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.

In planning for post-pandemic church, you may find this opening reading useful. As the author reflects, "No one's done this in living memory."

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.

Improve the quality of your process by taking time to create a shared understanding of all of the things that should be taken into consideration.

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

Here are some key questions for your congregational leadership as you look at programming that meets the needs of those meeting in person and those meeting on-line.

In an end-of-the-year meditation over the holidays, the teacher suggested that we students take what we were grateful for and what we had learned and what had made us stronger in 2020 and bring all of that into 2021, leaving the rest behind.

How can your small congregation keep your programs nimble and effective?

Also known as Dynamic Governance. Books, Articles and Training for Decentralizing Leadership

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.