About Circle Fellowship

The Membership Journey

Making New Friends & Keeping the Old

First Program

Today is the beginning of our Make New Friends AND Keep the Old Membership Drive. Our summer meetings will mostly focus on us becoming ready for the many new friends and members who will be joining us over the next years and on into the future. By August we hope to be up and ready for the early waves of new friends, guests, seekers and future members.

Change

"Yet growth comes with costs. Life is not the same in a smaller congregation as in a larger one, and growth has both pluses and minuses. People fear that the addition of unknown others will spoil the close-knit feeling they have, and they fear that what is lost can never be recaptured. However, having additional people means having a greater pool of resources, both human and financial. New people bring more energy, creativity, excitement, and hearts and minds to serve the congregation and community. It is fascinating to note that despite the fear that larger means colder, people who are asked why they attend their particular congregation most commonly answer that they attend because of the community, whether that community is comprised of 75, 150, 260, 500 or 3000 people." ("Expanding the Circle, Adding Worship Services", New Congregation and Growth Resources, UUA 2004)

Growth means change, and change can be uncomfortable. Congregational reticence about growth can be tied to the desire to avoid such awkwardness. A willingness to look intentionally at the awkwardness that growth brings can help people welcome newcomers more wholeheartedly. Change brings up many feelings. Some of the ones we brainstormed were:

excitement, stress, in-between-ness
remembering, newness, challenge
uncertainty, dislike, revisiting cycles
lost, adjustment, learning
anxiety, calming, fear
discomfort, anticipation, endings
becoming, beginnings, opportunity

We also had quotes on change read from sheets that were passed out. These quotes generated a lot of discussion. You can see the list of quotes here. Many of these seem quite appropriate for us to remember through our ongoing personal, community, congregational and numerical growth.

"What do you Unitarian Universalists believe anyways?"

Since we will be asking people to come and visit CUUF, possibly our neighbors, co-workers, folk we do other things with (dancing, swimming, judo, bird watching?), we will be spending time each week coming up with and even practicing ways we feel comfortable answering some of the "frequently asked questions" that tend to come up. Our brainstorming and sharing on this one "What do you Unitarian Universalists believe anyways?" resulted in this list (similar ideas were condensed together):

It's about the questions
Ours is a non-creedal faith
We are proud to be of many faiths
All souls have value
We can all learn from each other
Independent and free search for truth
Dignity and worth of each person
Our Ministry, Outreach, Mission as Circle UU Fellowship

"These days many of our congregations seek to grow. The reasons vary, of course. Many congregations want to grow because they believe that Unitarian Universalism has something essential to offer to people in these days and times. These congregations have an evangelical sense of what it means to be Unitarian Universalist, and they want to share what they've found with others. This outward-focused mission is a more powerful drive to new people than the sense that they are wanted for their money and time. Some congregations want to grow to help spread the load; they find that they cannot maintain themselves easily with their current number of members. Congregations of all sizes share this feeling, but it is not a good reason to seek growth. Newcomers are attracted to congregations with a focus on mission, not to congregations that mainly want their money and work." ("Expanding the Circle, Adding Worship Services", New Congregation and Growth Resources, UUA 2004)

So where are we going with this?

We're excited about what Unitarian Universalism has to offer in this world, in our Indianapolis community.

We're excited about what our lay/member led CUUF has to uniquely offer in this world, our Indianapolis community, from within the local UU community.

If our reasons for wanting new members is about wanting more folk to give money and to do some of the work we're tired of doing, we should shut and lock our doors.

One of THE most important and successful ways to grow is to have specific, named, congregationally chosen commitment's to outreach with specific groups that we can serve, as a supportive place and community especially when that support is difficult to find elsewhere.

Smaller congregations should begin with two or three objectives for outreach, service, ministry, mission. Usually this will include one or two groups of people and perhaps a project.

Today we're going to begin with the people. What are some of the generally under-represented parts of the larger community that are already well represented and a part of us here at CUUF? What are ones that we perhaps have a small measure of here and would like to increase?

Specific Groups for Outreach and Service

We brainstormed this and then each person got 3 "straw votes"; Racial, ethnic and economic diversity were/are stated as assumed/consensus on this listing so are not listed.

Youth/Young Adults/Teens +++++
Young folk, middle & high school +
LGBT Families +
Young Families ++++
Deaf Liberal Christians +
College Community (all ages) ++
Educators Teachers Behaviorists Music Folk +++
Independent minded +
Intellectually curious ++++++
Activists (self-identified) ++
Quietists (meditation, etc) ++
Sustainable Greenies +++++
Neighborhood Folk +

The following Handouts from the session are available here: Ten Recommendations for Growing a Congregation, the items in it in bold type are the ones we are focusing on first.

Characteristics of a Vital Congregation, Relational Characteristics are the ones about connections to and among people, when they're going well, they are the source of the greatest satisfaction in a congregation. Functional Characteristics are about the physical and fiscal traits, if thay are not taken care of, thay are the source of the greatest dis-satisfaction in a congregation.

Membership and Growth "Thus membership is about growth in every sense. . . Congregations that do not grow, however, will lose members rather than stay stable. Natural attrition will effect congregations and a failure to being in new people will result in stagnation and eventually, decline."

Quotes on Change 28 Ways That YOU Can Practice an Outward Orientation. What's a workshop without homework? Try to pick one or two of these that you can begin to practice and to do!!