Congregations and Beyond Consultation February 2012

On February 1st through 3rd, the Rev. Terasa Cooley, Director of Congregational Life, facilitated a brainstorming meeting in Orlando, Florida.

We explored some of the strategies we might pursue toward this new vision of Congregations and Beyond. The meeting included a collection of people doing some of the most innovative work in this direction in a multitude of ways.

The conversation is continuing on Facebook and on our blogs and by following twitter feeds at #faiththrive and #congbeyond.

The following people attended the Orlando Meeting:

• Rev. Naomi King: involved in digital ministry and faith community development with historically under served peoples through City of Refuge Ministries
• Rev. Nate Walker: First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia.
• Rev. Jeanne Pupke: Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Trustee-at-Large and First Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church of Richmond, VA
• Rev. Meg Riley: Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship
• Rev. Sarah Moldenhauer-Salazar: Starr King alumn and now at Pacific School of Religion’s Doctorate of Ministry program
• Peter Bowden: an independent consultant engaged in growth consultant for the Ballou Channing District of the UUA.
• Rev. John Crestwell: Minister, Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, Camp Springs, MD
• Heather Concannon: Chaplain at Brigham & Women's Hospital and founder of Lucy Stone Coop, Roxbury, MA
• Rev. Rick Hoyt: minister at First Church, Los Angeles
• Rev. Marjorie Matty: focused on my online ministry. Over the last five years I have realized that 95% of all visitors to First Universalist have found their way to us via a search on Google.
• Rev. Joanna Crawford: the intern minister for the CLF, where we have been doing online weekly worship services since September and recently launched a new website, questformeaning.org
• Rev. Christine Robinson: the minister of First Unitarian for 23 years and has seen that congregation grow from 400 to 800 members during that time

Joining them from the UUA:

• Rev. Peter Morales: President
• Rev. Harlan Limpert: Vice President of Ministries and Congregational Support
• Rev. Alicia Forde: Program Coordinator, Multicultural Growth and Witness
• Carey McDonald: Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries
• Kayla Parker: Campus Ministry Associate
• Rev. Stefan Jonasson: Director of Growth Strategies and Large Congregation Development
• Rev. Phil Lund:Director of Faith Development and Congregational Growth for the Prairie Star District of the UUA
• Dan Furmansky: manager of the UUA's Standing on the Side of Love campaign
• Katrina Bergmann: Director of Donor Relations