Category Archive

The UUA has been doing a remarkable job of getting exciting resources around growth and leadership into the hands of the people who need them the most–the leaders of our congregations. The just released Listening to Experience DVD is a great example. Here’s what Harlan Limpert, Director of the District Services Staff Group at the UUA (and my beloved supervisor) has to say about it:

5,000 copies [of the Listening to Experience DVD] have been produced, and are being distributed, along with a letter from Bill Sinkford, to UU Ministers, seminarians, theological school professors and instructors, and hundreds of key lay and professional leaders throughout the Association.
This just-completed DVD captures the wisdom and experience of twelve ministers from some of the fastest growing UU congregations in America who gathered for three days last November to talk about how to increase the number of Unitarian Universalists in the world.
During the conversation among these twelve ministers, they responded to questions posed by the Rev. Alice Mann of the Alban Institute. ” They included:

1. “What is the saving message of your congregation?”
2. “How does your congregation help people move inward and outward on their spiritual journey, and how does this relate to congregational growth?”
3. “What institutional, organizational, and practical nuts and bolts need to exist in order for a congregation to grow and keep growing”?
4. “What are the obstacles or roadblocks to growth?”

It is hoped that ministers and key lay leaders will watch this DVD together over several meetings and benefit from the wisdom they have to share. A list of questions to discuss–the same ones that served as the basis for conversation in Louisville–is included in the packaging, as are the names of the participating ministers.

Among the ministers represented were two from Prairie Star: Victoria Safford from the White Bear UU Church in Mahtomedi, Minnesota, and Thom Belote from Shawnee Mission UU Church in Overland Park, Kansas. I was also pleased to see Kendra Ford, one of my fellow seminarians at Meadville Lombard and current minister of First UU Society of Exeter, New Hampshire in video. To learn more about Victoria, Thom, Kendra, and the other ministers who were invited, take a look a the introduction:

I finished the first part of my presentation on Family Ministry in Milwaukee with a discussion of the importance of values, specifically the need to clarify and promote our values.

First, we took a look at what is probably the most well known statement of our UU values, our Principles and Purposes (along with the sources):

We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The living tradition which we share draws from many sources:

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
• Wisdom from the world’s religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

Now I’m a pretty strong proponent of using our principles as a guide for faith development, and I certainly think we should teach them early and often in our religious education programs. However, the way they are worded makes it a little difficult for persons unfamiliar with our faith to discern what are the values we actually promote. And if we’re unable to clearly articulate the values we share in our communities of faith, then we’re probably not offering a comprehensible message to families looking for a spiritual home. Our Principles and Purposes are an excellent example of limited comprehensibility. We know what we mean when we say things like “the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” or “the free and responsible search for truth and meaning,” but for an outsider, these phrases may be seen as more evidence that Unitarian Universalists are just a bunch of over-educated elitists.

How, then, do we make our message clearer? By grounding it in the language of our shared values. So at the risk of sounding like an over-educated elitist, I’d like to suggest that we do more “collective values clarification” or CVC for short. Truth is, identifying our shared values is a relatively easy process, and it can even be fun. Here’s one I’ve done repeatedly and successfully. Gather the people. Generate/show them a list of values (I often use the 21 values George Lakoff mentions in his book Moral Politics). Give the people multiple votes to identify their top three values. Tally the votes. Take the top six or so values and use them in all of your congregation’s promotional material—welcoming brochures, websites, descriptions of religious education classes (for children, youth and adults), etc. Do a sermon series on them. Teach them to your children. Design small group ministry plans around them. Incorporate them into your shared spiritual practices. Use them to guide your social justice activities. You can even build your mission and vision statements around them.

What we need to do is speak the language of values, so that families will know what they’re getting when they walk through our doors. I mentioned my home congregation’s insistence on articulating these values from our mission statement over and over: Unity Church-Unitarian is here to help us live loving lives of service, integrity, and joy.

So, beginning with “service, integrity, and joy,” we generated a list of values on newsprint and ranked them by giving each person three votes. We were able to come up with seven values that would service very nicely as a basis for a family ministry initiative (or for an RE program, or to help build a congregational mission statement). Folks noted that different kinds of congregations would need to use different processes. The important thing is that every family ministry initiative needs to have a set of six or seven values that it’s trying to affirm and promote.

Continuing my Milwaukee presentation: I focused on why building and sustaining connected community is so important for family ministry.

Two things to consider from Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities, by the Commission on Children at Risk:

First, a great deal of evidence shows that we are hardwired for close attachments to other people, beginning with our parents and extended family, and then moving out to the broader community.

And…

Second, a less definitive but still significant body of evidence suggests that we are hardwired for meaning, born with a built-in capacity and drive to search for purpose and reflect on life’s ultimate ends.

The report offers a basic definition and then lists 10 components of a Connected (Authoritative) Community, which to mean sound remarkably like a healthy, vital, multigenerational congregation.

Authoritative communities are groups of people who are committed to one another over time and who model and pass on at least part of what it means to be a good person and live a good life.

Authoritative communities have 10 key characteristics. Based on careful analysis of both the new science of nurture and the existing child development literature, the Commission identified the following 10 principal characteristics of an ideal authoritative community:

• [Connected] communities include children and youth.
• They treat children as ends in themselves.
• They are warm and nurturing.
• They establish clear limits and expectations.
• Their core work is performed largely by nonspecialists.
• They are multigenerational.
• They have a long-term focus.
• They encourage spiritual and religious development.
• They reflect and transmit a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person.
• They are philosophically oriented to the equal dignity of all people and to the principle of love of neighbor.

If congregations really want to attend to the needs of families, we must begin with the needs of children—and building connected communities is the best place to start. Now two of these 10 characteristics may cause some Unitarian Universalists some discomfort: clear limits and expectations, and a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person. So I offered the following interpretations of those concepts. The first is from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose work around optimal experience (or flow) I’ve found to be very helpful. Here’s what he has to say about clear limits and expectations:

There is ample evidence to suggest that how parents interact with a child will have a lasting effect on the kind of person that child grows up to be…. The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous. The second is centering, or the children’s perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job [which is exactly the kind of parental pressure Madeline Levine talks about]. Next is the issue of choice: children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules—as long as they are prepared to face the consequences. The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses, and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in. And finally there is challenge, or the parents’ dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.

I think all of these characteristics apply to the kind of connected community we’re talking about—especially the religious education programs within our congregations.

As far as a shared understanding of what it means to live a good life, I think the Lifespan Faith Development Vision Statement from the UUA gives us some direction here.

We envision children, youth, and adults who:

• know that they are lovable beings of infinite worth, imbued with powers of the soul, and obligated to use their gifts, talents, and potentials in the service of life;
• affirm that they are part of a Unitarian Universalist religious heritage and community of faith that has value and provides resources for living;
• accept that they are responsible for the stewardship and creative transformation of their religious heritage and community of faith;
• realize that they are moral agents, capable of making a difference in the lives of other people, challenging structures of social and political oppression, promoting the health and wellbeing of the planet, acting in the service of diversity, justice and compassion;
• recognize the need for community, affirming the importance of families, relationships and connections between and among the generations;
• appreciate the value of spiritual practice as a means of deepening faith and integrating beliefs and values with everyday life;
• experience hope, joy, mystery, healing, and personal transformation in the midst of life’s challenges.

I especially like the multigenerational quality of this statement. It refers to all of us–children, youth, and adults. And it points to the next part of my presentation: values. More on that tomorrow.

I continued my Milwaukee presention on Family Ministry by defining community:

Community is key to ministering to families. Conservatives understands this. It’s time progressives did, too. And while we strive to have as expansive definition of family as possible, the truth is that when we talk put the concepts of family and community together, we must inevitably think of the children. Here’s what Diana Garland has to say about this:

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” became a political slogan pointing to the importance of community for children, but it does not quite go far enough. All persons, both children and adults, need community. Because children are dependent on others for their survival, their vulnerability in the absence of community is more apparent. As James Garbarino has pointed out, children are like the canaries miners used to take with them into mine shafts. Canaries are particularly sensitive to poisonous gasses, and if they succumbed, the miners knew the environment was dangerous (Garbarino, 1995). Like canaries in mine shafts without adequate fresh air, children “succumb” without adequate communities of nurture and support. Adults, too, however, need to live in community. Some seem to need community more than others, but even self-sufficient adults seek the company of others and need a community when they become ill, injured, or threatened. (Diana Garland, “Community: The Goal of Family Ministry“[Word Doc].)

It’s important for the future of our religious movement, for spiritual progressives, for progressives in general, for the country, perhaps even for the entire world. As George Lakoff says:

I think the issue to bring progressives together should be this most central of all issues—raising children to become responsible, empathetic adults. (Lakoff: Moral Politics)

[By the way, I could easily see “raising children to become responsible, empathetic adults” as the primary goal to measure the success of our religious education programs by. The secondary goal would be raising life-long UUs.]

Unfortunately, this is one of the shared weaknesses of mainline Protestant denominations.

A recent poll conducted for PBS’s Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly surveyed 1,130 adults about faith and family. Anna Greenberg, vice president of the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Inc., told Sojourners [magazine] that “progressive religious groups [need to] make sure they are offering services on the ground for children”—something she said conservative evangelicals often do well. Greenberg saw this as important to the long-term survival of progressive religious traditions. (”Progressive Family Values,” Sojourners Magazine)

So we’ve got our work cut out for us. Here’s where I think we should start: the primary service on the ground we can offer to our children is to offer them connected communities in the form of nurturing congregations.

Here’s why:

According to Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities (a report by The Commission on Children at Risk), the “mental and behavioral health of U.S. children” is deteriorating.

We are witnessing high and rising rates of depression, anxiety, attention deficit/conduct disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other mental, emotional, and behavioral problems among U.S. children and adolescents.

According to the report, these “rising rates of mental and emotional problems among American young people raise a red flag about how well we are nurturing our kids.”

While many American young people are thriving, many more are not, and there are worrisome signs that as a society we are losing rather than gaining ground. Notwithstanding sustained increases in material well-being and important medical advances in the ability to treat depression and other mental disorders, the rate of serious mental and emotional disorders among American children and youth has been rising steadily. Eight percent of high school students have clinical depression, 20 percent report having seriously considered suicide during the past year, and, according to the Surgeon General, 21 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that will cause at least minimum impairment. A recent study of mental health problems among college students at a large Midwestern university found that over the past 13 years, the number of students being seen for depression doubled, the number of suicidal students tripled, and the number of students seen after a sexual assault quadrupled.

“Numerous studies,” says Madeline Levine, author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids “show that privileged adolescents are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse rates that are higher than those of any other socioeconomic group of young people in this country.”

[I mentioned the cover photo from The Price of Privilege: a group of adolescents sitting together on some bleachers, each of them with a wireless phone in their face, probably reading or sending a text message.] In fact, here’s a blog post I read last fall that shows just how disconnected kids are from live human community:

Class of ‘11 brims with gadgets, hope
Posted by Stefanie Olsen

My, my how time flies. In just four years, the profile of the average college freshman has vastly changed, thanks to technology. That’s according to a study published Wednesday from Alloy Media and Marketing and research firm Harris Interactive, which contrasted details of the class of 2011 from that of 2007. (It queried 1,592 students ages 18 to 30 in the United States to gather its data).

The gist is that most college freshman are likely carrying all of the following: cell phone, digital camera, laptop and iPod (or some other MP3 player). It may seem hard to imagine it any other way, but that wasn’t the case just four years ago, when “wired” still meant caffeinated and students weren’t necessarily messaging their professors on Facebook.
What are the differences? Here’s a short list:

No big surprise, but 93 percent of freshman say they own a cell phone, vs. about 78 percent four years ago.

A majority of students, 64 percent, owns a digital camera, double the figure four years ago. Sixteen percent say they plan to buy one this year.

More than half of students (58 percent) own an MP3 player, up from 17 percent in 2004.
A majority of students (63 percent) own a laptop, vs. 42 percent in 2005. The desktop is now considered “old school,” according to the report.

About a third of college kids are mobile on campus, thanks to blanket wireless connectivity at as many colleges, according to the study. That number has doubled in four years, and it’s poised to increase. Two-thirds of campuses say they have a wireless strategy in place.

More than half (54 percent) of students visit a social network every day. Four years ago, the number was too small to report. And 27 percent of students say they prefer to keep in touch with friends via a social network over face-to-face communication.

Finally, a third of this group believes they have an innate ability to change the world for the better and say they are more likely to buy brands that are socially and environmentally responsible. Harris didn’t report the earlier figure [four years ago], but it’s heartening.

The bit about the ability to change the world is heartening, but the fact that “27 percent of students say they prefer to keep in touch with friends via a social network over face-to-face communication” isn’t. While it’s not impossible to make real connections using Facebook and a wireless phone, it’s very difficult and it’s definitely no replacement for face-to-face interaction, or what Dr. Edward Hallowell calls “the human moment.” (He writes that the human moment is ”an authentic psychological encounter that can happen only when two people share the same physical space. It has two prerequisites: people’s physical presence and their emotional and intellectual attention.”)

I continued my Milwaukee presentation by explaining what I believe is the context of Family Ministry. The three main components of liberal religious family ministry: relationships, community, and values. Three nice, abstract nouns. Then I went on to clarify a little bit by adding some modifiers: family (or primary group) relationship, connected (or authoritative) community, and progressive (or liberal) values. Then, to help us move from theory into practice, some strong verbs to help us make these abstract concepts concrete: nurturing family relationships, building connected community, and sharing progressive values.

Relationships, community, and values—these are the things I believe liberal religious/spiritual progressive families are looking for when they come to our congregations. And unless we are aware of these needs and be intentional about what we offer in response to these needs, we’re not doing everything we can be make each of our communities of faith a spiritual home for progressive families.

We looked first a family relationships. What we need, I believe, is a firm understanding of what we mean when we, as religious liberals, say family. And the best way to do that is for us to get a sense of what it means for each one of us, as individuals, to be part of a family. So we did an exercise I call “We Are All Family.” First, you give yourself one point for each of the following relationships you may have:

I am someone’s…

Child
Spouse
Parent
Sibling
Niece/Nephew
Cousin
Aunt/Uncle
Grandchild
Grandparent

Think how much further those relationships go if we say:

I once was someone’s…

I wish I were someone’s…

Everyone has at least some family relationship in their lives. Add to this step- and half- relationships, ex- relationships, lingering relationships with those who have died. And let’s not forget chosen families, people who have formed family units that transcend these categories. This is what we mean when we say we are all family—family defines us, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill—to a large extent.

No one walks through our doors completely alone—and if they did, that would be all the more reason to welcome them as family. “We glad you’re here…you help complete us.”

I closed this section of the presentation with an expanded definition of family:

Persons who commit themselves to attempt to be family for one another… [who] (a) meet their needs for belonging and attachment, (b) meet those needs in others, and (c) share life purposes, help, and resources.

That’s from Diana Garland’s article “Family Ministry: Defining Perspectives,” which you can download here (PDF).

Here’s more from my Milwaukee presentation on Family Ministry. I mentioned another reason why I’m so passionate about family ministry: I’m angry at how the word family has been co-opted by political conservatives and the religious right. I asked folks to consider the following recent statement from one right-wing think tank. It’s called “The Natural Family: A Manifesto”:

The natural family— part of the created order, imprinted on our natures, the source of bountiful joy, the fountain of new life, the bulwark of ordered liberty—stands reviled and threatened in the early 21st century. Foes have mounted attacks on all aspects of the natural family, from the bond of marriage to the birth of children to the true democracy of free homes. Ever more families show weaknesses and disorders. We see growing numbers of young adults rejecting the fullness and joy of marriage, choosing instead cheap substitutes or standing alone, where they are easy prey for the total state. Too many children are born outside of wedlock, ending as wards of that same state. Too few children are born inside married-couple homes, portending depopulation . . .

And so, we advance here a new vision and a fresh statement of principles and goals appropriate for the 21st century and the third millennium.

We see a world restored in line with the intent of its Creator. We envision a culture—found both locally and universally—that upholds the marriage of a woman to a man, and a man to a woman, as the central aspiration for the young. This culture affirms marriage as the best path to health, security, fulfillment, and joy. It casts the home built on marriage as the source of true political sovereignty, the fountain of democracy. It also holds the household framed by marriage to be the primal economic unit, a place marked by rich activity, material abundance, and broad self-reliance. This culture treasures private property in family hands as the rampart of independence and liberty. It celebrates the marital sexual union as the unique source of new human life. We see these homes as open to a full quiver of children, the source of family continuity and social growth. We envision young women growing into wives, homemakers, and mothers; and we see young men growing into husbands, homebuilders, and fathers.

Ugh, I said. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s important for us to present an alternative to the rather restrictive view of the family offered by groups like this. But I acknowledged that these groups aren’t entirely misguided, and that one place to begin thinking about what do we hope to accomplish by focusing on family ministry is to consider what some of those conservative groups are trying do. Here’s the one more paragraph from the Natural Family Manifesto:

We see true happiness as the product of persons enmeshed in vital bonds with spouses, children, parents, and kin. We look to a landscape of family homes, lawns, and gardens busy with useful tasks and ringing with the laughter of many children. We envision parents as the first educators of their children. We see homes that also embrace extended family members who need special care due to age or infirmity. We view neighborhoods, villages, and townships as the second locus of political sovereignty. We envision a freedom of commerce that respects and serves family integrity. And we look to nation-states that hold the protection of the natural family to be their first responsibility.

It’s hard to argue with much of this: I believe that true happiness is the product of persons enmeshed in vital bonds; that parents truly are the first educators; that extended family members should be cared for; and that the government does have some responsibility to make sure that families have everything they need to survive and even thrive. What’s more, congregations may have an even greater responsibility for the families they serve. It fact, ministering to families should be a priority. But how do we get there?

I was in Milwaukee over the weekend to do a presentation on Family Ministry at the Central Midwest District’s REALL conference. Actually, I’m still in Milwaukee as I write this, waiting at the General Mitchell Airport for a flight that’s been delayed twice, so I thought I’d catch up on my blogging. And since I told folks that I’d do a series of posts on the information I presented, I figure there’s no time like the present!

I started with the Mormons. I noted that in my hotel room I found a Bible and, surprisingly, the Book of Mormon. Which got me thinking about the intentionality the Mormon religion has shown around families, especially their official designation of one night a week as “family night,” where families are expected to spend time together and the local churches are not allowed to schedule any events. I also mentioned that in the very first issue of a LDS journal called Marriage & Families, there was an article written by a Brigham Young graduate and professor called “Traditions: A Foundation for Strong Families.” In that article there was a sidebar listing four books for further reading. Three of the four books were written by Unitarian Universalist:

• Bill Doherty’s Intentional Family: Simple Rituals to Strengthen Family Ties,
• Mary Pipher’s The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families, and
• Meg Cox’s The Heart of a Family (which is out of print: her new book is The New Book of Family Traditions.)

I then went on to talk a bit about how my interest in family ministry comes from my own experiece with the Methodist church my family attended when I was a child, and how the congregation really offered no help at all when my parents divorced. I noted that most mainline Protestant denominations of that era we’re doing much either, and that my situation was one shared by tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, adults. And while right-wing conservative Christian groups have been putting their energy into offering ministries for people like me (and families that are currently struggling with difficult times), mainline Protestant denominations haven’t. So I wonder where are the ministries in UU congregations that would help me today if I were a child or youth whose family was falling apart

One of the reasons I’d like to see more ministers blogging is that it can help demystify what ministry is all about. Some of the best minister/bloggers out there seek to make transparent the processes behind much of what they do: from planning the liturgical year to writing their weekly sermons. And in the spirit of true blogging, they even actively solicit feedback on what they’re up to. So…I thought I’d take a moment to share a sermon project that I’m currently working on. You see, since I don’t preach in the same place every Sunday, I have the luxury of writing only one or two sermons a year. And with two preaching gigs coming up right after the new year (January 6 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, and January 13 in Northfield, Minnesota), I figured that I’d better get working on a new sermon.

I’ve already come up with a title and a blurb (something congregations always ask for, sometime several months in advance, other times the week before my visit). I’m calling it “Starting Small,” and the blurb goes something like this:

Sometimes it seems UUs believe that the bigger the idea, the better. But when it comes to building the Beloved Community, starting small makes much more sense.

Of course, often times the title and the blurb end up having nothing at all to do with the actual sermon (which is why “Something about [fill in the blank]” is the best sermon title imaginable!), but in this case, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I want to preach about, and it does include the notion of starting small rather than big. So here’s my line of thinking as of today.

Unitarian Universalists do, indeed, love big ideas. Our Universalist forebears had the audacity to believe–and unashamedly promote–the big idea that God was just too loving of a being to condemn anyone to eternal damnation. In fact, Universalism has often been described as “the biggest word in the English language.” And even when humanist Unitarian Universalists remove God from the equation, our ideas remain just as grand, if not grander. Consider this vision of the future from Humanist Manifesto II (which was signed by such notable UUs a Khoren Arisian and William Schulz):

The next century can be and should be the humanistic century….We have virtually conquered the planet, explored the moon, overcome the natural limits of travel and communication; we stand at the dawn of a new age, ready to move farther into space and perhaps inhabit other planets. Using technology wisely, we can control our environment, conquer poverty, markedly reduce disease, extend our life-span, significantly modify our behavior, alter the course of human evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new powers, and provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for achieving an abundant and meaningful life.

Phew! Why not throw in world peace while you’re at it. Which is, of course, exactly what we did in our relatively down-to-earth Principles and Purposes, where we couldn’t help but include such grandiose concepts as “The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.” Heck, even Prairie Star’s mission statement gets into the game when it proclaims that “The purpose of the Prairie Star District is to work to achieve…a world which lives by UU principles.”

But there’s a downside to these big ideas. If we stare too long into the bright and shiny future they present, we can lose our ability to see the less spectacular (but no less important) opportunities to change the world that are right in front of us.

(Okay, so that’s where I am at the moment. More on this sermon as it develops!)

Yesterday I went to the North Shore Unitarian Church in West Vancouver, BC with a bit of my extended family. Julia and Henry David and I were were joined by Julia’s sister, Christine, and her daughter, Lyra (who’s not named after Lyra in The Golden Compass…which I’m almost finished reading), and Christine’s husband, Michael. It was a great experience! I was so thrilled to find out that I know several people from the congregation, including the young adult facilitator, Samaya, the religious educator, Lynn, and even the minister, Stephen. There’s really nothing like visiting a new congregation and finding a bunch of familiar faces. Not only were my old friends friendly, but as the family and I were making our way down the driveway to the main building, we were greeting by a member of the congregation who was walking along with us. Joan asked if we were new, told us that she was part of the religious education committee, and even volunteered to take Michael, H.D., Lyra, and me to the nursery to help get the kids situated. She said that she hoped we would feel welcome here, and I told her that we were. I was also pleased to find the minister, Stephen, right there in the foyer, greeting folks as the came into the building. Looks like another rogue minister in the making! All in all, a wonderful visit. I can sense great things happening in this congregation.

It may not look like much, but it could be one of the most important documents a religious educator can have. It’s the Safety Award in Reducing the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse from the Institute of Church Safety, an online training program from reducingtherisk.com.

I took the training myself yesterday, passed the comprehensive examination, and was rewarded with the above PDF (love the Old English font, don’t you?). Okay, I was rewarded with a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding protecting our children from preferential and situational abusers, too. Here’s a look at what’s included in the training:

(1) Understanding the Problem of Child Sexual Abuse and the Church

Child sexual abuse can happen in any church regardless of size, location, or affiliation. In this four-lesson seminar, we examine the nature and impact of child abuse, the profile of molesters, why churches are vulnerable, and the legal theories used to prove liability.

(2) Church Liability for Child Sexual Abuse

This three-lesson seminar examines the unique vulnerability of churches to liability for acts of child sexual abuse. The first lesson highlights factors that make churches susceptible to incidents of child molestation. The second lesson looks at the current legal environment and reviews factors that contribute to church litigation. Lesson three examines the most common legal theories that are used to sue churches when child sexual molestation occurs within church settings.

(3) Selecting and Screening Church Staff Members to Work with Children

To ward off potential molesters, and to ensure adequate legal safeguards that rise to the level of reasonable care, every church should implement an effective screening program. This five-lesson seminar starts by reviewing the profiles of child molesters, and then examines the screening process for clergy and paid employees, the use of criminal records checks and other background checks, and concludes with developing an effective screening program for volunteer workers.

(4) Principles of Supervising Children and Youth

This seminar begins by examining the profile of child sexual offenders. It then focuses on the problem of negligent supervision, and explains how key principles can be used to establish a basis for reasonable care. Attention is given to general versus specific supervision, and assessing levels of risk using the concepts of isolation, accountability, power, and activities. The seminar establishes five general principles of supervising children and youth to reduce the risk of child sexual molestation. At the conclusion of lesson 7 is a safety checklist that reviews the material for the entire seminar.

(5) Reporting Child Abuse

This two-lesson seminar reviews legal obligations church staff members may have to report child abuse, and how a church can develop a reporting procedure. Attention is given to understanding the differences between mandatory and permissive reporters, when a report must be made, factors to consider in making a report, and establishing a reporting procedure for church workers.

(6) Responding to Allegations of Abuse

All churches and ministries need to focus on the prevention of child sexual abuse. Realistically no practical prevention strategy is 100 percent effective. An accusation of child sexual abuse may occur in any church. Churches need to develop a premeditated plan or strategy to respond to sexual abuse allegations. This seminar examines nine key issues that church leaders should consider in responding to an allegation of abuse.

Tomorrow I’ll post more about Prairie Star’s plan to have a majority of the religious educators in the district be recipients of the Safety Award.

I was going to post on the outcomes for the fourth and final strand of the new Lifespan Faith Development curriculum series today, but I left my handout at the office and Mondays are a work-at-home day. So instead I wanted to follow up on something I blogged about a couple of months ago–the role logos play in projecting an image of your congregation to the wider community. What brought this to mind was an article in today’s New York Times called “Blackwater Softens Its Logo From Macho to Corporate,” which is all about how “the company’s roughneck logo — a bear’s paw print in a red crosshairs, under lettering that looks to have been ripped from a fifth of Jim Beam — has undergone a publicity-conscious, corporate scrubbing.”

The reason this caught my eye is because Blackwater has felt the need to soften it’s image, but there’s at least one church planter (blogging pastor Ben Arment) who feels that congregations should consider using more masculine logos in order to attract more men (and he claims that it may actually be working). Now I don’t know if UU congregations need logos with a “beefy look” in order to attract more men, but it does make me wonder if logos that are too new age-y may be keeping men away.

Here are the logos in question: Blackwater’s new “softer” logo,

and Reston Community Church’s “beefy” logo,

BTW, Ben Arment’s evangelical church plant in Reston, Virginia is not the first congregation there to use the name “community church.” According to Arment, a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Reston went by used that name some years ago. “Imagine the confusion it must have caused for visitors stopping in,” Arment says, “expecting a church that actually had beliefs.”

The tag line for the original version of this blog was “So, just what does the Lifespan Program Director of the Prairie Star District do?” And even though the tag line for this version is different, my primary purpose for blogging it to let the folks in Prairie Star know what I’m up to. As I mentioned in my previous post, right now I’m in San Antonio, Texas for the Liberal Religious Educators Association’s Fall Conference. It’s traditional for the Program Consultants of the various UU districts to meet the day before the conference to talk about various issues concerning religious education and faith development. Here are a few of the topics that my colleagues and I (along with Harlan Limpert, the UUA’s Director of District Services, a.k.a. “Fearless Leader”) discussed:

• The changing role of Program Consultants in our districts
• Collecting statistics regarding the effectiveness of hiring religious educators for the first time
• Guidelines for non-LREDA religious educators in our smaller congregations
• An update on last summer’s Youth Summit in Boston, along with possible effects it will have on our district youth programming
• Relationships between UUMA (UU Ministers Association) and LREDA chapters in some of our district
• And a bunch of stuff about the national ad campaign, the “Voices of a Liberal Faith” DVD, and Association Sunday

The conference officially starts today, and it looks like a good program to me. We’ll be learning more about the UUA’s new faith development curriculum series called Tapestry of Faith. I’ll keep you posted!

Rather than taking the third, I was preaching on the third last Sunday–in Rochester, Minnesota. About two weeks ago I got a call from Carol Hepokoski, the minister there (and a professor of mine when I was at Meadville Lombard). She wanted to know if I was free to preach on September 30. I was and more than happy to make the 90 minute trip from Saint Paul to spread the good word. Or good words. I titled the sermon “Acceptance and Encouragement,” and it was all about how we should be 1) using our principles as tools to assess how we’re doing in our spiritual journeys, and 2) using the third principle (acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth) as the number one principle for assessing what we’re doing together as a religious community. I mean, if we’re not accepting one another and encouraging each other in our spiritual journeys, then what are we doing?

At any rate, I mentioned a few resources during my sermon (mainly books from the UUA about the Principles and Purposes) and some folks asked that I post them on my blog. So here they are:

Our Seven Principles in Story and Verse: A Collection for Children and Adults
Kenneth W. Collier
Creative responses to the seven principles, each one illustrated with a story, a poem and a brief essay. For all ages, for worship and individual reading.

With Purpose and Principle: Essays About the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism
Edited by Edward Frost
A short history of the Principles and Purposes followed by essays from present-day UU leaders including John Buehrens, Marilyn Sewell, Earl Holt and Barbara Merritt. Excellent for use in new-member classes, as well as for those seeking insight into this essential piece of our living tradition.

Stories in Faith: Exploring Our UU Principles and Sources Through Wisdom Tales
Gail Forsyth-Vail
Stories in Faith is an invitation to begin a unique spiritual journey, one in which stories help us to develop our faith and make meaning in our lives. This is a distinctly Unitarian Universalist collection of wisdom tales. Nineteen in all, the stories are culled from many cultures and traditions and presented using the seven Principles and six Sources as a framework for reflection and further exploration. Forsyth-Vail offers thoughtful advice for respectfully approaching materials from a culture other than one’s own and encourages engagement with wisdom tales as an opportunity for lifelong inspiration and spiritual growth.

The Seven Principles in Word and Worship
Ellen Brandenburg, Editor
The Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism continue to be plumbed for meaning, depth and inspiration. This elegant volume presents fresh perspectives from seven ministers who joined the ministry after the Principles took their current form. Here are essays, prayers, chalice lightings, litanies, meditations and worship readings on each Principle–helping us reflect on their significance and the ways they call us to ethical action and deeper spirituality.

All of these books should be in every congregation’s library. Heck, they should probably be in every UU’s library! At any rate, I don’t have an action shot from last Sunday, but I do have a picture of the Wanted Poster they had taped to the main entrance. (You can find more photos from my Rochester set here.)

I was in Lawrence, Kansas over the weekend to do a presentation at the Unitarian fellowship there. It was basically a day devoted to getting the congregation on board with Our Whole Lives, the UUA’s (and UCC’s) comprehensive sexuality education program. I delivered a reflection at their early “spiritual” service, then did a presentation on what OWL’s all about. In between the two services there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the fellowship’s new addition, and after the second service there was a potluck, featuring some pretty tasty barbecue pork. After the potluck I participated in a panel discussion about the congregation’s commitment to the OWL program, and it looks like we’ll be offering a training for combined Elementary OWL in Lawrence next year. It also looks like there may be an adult OWL class in the fellowship’s future. All in all, it was a fun weekend (you can see a photo set from Lawrence here.)

As part of the presentation, I did one of those mock church sign photos you can do online ( www.churchsigngenerator.com). It got a pretty big laugh when it showed up during the PowerPoint presentation. Can you tell me what’s wrong with this picture?

…and religious educators and lay leaders and parishioners. Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer Blog recently blogged about Capt. Denny Flanagan, a United Airlines “rogue pilot” who has developed quite a “word of mouth” following.

• He mingles with passengers in the gate area
• He makes gate announcements himself, updating passengers about weather conditions and sets realistic expectations for delays
• He uses his cellphone to call United operations to ask about connections for passengers
• He passes out information cards to passengers with fun facts about the plane; he signs two of them, whose owners will win a bottle of wine
• He snaps pictures of animals in the cargo hold to show owners their pets are safely on board
• He writes notes to first-class passengers and elite frequent fliers on the back of his business cards, addressing them by name and thanking them for their business
• He personally calls parents of unaccompanied children to give them updates
• He instructs flight attendants to pass out napkins asking passengers to write notes about experiences on United, good or bad
• He orders 200 McDonald’s hamburgers for passengers if his flight is delayed or diverted

The motivation behind Flanagan’s actions is simple,”‘I just treat everyone like it’s the first flight they’ve ever flown,’ the very smart captain told the WSJ in a highly valuable front-page story. ‘The customer deserves a good travel experience.’” Of course this immediately got me thinking of what a similarly motivated minister might do, things like:

• Mingle with parishioners in the foyer before the service
• Let folks know about exciting opportunities for faith development and spiritual growth from the pulpit
• Pass out information cards to visitors with fun facts about the congregation
• Personally call parents of new children in the religious education program
• Visit each of the religious education classes at least once a year

You know, little things like that. I know that some of our ministers already are doing these and similar sort of things. But I also know of ministers who are so busy on Sunday mornings with the work of the church that they don’t have a lot of time left over for personal touches like these. I heard once, however, that Sunday morning was for visitors. And if all the leaders in our congregations (lay and ordained, volunteer and professional) were to treat everyone as if this were the first time they visited a congregation (including the children), then we’d probably be generating more positive “word of mouth” about our congregations. Just a thought.

I’ve got a few more things to post from my notes for the presentation I gave in Texas a couple of weeks ago. This one is about the fourth trait of a connected community: They establish clear limits and expectations. I think it may be one of the traits with which some Unitarian Universalist might have a hard time. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that a lot of UUs want a “hands off” approach toward themselves and their children, something like, “I left my previous church because they tried to tell me what to believe, and I not going to stick around here it there’s going to be a lot of do’s and don’ts!” But every community needs some grounds rules, and if a community is trying to be intentionally multigenerational (something I hope all of our congregations are trying to do), then there needs to be some ground rules for every generation. So here are some thoughts from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Optimal Experience and Flow) about the kind of context that helps children and youth thrive:

There is ample evidence to suggest that how parents interact with a child will have a lasting effect on the kind of person that child grows up to be. . . . The family context promoting optimal experience could be described as having five characteristics. The first one is clarity: the teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them—goals and feedback in the family interaction are unambiguous. The second is centering, or the children’s perception that their parents are interested in what they are doing in the present, in their concrete feelings and experiences, rather than being preoccupied with whether they will be getting into a good college or obtaining a well-paying job. Next is the issue of choice: children feel that they have a variety of possibilities from which to choose, including that of breaking parental rules—as long as they are prepared to face the consequences. The fourth differentiating characteristic is commitment, or the trust that allows the child to feel comfortable enough to set aside the shield of his defenses, and become unselfconsciously involved in whatever he is interested in. And finally there is challenge, or the parents’ dedication to provide increasingly complex opportunities for action to their children.

“Teenagers feel that they know what their parents expect from them.” I think the same is true of our congregations. Unless our children and youth know that we do have certain expectations of them, then they might start buying into the bad press about Unitarian Universalism: you can believe whatever you want to believe here, we’re an “anything goes” religion, etc. So I love these five “c’s”: clarity, centering, choice, commitment, and challenge. I think they provide a great heuristic (a replicable method or approach for directing one’s attention in learning, discovery, or problem-solving) for measuring the quality of our religious education and youth programs.

I’m continuing to post the notes from my recent presentation to teachers in Dallas. Here’s a very quick summary of the results of the Hardwired to Connect report I’m mentioned in my last post. The authors claim they are making a “New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities” (I call them “connected communities”). Their major claims are:

First, a great deal of evidence shows that we are hardwired for close attachments to other people, beginning with our parents and extended family, and then moving out to the broader community.

And

Second, a less definitive but still significant body of evidence suggests that we are hardwired for meaning, born with a built-in capacity and drive to search for purpose and reflect on life’s ultimate ends.

In order to offer our children the kind of environment they need to make those connections, the report lists these 10 components of a Connected Community:

• [Connected] communities include children and youth.
• They treat children as ends in themselves.
• They are warm and nurturing.
• They establish clear limits and expectations.
• Their core work is performed largely by nonspecialists.
• They are multigenerational.
• They have a long-term focus.
• They encourage spiritual and religious development.
• They reflect and transmit a shared understanding of what it means to be a good person.
• They are philosophically oriented to the equal dignity of all people and to the principle of love of neighbor.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–I believe that these 10 qualities are the definition of a healthy, vital congregation. They are, essentially, the qualities our congregations need to embody in order for us to do the work we’ve set before ourselves, especially anti-racism/anti-oppression work, moving youth ministry to the center of our collective mission, and getting over our 1% a year growth pattern so we can truly reach all those who would benefit from being part of our living tradition.

Well, I’m back in Minnesota now, but I’ve got a couple of more posts about the information I shared during the teacher training in Dallas last Saturday. I talked a bit about the Hardwired to Connect report, using some passages from a sermon I gave last year. Here’s the gist of it:

According to Hardwired to Connect: The New Scientific Case for Authoritative Communities (a report by The Commission on Children at Risk), the “mental and behavioral health of U.S. children” is deteriorating.

We are witnessing high and rising rates of depression, anxiety, attention deficit/conduct disorders, thoughts of suicide, and other mental, emotional, and behavioral problems among U.S. children and adolescents.

According to the report, these “rising rates of mental and emotional problems among American young people raise a red flag about how well we are nurturing our kids.”

While many American young people are thriving, many more are not, and there are worrisome signs that as a society we are losing rather than gaining ground. Notwithstanding sustained increases in material well-being and important medical advances in the ability to treat depression and other mental disorders, the rate of serious mental and emotional disorders among American children and youth has been rising steadily. Eight percent of high school students have clinical depression, 20 percent report having seriously considered suicide during the past year, and, according to the Surgeon General, 21 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that will cause at least minimum impairment. A recent study of mental health problems among college students at a large Midwestern university found that over the past 13 years, the number of students being seen for depression doubled, the number of suicidal students tripled, and the number of students seen after a sexual assault quadrupled.

“Numerous studies,” says Madeline Levine, author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids, “show that privileged adolescents are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, anxiety disorders, and substance abuse–rates that are higher than those of any other socioeconomic group of young people in this country.”

I’ll say more tomorrow about ways we can remedy this situation. But for now, here’s one of those “me in action” shots I’ve been promising…

I’m in Dallas, Texas this weekend to do a presentation at the North Area Texas UU Religious Educators teachers training (that was this morning), and to preach at the First Unitarian Church tomorrow. I really enjoyed the training this morning–a terrific group of teachers from around north Texas. They do this every August, I believe, and it’s something I’d like to see happening around Prairie Star. I’m sure the congregations in the Twin Cities area could support something like this, as well as the congregations in Iowa and Kansas. At any rate, I had a good time, got to see some old friends, and met some wonderful folks who are volunteering their time and energy to be a caring presence for the children and youth in the congregations here. I promised the participants that I would post some of the quotes read during the presentation, which I think I’ll do over a series of blogs this week. Here’s the first set–definitions of faith, spirituality, and religion. It’s from an essay called “A Neuropsychological Perspective on Spiritual Development,” by Andrew B. Newberg and Stephanie K. Newberg, and it can be found in the Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence.

Faith
A neuropsychological perspective posits that all human experience is ultimately processed by the brain. The brain therefore can only provide a “secondhand rendition” of external reality. If this is the case, then human beings always have to have faith in their interpretation of the external reality as it is processed by the brain. Faith, in some sense, is absolutely essential for the human brain to function properly so that it assumes that the world as it is perceived and interpreted represents a reasonable one-to-one correlation with what is actually “out there.”

Spirituality
The feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors that arise from a search for the sacred. The term “search” refers to attempts to identify, articulate, maintain, or transform. The term “sacred” refers to a divine being or Ultimate Reality or Ultimate Truth, as perceived by the individual.

Religion
Religion and religiousness not only contained the preceding criteria, they also included a “search for non sacred goals (such as identity, belongingness, meaning, health, or wellness).” Religiousness also implies that the mean and methods of the search “receive validation and support from within an identifiable group.”

I gave these definitions this morning because I think they do a good job of putting faith and spirituality in the context of religion. Here’s the comment I made about them: “You can have faith and spirituality without a religion. However, if you have a religion, it encompasses those things as well. So when we talk about religious education, we’re talking first and foremost about the things that specifically deal with “religiousness.” But questions of faith and spirituality are part of it, too.” So we teach about Unitarian Universalism, our Principles and Purposes, World Religions, etc. but we are always dealing with issues of faith and spirituality no matter what the curriculum because faith and spirituality are part of any religion.

I followed up those definitions with another definition of religion from another essay in the Handbook called “The Relationship Between Moral and Spiritual Development,” by Lawrence J. Walker and Kevin S. Reimer: “Central to the teachings of all religious traditions are moral guidelines for living a good life and for interacting appropriately with others.”

More from the presentation (and some photos) later.

Okay, so it’s not the same as the Lakes District in England, where Unitarian writer Beatrix Potter lived, but it is lovely. I’m talking about my trip to the Iowa Lakes region last weekend–to Okoboji, specifically, where I preached at an emerging congregation there. I had a wonderful time, in spite of arriving just five minutes before the service began (I got lost in a cornfield somewhere in southern Minnesota…thanks, Google maps!). I was greeted at the door of the Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center by a member of the fellowship, and was made to feel right at home (I hope all visitors are greeted that way!). I’m sorry I missed the coffee hour, which takes place before the service, but I was pleased to be a guest of the congregation at a buffet that immediately followed the service. As I mentioned to one of my table mates, one of my favorite definitions of church is: gather the people, break the bread, share the stories. To that, I would add, and change the world. At any rate, you can see pictures of the trip on my Flickr page (here), and you can download a revised copy of the sermon I preached (Losing My Religion). I’ll be preaching this version in Dallas, Texas this coming Sunday. Whoo-hoo!

This probably isn’t what best-selling Beacon Press author Viktor Frankl had in mind when he coined the work “logotherapy,” but it’s something every congregation should consider. Church logos, according to “Top 20 Church Logos,” a recent post by Kent Shaffer at churchrelevance.com, should be “distinctive, memorable, timeless” as well as “aesthetically pleasing.” Most importantly, they should “communicate the quality” of the church’s “brand.” I think this is one area where UU congregations are woefully behind. Most congregations have no distinctive logo at all, and those that do aren’t necessarily fulfilling Shaffer’s criteria for good logo design. So take a look at Shaffer’s post and see what he’s talking about.

If you’re in the mood, you may want to check out www.logomaker.com. You can play around with their free logo designer and try your hand at creating something that’s distinctive, memorable, and timeless. It’s fun and easy and you never know, you may come up with something that could shake up your congregation’s public image. I just spent about five minutes playing around with the designer, and here’s what I came up with:

That’s just a screen shot of something I was playing around with. But if you got your ministry team to agree on the need to create a new logo, you could develop one with the help of some graphic designers in your congregation that could really say something about the mission of your congregation. If you use logomaker.com, you’ll have to purchase the logo from them. But there lots of free programs out there that do similar things.

I’ll be heading down to an emerging congregation in Okoboji, Iowa to preach this weekend, by the way. I may post my sermon notes tomorrow evening. We’ll see…

Check out “Midweek church nights build spirit” at the UU World. As the title suggests, it’s all about the trend toward midweek (usually Wednesday nights) programming in UU congregations. One of the congregations mentioned is Prairie Star’s own Unitarian Church of Davenport, Iowa. Here’s what the Rev. Roger Butts has to say about Davenport’s programming:

Programming in Davenport, Butts says, is all about faith development. Recent programs included a class called Living the Questions. “We try to make sure that everything we offer gives material for daily home reflection,” he says. “This reminds us that what we do is not just about our brains, it’s about growing our hearts.” On a recent Wednesday twenty-two children under 5 were in the nursery while their parents were attending workshops—and some of the children’s parents were community people drawn to the church by a program called Love and Logic for Parents.

You know I’m thrilled by the “Love and Logic for Parents” workshop, especially since it draws people from the wider community. Focus on faith development and family. Sounds like the way to go to me!

I’ve just received a preliminary report on the UUA’s Youth Summit (the culmination of the Ministry To and With Youth process) from my colleague in the Central Midwest District, Dori Davenport. The gist of Dori’s report is this: “At the end of our five day Summit, we came away with one overarching theme: We ask for a fundamental shift in Unitarian Universalism–a shift to a multigenerational, congregation-based youth ministry in which youth ministry is central to the articulated mission of the UUA.” To which I say, Whoo-hoo! This is good stuff, and I agree with it whole-heartedly. Multigenerational, congregation-based youth ministry–yes! Youth ministry central to our mission–yes! I’m going to be blogging more on this over the next few weeks, specifically about what I consider to be one of the more useful approaches to youth ministry these days. It’s an adaption of the Youth Ministry & Spirituality Project that I’m calling “Spirituality & Service: Youth Ministry for the Whole Congregation.” Stay tuned….

I stuck around Rockford, Illinois for a few months after my internship to be their summer minister, which meant that I had to preach a sermon around the Fourth of July. I made some crack about this being the reason ministers took the summer off–so they wouldn’t have to wrack their brains trying to put together a sermon that celebrated the United States in spite of our history of oppression and aggression. I’m not quite sure what I ended up preaching about myself, but I’m sure it wasn’t as thoughtful as what Rabbi Michael Lerner and the folks at Tikkun magazine have come up with. Check out their Interdependence Day Celebration [PDF], which was published in the latest issue of the magazine. As they say, “There is much worth celebrating in American history that deserves attention on July 4th, despite the current depravity of those who lead this country, though the celebration-worthy aspects of our society are rarely the focus of the public events.”

I know it’s a little late for this year’s celebration, but I think it would be great if congregational leaders could have material similar to the Tikkun stuff available for families to use on their own, material that put the holiday in a liberal religious/spiritual progressive perspective. Even better, congregations could plan to hold thier own Fourth of July celebrations. The idea of summertime being downtime in our religious communities is due for some serious reconsideration. Just because 19th century Bostonians needed to beat the heat and escape to Maine in the summertime doesn’t mean we should continue the practice. Helping families live their liberal faith on a daily basis is a 24/7/365 obligation. That doesn’t mean religious professionals need to be on duty all the time, but we need to constantly be using the technology available to us (like blogs) to share our faith and strengthen our families.

I mentioned earlier that one of the GA web reporters stopped by the workshop Jennifer Nichols-Payne and I presented last Thursday in Portland. I was hoping that there’d be a write up on the UUA website so I could point folks there for information on the Congregation Census, the family ministry survey tool that we adapted for Unitarian Universalists. (The original version was for strictly Christian congregations. By the way, Dawn Cooley was working with me as an intern at the time, and she did an excellent job making sure the survey was truly UU. Dawn also recently delivered an award winning sermon at GA, which you can see here. Just scroll down and click on the video for Saturday morning’s worship: “Worshipping Together, Witnessing Together”; there’s about four and a half minutes of nothingness before the service starts so be patient…or fast forward). So Dawn definitely made the cut!

In lieu of a fancy write up on the workshop Jennifer and I did, I thought I’d hard the PowerPoint presentation we used. You can find it below, or at this nifty website called SlideShare. It’s under the title “Congregation Census.” I’m going to write more about the Census in the next issue of my electronic newsletter for Prairie Star religious educators, youth advisors, and other folks interested in faith development. In the meantime, take a look. If you want more information on the Census, please post a comment here and I’ll get in touch with you.

I’ve uploaded a few new photos to my GA set on Flickr–mostly faces of Prairie Star folks I’ve run into. I’m also in the middle of two days of Pre-GA activities. Yesterday was a day-long meeting of the district staff. There’s more of us each time we meet, and always new faces: we were happy to be joined by Benette Sherman, the new program consultant for the newly consolidated district of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Benette served the UU Fellowship in Ames, Iowa as religious educator. Both Nancy Heege and I are sorry to see her leave the district, but we’re thrilled to have her as a colleague on the district staff. One of the highlights for me from yesterday’s meeting was the breakout groups on various topics of interest we generated at the meeting. I’ll share the list of topics to give you some idea of the kinds of things we discuss at these meetings:

• National strategy for small church vitality.
• New and emerging congregations.
• Campus ministry at district level.
• Services to large churches.
• Technology/web/blogging.
• UUMA conversations about negotiated resignations.
• Integrating clergy leadership in district work.
• Policy governance on the district level.

We also added “Sustainability” to our list of topics. I took part in that conversation, and I facilitated the discussion on Technology/web/blogging. A couple of good suggestions that grew out of those groups involved having specific questions for year-end self evaluation along the lines of, “What new technology did you start using in your job over the past year?” and “What changes have you made in the way you do you job to lessen the impact on the environment?”

And today was the first day of Ministry Days, the annual meeting of UU ministers for fellowship and continuing education. This year’s presenter was the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He made a terrific and inspiring presentation this morning, and he hardly mentioned Barack Obama.

I just received the following e-mail from Jesse Jaeger, Director of Youth Ministry (new job title) at the UUA’s Office of Youth Ministry (new office name). It’s worth reading if you work with youth:

Hello All,

I would like to introduce you all to some changes in the Youth Office.

New Position: First of all, please join us in welcoming Darrick Jackson. Darrick is filling the newly created position of Assistant Youth Ministries Director. Darrick just graduated from Andover Newton School of Theology and will be ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry this fall. He will be taking on more of the day to day management of the Youth Office including supervising the Youth Ministry Associates. Darrick will also be supervising the Office of Youth Ministry while I am on sabbatical this fall.

New Office Name: The Youth Office will soon be the Office of Youth Ministry.

New Job Title: You might have noticed that Darrick has the job title “Assistant Youth Ministries Director.” My present title is changing to Youth Ministries Director. As an Association we have an increased awareness of our work with youth as a ministry. These title and name changes (including the change from Youth Programs Specialist to Youth Ministry Associates) all underscore this shift in understanding. [Jessica York, the new Youth Programs Director, oversees youth curriculum development in the Curriculum Office of Lifespan Faith Development, not the Youth Office. Hope that clears up any confusion.]

Summary of who will in the office next year:

Jesse Jaeger: Director of Youth Ministry (on Sabbatical from September 14th returning January 2nd)

• Overall management of the office.
• Focus on implementation of recommendation from consultation on youth ministry.

Darrick Jackson: Assistant Director of Youth Ministry

• Overall management of office while Jesse is on sabbatical.
• Supervision of Youth Ministry Associations.

Rek Kwawer: Youth Office Assistant

• All the same amazing things she does right now.

India McKnight: Youth Ministry Associate (Starts July 16th)

• Support for the Chrysalis Training Program.
• Support for General Assembly Youth Caucus.

Sara Eskrich: Youth Ministry Associate (Starts July 16th)

• Support for the YRUU Leadership.
• Support implantation of recommendation from the consultation on youth ministry.

This will be the group that will carry us through next year as we work to transform how we do youth ministry in our movement.

Beth Dana and Laura Manning will be leaving the Youth Office in August. Keep an eye out for how we will be honoring the amazing work they have done here. We will be holding parties later in the summer.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Jesse Jaeger

Jesse C. Jaeger
Youth Ministry Director
Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St.
Boston, Ma 02108
jjaeger@uua.org
www.uua.org/yruu
617-948-4359 (work)
617-367-4798 (fax)

This may not seem like much, but acknowledging on the associational level that the work we do with youth is ministry bodes well for the future.

As the current church year winds down (all that’s really left is General Assembly), I’m beginning to think about the three big projects I’ve committed myself to work on next year. I plan on writing about each of them this summer to help clarify my thoughts, but right now the one that’s on my mind is creating a Youth Spirituality & Service Program for congregations to use in Prairie Star. It’s on my mind because I’ve started reading The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence (edited by Eugene C. Roehlkepartain and others) as part of my research for the project, and it seems that coming up with a working definition of “spirituality” will be crucial for success. Here’s a couple that I’ve found in the first chapter of the book:

Spirituality can be defined as a search for the sacred, a process through which people seek to discourse, hold onto and, when necessary, transform whatever they hold sacred in their lives [the sacred includes the concept of God, divinity, transcendence, and ultimate reality].

Spiritual development is the process of growing the intrinsic human capacity for self-transcendence, in which the self is embedded in something greater than the self, including the sacred. It is the developmental “engine” that propels the search for connectedness, meaning, purpose and contribution. It is shaped both within and outside of religious traditions, beliefs and practices.

I like these definitions because they leave room to go beyond God and divinity when talking about the sacred, and because they recognize that spiritual development can occur “both within and outside of religious traditions.” This embraces both seekers (those who remain ambivalent about committing to a particular religious tradition) and dwellers (those who are willing call themselves Unitarian Universalists). Our job, as I see it, is to create a program for dwellers that is also welcoming to seekers.

By the way, I’ve just discover a terrific new resource: The Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. Check it out!