Membership, Growth, and Outreach

Congregational growth is about many things—not just numbers. Five ways that congregations grow are:

  • numerical—the number of people attending worship and programs, or number of members
  • maturational—the spiritual maturity of each member
  • organic—a congregation's ability to maintain its health and engage the world
  • incarnational—making real and living our values in the world
  • associational - joint efforts with other UUA congregations, other communities of faith, and the wider community *

Each of these areas relates to the others: as our congregations grow in health, maturity, and outward-focused values, we support our growth in numbers. As our membership resources make clear, people are motivated to join congregations that lead meaningful worship and programs and offer many ways to engage.