Stories, resources, ideas, and practices shared by congregations in the spirit of creative interchange, group learning, and emerging practices.

It’s that time of the year again, when new leadership joins congregational boards. Summer is a time of transformation for some congregational leaders. I often receive questions around this time on how to hold a board retreat. Last year, Pat Infante and I held a webinar on holding a board retreat.

BIPoC Leaders rooted in the Unitarian Universalist congregations are invited to take part in Taproot: A National BIPoC Space. This is a monthly, virtual gathering where participants will engage in rest and renewal, analysis building, and leadership development.

An overview of the nine principles of Emergent Strategy from adrienne maree brown.

This is a recording of a workshop on The "inviting" process form first visit to ultimately leadership positions from the CER Delmarva Cluster Annual Gathering in Fall of 2020. Panelists: Rev. Renee Ruchotzke and Rev. Linda Peeples To view all the workshops and worships from this event, visit our...

How do you prepare people to lead within and beyond the walls of your congregation? Learn about Faith Forward, a path for engagement that nurtures UU roots,inspires participants to give of themselves, and prepares them to engage sustainably in the world from a spiritually grounded, faithful place.

All systems need feedback loops and organizations like congregations are no different. Your Leadership Development program will be more responsive if you develop assessments and other tools to help you learn and adjust as needed. Things you might include in your assessments: How is the...

Spend your leadership development energy on relationship-building and connecting individuals to meaningful service.

Effective Leadership Development teams focus on recruiting and relationship building. By using our suite of four leadership development trainings, you can spend less time on content and more on connection. All of our courses have discussion questions that you can use for in-person sessions.

Online Course. Develop advanced leadership skills that will help identify challenges. Learn how to help others see challenges in new ways, empower others and find creative solutions together. This course includes developing your own case study.

Online Training. Develop a deeper understanding of how to focus your congregation on mission, build trust and develop a cohesive leadership team. Learn about stewardship, strategic planning, annual goal setting and ministry assessment and the basics of congregational governance.

Online Leadership School includes family and other systems thinking applied to congregations. (Similar to Healthy Congregations®) Learn healthy leadership practices, communication and conflict skills, the importance of being mission-focused and how to communicate across differences.

Online Leadership School for new leaders and those interested in possible leadership. Covers covenant, healthy communication and boundaries, shared ministry, and stewardship & an introduction to congregational polity, UU theologies, and the wider UU movement.

Congregations become "smarter" as systems as they develop feedback loops that enable the system to learn from its past successes and challenges. Here is a tool that you can use to improve your ministry as well as the experience of your volunteers.

Our living tradition calls us to be lifelong learners, and this is especially true for our leaders. There are many skills and sensibilities that today's leaders need to help our congregations be ready for the 21st century. The UUA has many training resources to assist you!

Anxiety about lack of volunteers and leaders can often lead to treating them as human capital. Ironically, this anxiety-fueled approach tend to produce disappointing results. Instead, creating a program based on a relationship of mutuality, generosity and gratitude can create a culture where people desire to serve.

Your Leadership Development Team should have several practices and strategies that enable them to identify potential leaders, especially from groups that may be at the margins (young adults, people of color). Places to Look For Potential Leaders Attend newcomer classes....

Learn the kinds of leadership best practices that you want to instill in the rest of the congregation. Learn about the difference between Leadership and Management (we need both), how Leadership Development is an important part of Faith Formation, and how thinking in terms of teams and not just individuals can make all the difference!

Healthy, wise leadership is essential to the growth and vitality of our congregations, yet leadership development can easily become an afterthought. Here is a brief overview of where we come from and where we are going....