Volunteers are the lifeblood of our congregations. They fill our committees, lead our small groups, cut the grass, and run our canvasses. A constant stream of them flows through all aspects of church life. That is, if we ask the right people....

If any committee is a natural for Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations, it should be the booktable committee. A bookstore, booktable, or bookstall can not only feed the hunger of congregants for UU-related books, but can make it easier for religious education classes and other groups to get the...

Pennies and nickles from church school children, combined with larger donations from adult members, helped the endowment fund at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Bethesda, MD (917 members), grow past a million dollars last year.November is Endowment Month at Cedar Lane, and that's...

What do you do when you're asked to help at a school with no windows? If you're a member of High Street Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Macon, GA (122 members), you make windows....

We've all been there. The service is about to start and the moderator asks the dreaded question: Are there any announcements? Yes, it seems there are, and they go on forever. How best to handle them?...

Think back to the last time you were asked to chair or serve on an important congregational committee? Did it feel like: I thought you'd never ask. I was just going to ask you if I could do that. A death sentence. It may be too much to expect that we will be overjoyed when we are asked to take on...

The voice of experience belongs to Deirdre Shaw when it comes to attracting young adults to Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations. Three times in ten years she tried to form a Young Adult group in her own congregation. Twice she failed. But the third time she succeeded and now on any given...

Q. We're concerned about all the ways that members are getting asked for money at church. There are the musicians that bring tapes, Girl/Boy Scouts/school fundraisers, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the collection plate, the service auction, regular/capital pledges, a church used book...

We see them under our coffee cups at social hour. They are the little people darting around our kneecaps. Or they are the teenagers and young adults lurking on the edges of our congregational gatherings. We see them but we don't always have much to do with them, busy as we are with our own...

Q.My church has about 175 members. We have always had a fulltime minister and part-time secretary and custodian, but we began paying our half-time director of religious education about ten years ago and recently began paying a quarter-time music director....

Congregations that want to grow might think that advertising is the only way to attract members. But there's another option for UUs who are willing to put their principles to work. Social action can help build your membership, even as it boosts your local community. It's also much less expensive...

When visitors come through our doors most of us are pretty good about making them a nametag, introducing them around, and making sure they know where coffee hour is held. But once they become members, sometimes we're a little less sure of how to relate to them....

At the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Congregation of Fairfax in Oakton, VA (664 members), the joke about the annual service auction is that if it weren't for the auction none of the members would have a social life. ...

Q. We just had our annual meeting and we were barely able to declare a quorum at the start of the meeting. The same was true at a special meeting we held earlier this year. By the time we got around to voting I'm sure we had lost our quorum. I find it a little disappointing. How do other...

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. —Thomas Edison Monthly work parties are an institution for most Unitarian Universalists (UU) congregations, necessary to keep the grass cut, the buildings painted, and the bathrooms shined up . But getting...

Helping volunteers to feel good about what they're doing is one of the best ways to keep a congregation moving forward. What works best? Respecting volunteers' time is a good way to show appreciation, says Martha Osgood, membership co-chair at The UU Church in Eugene, OR (209 members)....

Q. We had a disturbing incident at our church in Ohio this weekend. A member got an early morning call from a man who claimed to be connected with the church, but was in fact an impostor. In most convincing terms he said he'd been beaten and robbed in San Francisco and needed someone to send him...

Helping volunteers to feel good about what they're doing is one of the best ways to keep a congregation moving forward. What works best?Respecting volunteers' time is a good way to show appreciation, says Martha Osgood, membership co-chair at The Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Eugene, OR,...

Q. We are preparing position descriptions for many staff and committee positions at our church and wonder if anyone has anything on a church archivist or historian? A....

There are moments in each of our lives that stand out because they mark the beginning of a significant chapter—graduation from high school or college, the birth of a child, achieving a major career goal. Many of us can also remember with great clarity the first time we stepped inside the church...