A summary and commentary of the UU congregational results of the Faith Communitities Today (FACT) 2023 survey that was conducted this past February-April. 

Membership in UU Congregations is an intentional process of commitment and covenant. This guide provides practices and tools useful in training membership teams and/or professionals.

Unitarian Universalism is faith that welcomes people from all walks of life into community with their local congregation, community, and the wider Association. If you are part of a community that is interested in joining the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) we encourage you to contact us.

When thinking about needed or wanted change, congregations can sometimes feel stymied. And, let’s face it, human systems like religious communities don’t tend to like to change. In a way, we need to trick the system in order to allow in energy and creativity.

How might we see the impact of our hospitality with “fresh eyes?”

Congregational growth is about many things—not just numbers.

Adding services can provide a wonderful, invigorating climate for growth of all sorts, both individual and institutional. But large-scale change without adequate planning not only may doom the change but also may create additional problems. Therefore, ...

Adding a worship service inevitably means more work for the congregation’s staff, both professional and support. The leaders of worship and religious education must not only repeat the service, create a separate special focus, and oversee another religious education program but also do more...

One of the key challenges in adding an additional service is providing religious education for children. What is needed, what will be offered, and how it will be done are large questions that need and deserve special consideration. The process of determining the answer to these questions runs...

Three sample surveys that can be modified easily for your specific situation.

Any change is difficult for an organization, but the change in number of worship services seems to prompt some particular fears and feelings. They need to be articulated, recognized, affirmed, and responded to so the change can move forward effectively. The following are some common concerns and...

Adding an additional service will have a real impact on congregational life. Once the decision to add a service is made, the designing and implementation stages begin. Here are a list of questions to help guide your planning:

An accessible, attractive and efficient office space makes staff, volunteers and visitors happy and productive!

Out of space? Good for you! Here are some things to think about and plan for.  Going to two services offers advantages beyond solving space problems.  It offers choices in service timing, for instance.  This might seem like a small matter at this point, but congregations who shrink from two services to one often find that their attendance shrinks by about 10% when they do.

"Volunteering to host coffee hour is a great way for newer folks to get involved." "We used to have potluck dinners, but we have so many dinners offered in our service auction that we don't seem to have the interest to plan potlucks anymore." "Attending Leadership School helped me to be an effect...

There has been a lot of press lately about Generation Y—often referred to as the Millennials—since they started to come of age around the year 2000. It’s a generation that doesn’t fit the old stereotype of rebellious youth that began with the Baby Boomers; articulated in the movie Rebel...

Collecting and analyzing data is important as a feedback loop. Here are some tools to help.

As voluntary associations, dependent upon voluntary contributions of resources, churches need to weight the opinions of members in their decision-making, based upon members’ demonstrated commitment to the congregation in one or more of the resource areas.

How might fees for Sunday School impact your congregation?