neighborhood (Neighbors), the Dallas metro area (Community), or the world itself (Global). Read more.

How Congregations Can Respond to Hate Crimes

If you’re fortunate, you’ll never arrive at your meetinghouse to find your rainbow flag or marriage equality banner ripped, defaced with swastikas, burned, or simply stolen. But what if you do? How should you respond? Read more.

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Do you have a story idea, comment, or question? Call InterConnections editor Don Skinner at (800) 204-2523 or send him an email: interconnections @ uua.org.