A New Kind of Growth

On Saturday, January 13 I joined a delegation of Starr King members and our minister at a wonderful growth workshop for area congregations. Retired Unitarian Universalist minister Larry Peers, a consultant with the interfaith Alban Institute, led the workshop. I went expecting to listen to and share ideas about how to get more visitors in the door and how to grow our membership. I came away thinking more deeply about why we want membership growth.

I think quite often about growth in our congregation. We are a very friendly, welcoming congregation. When I first came to Starr King about six years ago, I had already tried a couple of other UU churches and was not terribly excited about them. But when I visited Starr King, several people made sincere efforts to connect with me and to make me feel welcome every Sunday. Being a joiner by nature, I got on a number of committees and attended an adult RE course. I soon felt I was an integral part of the church and the church a part of me. My church experience extended beyond Sunday morning. Since then, I’ve visited some of the big east coast UU churches and found Sunday services to be quite a lonely experience. In Massachusetts I stood in the hospitality hall after Sunday service with my green “visitors” coffee cup and felt very uncomfortable. The room was crowded with scores of people rushing this way and that, but when they saw my “visitors” coffee cup, they turned and walked away. I finally had to stand in front of someone and introduce myself to strike up any conversation.

I don’t think we have that kind of problem at Starr King. I think we’re a friendly congregation. We could do better, though, in bringing visitors fully into the fabric of our congregation, not only in welcoming them, but also in nurturing, empowering and serving our congregants.

At the workshop, Larry Peers talked about growing the soul of the congregation and building on congregational strengths to develop a more spiritual and meaningful church experience for all. He talked about paradigm shifts in the ways we do church. We focused on the big picture. There is an interrelationship, we learned, between the welcoming, nurturing, empowering and serving systems of every congregation. Over 250 UU members attended his workshop. Through a series of exercises, each congregation team explored the cultural and historical heritage of their own congregation. We learned through introspection some of the cultural and historical baggage that has held us back. We also looked at our successes and how they came about. We shared our dreams and visions of our church in the future.

I hope to join others at Starr King to envision a future where welcoming, nurturing, empowering and serving each other and our outside community is an integral part of our spiritual experience. In my dream, an integrated system would see us all welcoming visitors with a sense of presence and spirituality. In this vision, our holy work would not stop at our door, but would include an integrated system for personal growth, support and empowerment that would enrich us all. ~Bob

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