Tapestry of Faith: Harvest the Power, 2nd Edition: A Lay Leadership Development Program for Adults

Alternate Activity 1: News You Can UUse

(40 minutes)

Materials

  • Card stock
  • Newsprint and markers
  • Writing paper and pens or pencils

Preparation

  • If you’d like to have small groups work in separate rooms, arrange to use as many rooms as you think you’ll need.
  • Make up to five table tents by folding pieces of card stock in half. Label each with one of these headings: Spiritual/Faith Development, Worship, Social Justice, Music, and Facility. Or, use other headings that are more appropriate for your congregation.
  • Set up five tables, large enough for participants to spread out and collaborate. Equip each table with one or two sheets of newsprint, writing paper, markers, and pens or pencils.

Description

In this activity, small groups write brief pieces describing the doings of their 10-years-in-the-future congregation, one that actively cultivates a “we” culture and puts relationship at the center of its religious and spiritual practice.

Tell participants that they are going to travel 10 years into the future of their congregation. Imagine that the congregation actively cultivates a “we” culture and considers attention to relationship a primary religious and spiritual practice. Show them the tent signs for various aspects of congregational life. Invite them to choose the one that most interests or suits them. They will work in small groups to write either a congregational newsletter article or one or more social media posts that announce and explain the activities of the congregation, as if today were 10 years in the future. Tell small groups that they have 20 minutes for this part of the activity, and ask them to move with their tent sign to the tables or rooms you have prepared.

After 20 minutes, reconvene the entire group. Invite groups to share their writings.

Ask participants to consider how, as leaders, they might move the congregation toward the culture they have imagined. You might suggest that by imagining the future, they have begun the journey.