This group of related activities also serves as an introduction to how Whole Church RE brings the uniquely powerful blessing of RE practices like storytelling and embodied meaning-making to the whole church — to build deeper connections in community and engage faith development for all ages.

Time for All Ages Activity

This activity is intended for a Time for All Ages, wonderbox, or similar time in a worship setting, with people of all ages present. It engages congregants to name what their church is for, in a “call and response” manner.

Include the QR Code (to the right) in your slide deck or order of service:

Use a puppet or real (non-church) friend as your partner for this activity, telling the congregation your friend has a lot of questions about them. Say you knew the best way for them to learn would be to come to church with you — so the congregation could help you tell your friend all about it. Begin with a picture of your church, or its name and logo, printed in a large enough to be visible for all.

You could say, “I thought we should start by telling my friend our name/a picture of our church” and ask everyone to say the church name aloud.

If you use a puppet, you can have them “whisper their questions” in your ear (maybe they are shy?) and then repeat aloud to all gathered — or have real person ask you…“So what exactly do you do here?” Focus them on verbs (sing, play, learn, work, drink coffee, pray, worship) Get responses from the crowd, from multiple ages.

Puppet/friend looks overwhelmed and says something like:

“Wow that is a lot. So many ideas. What do YOU think you do here?”

Tell your friend/puppet something like “You know, my job here is (DRE/religious educator etc.) all these answers are true…but I believe that all the things we’ve heard are different ways to describe how we are learning together. I know ALL WE DO IS FAITH DEVELOPMENT and FAITH DEVELOPMENT IS ALL WE DO…that means learning and growing together. So I guess that covers everything.”

Have puppet/friend say “So, you come here to be together and do lots of things. And you think ALL that is about learning together. But I still want to know… what is the MOST important thing you learn here?
Say to congregation -“Well, what do YOU think? What is MOST IMPORTANT of all we teach/learn in this church?”

Ask everyone to vote by QR code, with each person submitting1-3 single word responses that are separate votes (not a phrase). Emphasize all should offer answers. Those with phones can submit for those without or who need an assist. If needed, RE staff or helpers can collect answers from children/youth just after this story, and enter via QR code.

Note: If you do this, let teachers know it’s ESSENTIAL to not have it be a group discussion with answers shared aloud, at least not until AFTER all the group’s answers are collected. (We know participants are very susceptible to bias for answers in a group setting.)

Small Group Activity

Use these questions afterward in religious education or other small group settings. Encourage the participants to answer in one sentence:

• How do you learn to be UU?
• What have you learned from being in this church community?
• How has your faith grown?

Word Cloud Activity

We will create and send you a word cloud unique to your congregation’s shared story, which can be used for further faith formation. If you don’t get your word cloud back within two weeks, please email us, faithengagement@uua.org, with the subject “word cloud.”

To connect more deeply around this activity:

1. consider using the optional questions in small groups around the same time.

2. share, display, and talk about the word cloud, with discussion of the activity and the congregation’s answers.

3. learn about and make word clouds to tell more family, congregational or UU stories.

4. read/discuss Love at the Center: Unitarian Universalist Theologies, edited by UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt featuring this word cloud from Olympia WA UUs.