Multiplatform Ministry strengthens our communities, helps attract and retain members, and provides valuable inclusion lessons applicable to other inclusion efforts.
Why Zoom Inclusion Ministry?
Multiplatform church tends to privilege the experience of the in-person participants over those on Zoom. Zoom Inclusion Ministry helps to balance the needs of everyone.
Strengthen Our Communities
Loving inclusion of remote participants, helping them feel as included and valued and loved as in-person ones, gives everyone joy. It lights up the whole community. It helps us live our values in multiple ways, including caring for the most vulnerable members of our community. It helps us meet the changing needs of our community and the world.
Attract and Retain Members
There are many people, especially in red areas in these difficult times, who need a liberal religious community but are too far away to come in person. What we have to offer can be lifesaving. Literally. We can also retain members who move away or whose health prohibits attending in person.
Learn Valuable Inclusion Lessons Applicable to Other Inclusion Efforts
Zoom Inclusion provides a kind of case study on inclusion, a learning lab where we can learn non defensively what hinders inclusion and what fosters it, without the emotional weight of other inclusion initiatives.
Multiplatform Ministry takes work. The rewards far outweigh the costs, but this may not be obvious to others in the beginning. If you’re clear about the why, you’ll know it’s worth it and you’ll be able to enlist others.
Have Your Team Watch These Webinars
A Zoom Transformation: Build Community, Practice Inclusion
Treating zoom participants equitably and caringly in multiplatform worship is an expression of love and justice that can transform the community. Includes discussion questions for a self-led workshop.
The Power of Multiplatform Ministry
Strengthen and transform your UU community by creating a culture of inclusion where remote participants feel just as important, valued, and loved as in-person ones. Reach more people who need the lifesaving message of Unitarian Universalism.
Zoom Inclusion Ministry Talking Points
Being Adaptive and Resilient
Multiplatform worship is the way of the future! It’s flexible and it protects the health of our most vulnerable members. And this isn’t just about worship. It affects all aspects of congregational life. Multiplatform competency positions us to adjust quickly as global and local health conditions change, and strengthens our communities not just for the remote participants but for everyone. Online communities are expected by younger people and are often a key source of connection and support. This is a step toward an interactive online presence.
Being Theologically Rooted
We have a theology of love and justice that lifts up community as the saving grace in these challenging times. Multiplatform inclusion is a powerful way to express that love and to make striving towards equity a living practice. It’s the holy work of becoming a more loving and inclusive community.
Becoming Skilled in Faithful Praxis
Our zoom inclusion project has given us opportunities to recognize how we can unknowingly and completely unintentionally send messages of exclusion (eg “you’re invisible”, “you’re not important”) that contradict the messages of love and worth that we want to send. It’s a way of learning about microaggressions without the defensiveness that term can produce. It helps us get past the belief that “we welcome everyone” to see ways in which we are unconsciously unwelcoming, and address them lovingly. We want to welcome everyone who shares our values. This project helps us move closer to that ideal by learning about some of the obstacles to inclusion and embracing the personal, cultural, and institutional changes required to create full inclusion.
Being Connected in Community
Let’s connect across congregations to help each other do multiplatform inclusion better and learn how it strengthens our other justice work.