Leadership Development Example: Growth Through Service

By UU Church of Delaware County, Media, PA, Central East Region of the UUA

Logo with chalice and olive branch

More on the UU Church of Delaware County Website

The UU Congregation of Delaware County (UUCDC) in Media, PA has a wonderful model of inviting people into service and leadership through their Growth Through Service program.

They began with a Statement of Theological Grounding:

As Unitarian Universalists, we live out our faith through our service to others. True spiritual growth, in ourselves and in our congregation often arises through our connectedness with others and through serving a higher purpose that is greater than our own individual needs.

How the GTS Program Works

Service is a cornerstone of Unitarian Universalist identity, and of UUCDC membership. Through service, not only do we play our part in healing our broken world, but we also find the opportunity to grow our own faith and spirituality, and to enhance our relationships with others.

The Growth through Service (GTS) program enables UUCDC to better bring service opportunities to you, our members, that are fulfilling, feed your passion, and grow your soul. We hope you can joyfully serve, gaining a deeper connection to your faith and our church.

  1. Attend a Conversation with a GTS team member, one-to-one, as a couple or with a group, to explore your spiritual journey and the role of service in your life.
  2. Consider service opportunities that match your interests, skills and available time, using the Open Service Opportunities online list or suggestions by the GTS team.
  3. Take on an exciting service opportunity helping others, for personal and spiritual growth and share our experiences with the GTS team.

Overview of the Growth Through Service Program 

Workshop: Cultivating a Culture of Service in Your Congreation

(Presented at the 2014 General Assembly)

Overview and Education/Communication Documents 
  • GA Workshop slides 6/27/14: The presentation slides from our GA workshop. Use this document to get an overview of the project and the steps we took to achieve culture change as we implemented it. Please use the GTS video as an accompanying tool to the presentation.
  • Concept Document: The document that we originally prepared to help our Minister, Board and Lay Leadership Council to understand what we were proposing. Note that this document is now 3 years old and thus somewhat outdated, but it should give you an idea of how we presented the idea of GTS to our leadership via a document.
  • GTS Brochure
Design Documents
  • Development Team Overview: During our design phase, we had five teams. This document contains descriptions of each of the teams, as well as the skills needed and responsibilities of the team members.
  • Development Team Descriptions: Early service opportunities that provide the details of the five delvelopment teams with skills needed and responsibilities of the team members.
  • Timeline: An overall timeline for the design phase of the project.
  • Technology Overview: A document describing how we use technology for this project and the workflow we use within that technology.
Program Implementation Documents GTS Conversation Scripts Conversation Handouts that we use during GTS conversation Online forms (PDF samples)

Service Opportunity listings include Open Service Opportunities and Filled Service Opportunities so members can look ahead at ways they might want to serve in the future.