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....

Leadership Development should be an ongoing process in your congregation that includes the following practices: Identify: Who is Called to be a Leader?...

Leadership development in our congregations should be an extension of faith development. But our congregational leaders need more than technical training, they need a combination of skills, sensibilities and internal qualities to enable them to be both effective and faithful....

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.

Here are some guiding questions and ideas about including a youth on your congregation's board.

Dynamic congregations rarely have a hard time dreaming new dreams, but many struggle to choose from among a parade of compelling ideas about how to use their time and energy.

CAR Care Leads to Trust Based on https://books.google.com/books?id=s3n-LlLkGIcC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v… Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman When assessing trustworthiness in yourself and others, there are four major qualities to look out for: Competence ability to perform a task or get a job done.

Many congregations start the church year with a retreat for the Board of Trustees (including the Minister). Ideally, this retreat is held Friday evening through Saturday afternoon, at a site away from the place you usually meet. Perhaps you could go to someone's lake cabin or a local retreat center,...

Fun and Effective Team Building Activities for Your Board, Committees, and Congregation Synergy is what happens when a group of people accomplish something that one or two or a few alone could not. Where there is teamwork, there is synergy....

The challenges that Membership Professionals face require that one react both with their head and with their heart....

Rev. Renee Ruchotzke talks about UU Leadership Institute and where the idea for that came from. Dawning Future November 2015...

Creating a vital religious education program is most successful when a healthy balance exists between staff and lay leaders. This video offers guidance and resources on building healthy relationships, communication, shared leadership, shared responsibility, and working in covenant. 2013...

Serving on a congregational board can be both rewarding and stressful. Some stress is natural, but certain kinds of stress can lead to burn-out.

Leaders must learn to model how to de-center the culture of the congregation from White identity and culture.

There is virtually nothing that you can do in your congregation that is more exciting or enlivening as serving as a lay leader. Moving from receiving to giving back to your community can be a rewarding experience of growth and deepening. Accompanying Workshop (PDF) (2 hours)...

Congregational leaders today are facing challenges that have no easy answers or quick fixes. Developing practices that enable the congregation to use its collective wisdom to experiment with different ideas and approaches....

Learn how to provide paths to leadership in your congregation,to identify potential leaders and to equip them for service in your congregation. (2016).

Congregational budget-makers frequently divide into two camps that approach the task in different ways. The first camp is likely to include children of the Great Depression, experts in finance, elementary school teachers, and persons anxious about their own money situation....

In this webinar, we will explore the role of leaders in a Unitarian Universalist congregation. We will offer some useful tools to help your leaders and your congregation to thrive.

Consider making your governance committees leaner, so that more members are available to serve the ministries of the congregation. 

I've been hearing stories from different congregations where the Social Justice Ministries are re-inventing and re-invigorating themselves by finding out the potential swe… spot where the congregation's mission, capacity and will meets the needs and potential impact of the community. Here is a...

Abridged Excerpt from “The Future of Justice Ministries” by Rev. David Pyle The Keynote for the UU Pennsylvania Legislative Advocacy Network Annual Meeting 2016 I always default to hope. It is the most constant aspect of my personality. And yet, hope has seemed more difficult these last few days...

Given the increasing shortage of UU ministers, congregations might wish for a simple way to evaluate their own fitness for ministry. Ministers, likewise, might find an objective scale helpful in discerning whether a congregation is ready for them. This scale is similar to the hoped for outcomes...

Self-differentiated Leaders know who they are well enough that they also know where they stand, and what they will and will not do; they understand the necessity of boundaries, and work within the congregation to ensure that healthy boundaries are in place and are supported; they can be clear in ...

Let me share a fable of two congregations. ...

My father-in-law was a no-nonsense businessman who worked a 600 acre farm. Fiercely independent, he liked to play by his own rules.  When he bought a new piece of machinery, he would remove all of the pesky shields and other safety devices that slowed him down or got in the way during...

Once upon a time there was a congregation that wanted a mission statement. They appointed a committee that worked hard. They held cottage meetings, World Café conversations, and got a real sense of the identity of the congregation, who they were as a "whole"—or their "center." It became time to...

Your congregation is committed to growth and understands that growth in numbers results from other kinds of growth. You also know it is important to set goals and measure how well you are doing.  ...

It was mid-afternoon and my sixth grade classmates and I were in the middle of a lesson. Suddenly, the deep voice of the principal boomed over the loudspeaker. “Mr. Doyle, I need your help. Mrs....

Assessment of a congregation's ministry is a very important aspect of religious leadership and is one of the roles of a Committee on Shared Ministry. assessments....

How do we find volunteers for the different jobs in our congregation?  How do we fire a volunteer who doesn't perform?  How do we renew a committee stuck in stale ideas and that repels any new committee members and their potential energy? Volunteer recruitment and dealing with...