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Search InterConnections for resources relevant to your interest and role: whether you are a lay or professional leader, there's information here to help you fulfill your ministry and carry forward your mission more effectively.
Displaying 141 - 150 of 198.
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When congregations set out to renovate their buildings, they're thinking primarily about the work to be done, how to pay for it, and how much better the building will be. They're generally not thinking about catastrophes that can happen while the work is taking place....
By Donald E. Skinner | October 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Facilities Management, Fundraising for Congregations, Congregational Administration, Governance for Congregations, Leadership Development -
For those small congregations which aren't able to muster many volunteers for the Membership Committee, here is one that operates with just three leaders....
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Membership in Congregations, Governance for Congregations, Support and Caring in Congregations -
Q. We are developing a policy on accepting gifts to our congregation. We want to accept them, but many come with stringent conditions and restrictions. What should we do? A....
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Planned Giving for Congregations -
Q.A.Notice to Visitors: People who attend St. Mark's regularly are for the most part kind and friendly people, but they tend to be a bit shy and self-conscious with strangers. They are afraid of greeting people they think are new and discovering that "the visitors" have been attending St....
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Membership in Congregations, Music in Worship, Membership Growth & Outreach -
Every congregation has lots of visitors who come once, twice, even sign up for the newsletter, but never return. We wonder if we did something wrong, if no one spoke to them, or the coffee was bad. If we have our act together we have someone from the membership committee call all visitors within...
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Membership in Congregations, Music in Worship, Membership Growth & Outreach, Support and Caring in Congregations -
Sometimes, through no deliberate fault, a congregation becomes, well, complacent. It still functions week to week, but there's no fire. Rebuilding that fire can happen several ways. A new minister or lay leader can do it. Sometimes a church event or a new way of doing things can do it. At...
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Governance for Congregations, Membership Growth & Outreach -
When visitors come through our doors on Sunday morning most of us know what to do. We greet them warmly, talk to them during coffee hour and invite them back. What happens next is more challenging. If they become interested in us, then we are expected to teach them about our faith....
By Donald E. Skinner | August 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Membership in Congregations, LGBTQ Welcome & Equality, Communication, Membership Growth & Outreach -
The Caring Committee at the UU Church of the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel, CA (234 members), once sandbagged a member's house to protect it from a flood. Last year it secretly delivered 31 Easter baskets to people who needed a boost. Another time it weeded an elderly woman's garden....
By Donald E. Skinner | June 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Governance for Congregations, Support and Caring in Congregations -
Many of the ten congregations in metropolitan Pittsburgh, PA, have fewer than one hundred members, but together they have nearly 1,000 and in recent years they've found more and more ways to come together and make their numbers count. For about six years representatives of the congregations have...
By Donald E. Skinner | June 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Music in Worship, UUA Districts & Regions, Leadership Development -
When Mitch Levy's wife asked him for a divorce three years ago, he hadn't seen it coming. He'd just moved to the Seattle area for a new job and she was to join him. But then she called, saying she'd decided she didn't want to be married. In shock, and in a new town with no friends and no support,...
By Donald E. Skinner | June 1, 2000 | From InterConnectionsTagged as: Membership in Congregations