The UUA has released the full data from the 2024 UUA Certification Report, and there is a lot to learn—and to celebrate! Here in the Central East Region, we are frequently asked how religious education is going, often by congregations working hard to re-building programs that experienced slow declines over the past decade and more and faster dips in enrollment during the pandemic. And we have good news to report this year: across our denomination, participation in religious education programs has grown by 16%. From stories I’ve been hearing from the field, much of this can be attributed to the dedication and creativity of RE professionals and teams of RE lay and professional leaders helping drive a pivot toward

And, quantitative data is one type of measurement, but it is not the only one that counts. As we celebrate and seek to learn from this number, we also encourage congregations to look beyond RE participation or enrollment numbers as your only metric of success.

Before I became a UU religious professional, my work included designing, monitoring, and evaluating peacebuilding programs. In my work, we frequently looked for “indicators of success” both quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (stories of how the goals were playing out, gathered and assessed in a rigorous but not statistical way). So, when I moved to serving as a UU religious educator, I frequently sought out small and large indicators that would help me tell how and where our program’s yearly goals, and more broadly our whole congregation’s mission, was being fulfilled (or not).

I’ll always remember one such indicator from a program we’d created to respond to the pandemic, a toddler & parent/caregiver song circles program. Numbers-wise, the enrollment was decent: serving both community members and congregants. It brought in one or two new prospective families. But it was the learning outcomes, the ministry we were accomplishing, and the community-building I was really paying attention to. At our end-of-year celebration, I watched as one family of members went up to a community couple, who had just had a baby, and handed them a covered dish. Totally unprompted, this busy couple had cooked a lasagna to support and celebrate with this other family, who they didn't know outside of church, with whom they’d spent the previous eight weeks singing and dancing and chatting on the playground. I watched as they hugged and expressed delight. And I knew that something sacred was happening there.

This helping family wasn't part of the congregation's pastoral care team. Their small act had nothing to do with the UU music curriculum. But to me, in that small indicator gets to the very core of why we gather in religious community. It has stuck with me as a way to monitor whether the kind of mutual support and community-building that families need is happening as an outcome of our programs.

So when congregations tell me about their RE programs, I seek out those 'lasagna indicators.' Do unrelated adults greet youth of the congregation by name during coffee hour? If a kid is dropping crayons during worship, do they get a smile and a helping hand from someone in the next row? Are parents able to attend the justice-making events of the congregation? Even if there's no RE class that day, will an usher take a child to the kid-friendly space in the sanctuary and help them explore what's there?

So I invite us to look beyond Sunday morning participation or RE enrollment numbers as our only - or even our primary - metrics of success. This fall, we've created a suite of resources to help teams of lay folks and staff members re-imagine how to plan for and "count" what it means to thrive in RE. You can:

• Learn what seems to be working in RE these days, collected from stories from congregations whose programs are thriving or growing;
• Notice and learn from the pockets of thriving that are already happening in your congregation - even if you have a very small or stagnating program;
• Explore how using the tools of RE / faith formation in the whole congregation can help your whole UU community grow;
• Understand the challenges facing families today (and how to help), as well what the generational shifts in how we respond to our deepest values when it comes to children are telling us is important in RE for these times.

As always, you can reach out to your Primary Contact for support in thinking through your RE approach.

(And don’t forget the lasagna!)