What’s Working In Religious Education?

A project of the New England Region, Unitarian Universalist Association 2024

In the spring of 2024, New England Region staff convened a series of conversations primarily with ministers and religious education professionals across the region. We specifically invited congregations we knew were experiencing vibrance and/or growth in their children’s and youth RE ministry, especially since the return to in person programming after the COVID-19 remote ministry.

We asked them "what's working?" because that's the question we are getting asked frequently by congregations who want similar vibrance and growth in their programs.

We invited them to share what was going well, what contributes to that success, and how they measure “what is working.” We asked, what does "working" even mean right now?

Some Common Threads

• Center in Love / focus on relationships, connections

• Tailor our offerings to the kids / families who are present. This includes being flexible to meet the schedules and needs of these families.

• Being where the kids are (e.g., sports or school plays) puts us in the place to talk with parents

• Communicate often - not just when asking parents for something

What Metrics to Use

Many of our congregations are used to using attendance numbers on Sunday morning to measure success. These may not be the best markers right now! 

• If it does not bring Joy, we aren’t doing it! Is it making families’ lives easier?

• Look at engagement more, and numeric attendance less.

• “The Vibe” - are people happy to be here? One DRE recounted a story of two young girls hiding from their parents because they didn’t want to leave church. That’s a sign you’re doing something right.

• Interaction with families including on Facebook / Instagram. If families are interacting and staying in connection, even if they're not present all the time, we're doing something right in staying in relationship.

Examples of Unique Offerings

These examples might not work for your congregation, but we hope the examples of the ways these congregations are meeting the needs of their families is inspiring and helpful. 

•Ask parents questions when you see them at coffee hour, instead of sending emails requesting replies; make it easier for them to respond with information you need.

•Pancakes, Play and Planting Peace! One Saturday a month, the Concord, NH UU church offers a whole church pancake breakfast, with play space for young kids, and an intergenerational social justice/service project.

•Family Small Group Ministry - dinner together as a family followed by supervised play for the children and minister-led SGM for parents (West Hartford, CT).

•Ping Pong or other tabletop games are fun for middle and high school students and foster space for conversation and connection.

• Fairhaven MA created a play space in the Sanctuary - a table with craft supplies, books, coloring pages and some small toys and dolls; families either sit near that section or feel safe letting their children go to the table during worship (the table has RE volunteers there to welcome them).

• The downtown urban location of the Taunton congregation is in walking distance of several playgrounds. Periodically, the church gathers a bunch of small toys from the dollar store. They tie a small note to it saying the folks at First Parish left me for you to find! Come visit! The DRE reports joy when the occasional new family appears, their child clutching a tiny dinosaur she recognizes.

• Continuing to offer hybrid worship means some families are opting to attend from home instead of not showing up at all.

• Several congregations convened a whole church conversation to talk about the mission of RE and family ministry, and what we want our children, youth, and families to experience over the church year. This helps plan what they will do and will help them evaluate how they succeeded at year’s end.

Some Practices

In listening to these congregations we noticed some practices that you, too, can use: 

•Build trust: Staff need to build trust with governing boards, families, volunteers to try new things. Each of these congregations tried multiple experiments and felt the trust of leadership to do so.

•Simplify: Discern what is within your capacity (time, talent, treasure) to do with relative ease.

•Take faithful risks - it’s okay to try something new, that serves your mission, even if it might not go the way you expect. Flexibility is needed in order to stretch.

•Collaboration - look for opportunities to magnify impact through partnership with nearby UU congregations or with other liberal religious institutions in your community (eg, partner with the local UCC church to offer OWL programming). We are not alone!

•Joy and Ease are great watchwords for this time. Anxieties are high, resilience is low - our congregations can be an oasis for overwhelmed families!