Here are the latest insights, ideas, tools, and permission to do the work of the Committee on (Shared) Ministry effectively from Congregational Life Staff.

Help your people learn how to give helpful evaluations and so we can be much better ministers.

Conflict engagement requires engaging in healthy communication and modeling healthy boundaries.

One evening at a Board meeting, we came to a question about our definitions of membership....

The work of the Committee on Ministry (CoM) is shared ministry, which includes attending to the vitality of the congregation.

Assemble a team of people with complimentary skills to serve on the Committee on Shared Ministry.

Nice Racism, Robin DiAngelo's followup to the groundbreaking White Fragility book, explores the unintended impact that progressive white people have on BIPOC, both in personal relationships and in political coalition. "Writing candidly about her own missteps and struggles, and drawing on her...

The mental model of the "Social Discipline Window" can be helpful in understanding different patterns of how we might respond when someone is causing harm in our communities.

Disability advocates remind us that multiplatform worship in real time, with the chance for some interaction, creates a meaningful experience for those participating online.

The following (from the Northlake UU Church in Kirkland, WA) is an example of a chater (or charge) for a Right Relationship Team (aka Healthy Congregation Team): Purposes: To facilitate the well-being of the _________ Community by fostering harmonious relations and mediating conflicts within the...

Choose members who are well respected and trusted based on their spiritual maturity and deep listening skills. Conflict transformation requires vulnerability, which requires trust.

Support and accountability for different aspects of right relationship lie within different parts of the congregation. 

Our covenants articulate our intention, but how do we live into the practice? Right Relations Teams are lay leaders entrusted to help the congregation practice faithful communication and creative conflict based on values of mutuality and consent. 

Congregations, like all organizational systems, need feedback loops.  Regular assessment of the ministry is essential to group self-awareness and growth.

Part of First Conversations Based on the research that race, gender, consent, and body positivity should be discussed with toddlers on up, this read-aloud board book series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way.

Part of First Conversations Based on the research that race, gender, consent, and body positivity should be discussed with toddlers on up, this read-aloud board book series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way...

Online moments of radical inclusion, connection, and creativity shared as a litany.

As religious leaders, part of our work is to help our communities hold the tensions between different needs in the congregation, especially around worship.

A letter explaining the UUA's shift toward presenting COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies rather than specific metric-based guidance.

A library of resources and strategies to help your congregation address safety and other issues during a pandemic.