When we speak of the growth of Unitarian Universalism we sometimes give the impression than it is a matter of techniques that we can master (have you heard about pink coffee cups for visitors?) or programs that the Association of Congregations can implement (one, two, three fast start congregations coming to major growth metropolis near you.) We can also look for magic bullets, our UUA staff has lately discovered marketing and we all love to see Unitarian Universalism up on big blue billboards. I think that these "techniques" are all good, sort of like the "365 ways you can save the earth" are all good. I read that book and I recycle. But recycling will not change our relationship to the cosmos, because to live in harmony with the earth is a religious task. It requires conversion, a change in our habits of the heart.
Growing Unitarian Universalism also requires a conversion, both a conversion of individuals (to becoming UU evangelists) and a conversion of whole faith community. One small beginning toward this conversion is to recognize that growth is not simply quantitative, it is more than just numerical growth. If we concentrate on numbers, we will never grow.
One of the reasons many of our congregations do not grow is that their community life is conflicted and the way the leadership handles this conflict is to avoid the conflict. Another reason that many of our congregations do not grow is our ministers and our lay leaders see their task as providing services for the members, they see themselves as providers of religious services to needy consumers. This way of being church accepts the spiritual immaturity of those who come among us, and maintains that immaturity. Another reason is that congregations don't grow is that congregation doesn't stand for anything in the world, that congregation does not live its message.
Visitors come, they are given pink coffee cups and they experience the congregation as not walking its talk, and not providing a challenge to personal and interpersonal growth. And they leave. If we concentrate on numerical growth alone, we create a revolving door.
Loren Meade, in his book More Than Numbers, The Way Churches Grow, argues that congregations can not simply grow by having people sign the membership book. We need to look at both quantitative and qualitative measures of growth, and he suggests four "ways churches grow." These four are numerical growth, maturational growth, organic growth, and incarnational growth.
What Mead calls numerical growth includes not only voting membership but attendance at worship, participants in programs and events, increases in the number of programs offered, increases in financial giving.
Maturational growth reflects change in how the congregation conceives itself and how it members relate to each other and the world. More members think "How can I contribute to the mission of this church?" rather than "What am I getting from this church?" There is a conversion of the leading members from thinking about the members as consumers of church services to thinking about the members as participating in ministry together or in Mead's words "from the consumer orientation where members expect the organization to deliver them spiritual care, to that of contributing ones unique talents and gifts to others through a sense of personal ministry."
Organic growth refers to the internal health of the congregation, it a measure of the congregations ability to handle internal conflict and change. A mature congregation is more able to maintain itself as an institution, as a living organism able to engage with other institutions of society, a congregation that "plays well with others."
Incarnational growth is the measure of a congregations ability to walk its talk. In the case of Unitarian Universalist congregations it would indicate an ability to apply religious liberalism and make it a living faith both inside and outside the congregation. When embody our faith, when we live the words of our affirmation, then the congregation witnesses its values not in simply making statements about what it thinks about social justice issues but in many concrete ways that indicate its caring, and courage to be an alternative to the dominant society.
I am printing this post out and I am saving it - and I am sending it to my friends, too, because it is so important. This is so, so key!!! This really helps me. I especially appreciate the identification of the consumeristic sort of approach to church, which I know has been brought up before, but perhaps never in such a straightforward (non-whiny) way. *sigh*
We have so much work to do.
Amen.
I've spent the last month plotting out UU Annapolis' growth from 350 to 600. I could and may write a book.
Yes, there are barriers and strategies to grow in all ways. But the truest and simplest answer is a small group of people who believe the Unitarian Universalism has and is transforming. Who latch onto that evangelical notion and don't let go come.
Nancy