The Sermon of the Month series is a monthly subscription service that provides recorded sermons congregations can download and use for worship. Along with a transcript of the sermon, each month’s offering will include suggested readings and hymns.

Explore boundaries at three levels: clarifying and maintaining their own roles and responsibilities, recognizing and honoring the boundaries of others and understanding how governance, policies and structural supports uphold accountability, safety and trust within congregational life.

Important dates and milestones for contract ministry searches (both "prime time" and open), for ministers, search committees, and governing boards.

In our final conversation of the year, we welcome music directors Jen Hayman and Paolo Debuque to share their reflections on the role of music in congregations and communities.

Resources and samples for your board and safety team to develop policies on how to respond to destructive and disruptive behaviors.

Building a new community is an act of faith. In that building, we create space for spiritual deepening to become real, allowing people to meet themselves more fully and recognize the sacred at work within and between us.

What can we do when our long-term lay leaders are worn out and we struggle to engage new members?

The first chapter of the new ministry is candidating week. Along with being a chance for minister and congregation to learn about each other, it sets the tone going forward.

Before the congregation can announce you as candidate, the contract must be finalized, background checks initiated, and current congregation informed.

Show your garden the love! Cultivation is about strengthening administrative skills and practices within your congregation. We outline two critical areas of administration: Staff Care/Human Resources and Congregational Finances. We name additional areas that can be the work of future waves cohorts.

When it comes to taking care of your staff, there's much to learn and do. This is an especially important part of congregational administration as it impacts employee well-being and quality of livelihood. It is also likely the largest area of your budget. Use your resources well!

We've collected quotes and stories from administrators who have served in more than one UU faith community simultaneously, as well as from leaders and supervisors who have experience sharing an administrative role with another congregation.

Interdependence! Pollination is about sharing administrative expertise across congregations. We shouldn’t expect every individual congregation to figure everything out and to have all of the tools and talent in-house. How can operations be streamlined and strengthened by sharing people and systems?

Administration isn't flashy. It's foundational! Handled well, capacity is liberated for your congregation's mission and ministries. May these pages be helpful to all who attend to administrative tasks themselves or who depend on that work – supervisors, staff, volunteers, and the entire membership.

Start here! We provide guiding principles for all who have administrative responsibilities. These are the fertile soil for your garden. Please refer back to this page as you work on cultivating and pollinating administrative capacity.

Minding and managing a congregation's financial resources requires knowledge and skills that many staff and volunteers must learn on the job. We have resources and guidance for you.

Congregational leaders, are you intrigued by the possibility of sharing an administrative employee, whether a generalist or a specialist (e.g., bookkeeper, communications manager)? Administrators, might serving two or more UU faith communities be a good choice for you? We'll help you get started.

The protocols for the ranking and matching processes, though imperfect, are in service of fairness and reduced anxiety for both ministers and congregations.

Ask a trusted colleague or two to review your record and make sure its ready on January 2. In December review congregational profiles and express interest.