This video is a portion of the Conversations with Leaders: Dual Platform Future for All Ages webinar that was offered in April. In this video, Nancy Combs-Morgan, Mid-America Congregational Life Staff talks about inclusive congregations and how that needs to be the focus as we plan for the future.

This video is a portion of the Conversations with Leaders: Dual Platform Future for All Ages webinar that was offered in April. In this video, Annie Scott, Pacific Western Staff talks about the role of religious educators in planning for moving forward....

This video is a portion of the Conversations with Leaders: Dual Platform Future for All Ages webinar that was offered in April. In this video, Wren Bellavance-Grace, New England Congregational Life Staff, talks about trauma and how it impacts our congregations and returning to religious education...

This video is a portion of the Conversations with Leaders: Dual Platform Future for All Ages webinar that was offered in April. In this video, Patricia Infante, CER Staff in Lifespan Faith Development talks about conflict and how change and conflict are connected in our congregations. As our...

In covenantal communities, we are called to relationships of mutuality. Sometimes this requires taking time to listen deeply to one another’s concerns and fears before making important, impactful decisions.

Hear insights from Congregational Life Staff and read insights from leaders about the challenges and possibilities of moving toward in person ministry that is inclusive for our whole community including children and youth.

Key principles for congregation planning for multi-platform operations based on the needs and risks in your community.

What does this Multi-Platform era mean for staff? Once again, expectations are changing. We offer some considerations to help you live into our values of equity and compassion so that staff can do their best work in these challenging times.

It's important to understand that our faith communities have gone through a traumatic experience, and that is having an impact on our physical and mental functioning. 

It is important for leaders to communicate with clarity, timeliness, and compassion, about the changes that are coming. 

Where are the greatest needs right now in your community, both among your membership and your surrounding community?

Three qualities of church that will be important in our next phase of how to be together are attention to mission, nimbleness, and inclusion.

Which ministries do you want to prioritize to create multi-platform experiences? Here are some scenarios to help you figure that out!

3 travelers search for a new home where they will feel welcome and included. They encounter a single leader, a group of leaders, and circle of equals. The communities mirror an autocracy, a republic, and non-hierarchical community.

We understand covenants as being an attempt to make promises together that are grounded in a shared understanding of something unenforceable but to which we want, collectively, to be faithful or obedient. However, lots of other stuff can tend to creep into our covenants, too...

So, friends, let’s practice together. I invite you to engage in some reflection about whether and how you are bringing that individualism into your practice of covenant and what a deeper practice of covenant can make possible for us. 

Restorative Circles are a UU congregation tested way to restore relationships, build community and resolve conflict.

This activity is adapted from an exercise developed by Dr. L. Lee Knefelkamp, described in “Integrating Jewish Issues into the Teaching of Psychology” by Evelyn Torton Beck, Julie L. Goldberg, and L. Lee Knefelkamp, Chapter 17 in Teaching Gender and Multicultural Awareness (edited by Phyllis Bronstein and Kathryn Quina

Stuck at home together, every family member’s behavior affects others some exponential degree more than usual. Families may wish to try making a covenant together.