This presentations is the result of 10 months of research, study and dialogue on congregational growth, and what it will take to orient the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury to grow. Authored by Susan Shaner, Anne Krieg, Charlie Schott, Shawn Sweeney and Rev. Barbara Fast.
2. Overview
› Introduction
› Team Purpose, Goals & Approach
› What Is Growth?
› Within, Among & Beyond
› Why Should We Grow?
› Distinctive Calling
› UUCD Mission
› How Can We Grow?
› Assessment - Who Are We Today?
› Systems Index
› SWOT Analysis
› Learnings & Insights
› Recommendations
› Who Can We Be Tomorrow?
3. Introduction
› Team Purpose – Think Tank charged with:
› Studying
congregational growth,
considering UUCD s potential for growth
› Providing
recommendations for short and
long term initiatives to promote growth.
› (Added)Participating in UUA Eastern
Regional Growth and Vitality Consultancy
Project.
4. Introduction
› Team Goals
› Assess and Evaluate congregation today
› Identification of best practices for growth
› Articulate a future state
› Develop a plan for growth:
› Identify barriers and opportunities to
growth
› Identify and integrate systems that
maintain membership
› Analyze organizational structure against
growth strategy
5. Introduction
› Team Goals (continued)
› Create
roadmap that is directional in
nature with tactics, milestones and metrics
› Establish guidelines for Implementation
Team(s)
6. Introduction
› Learning Team Approach
› Met bi-weekly March – January (summer break)
› Built on UUCD Information
› Utilized External Resources
› Incorporated Systems model of current and
future states (functional interrelationships)
7. What Is Growth?
Multidimensional Growth, Not Just Numerical
› Within – Each individual
› Among – Inter-member; Organization
› Beyond – Community; Social Action
8. Why Should We Grow?
We have a moral imperative to grow!!
› To fulfill our responsibility to our mission!
› To grow a community around Unitarian
Universalist spiritual practices and ideology.
› To better address the social issues in Greater
Danbury and the world beyond and shape our
collective cultural values.
This cannot be about getting more money.
Money will be an outcome.
9. Change: What are we Talking About?
Size Transition N-Curve
Pastoral Size Corporate Size
Pastor-
centered
Family Size Program Size
Group- ★
centered
Organism Organization
Mann, Pg. 12
10. What will it take?
6 Factors of Differentiation
Pastoral Program
› Style of leadership
› Structure of reflected organization
› Focus of decision making process
› Manner of relating
› Clear sense of mission and distinctive
calling
› Size of attendance
Mann, pg. 13
11. Pastoral Program
Shift is Discontinuous
› Program-driven, multi-cell/group-
oriented vs. Pastor/Board led
› Supported by:
› A
lively network of staff, volunteer
program heads and committees
(ministries)
Mann, pg. 13
12. Movement to Program Size
A clear identity for the church as expressed
via mission statement/vision
leads to:
Larger membership and rich variety of
programming coherence
² Stimulates 0ur imagination about church life
² Clarify our reasons for participating
² Provides rich networks of friendship, growth, and
ministry.
14. Distinctive Calling
“The more a congregation comes to understand its own uniqueness, the better
equipped it will be to hear God’s call and to “dance” with its context…. A still
small voice is calling the congregation from deep within, from the heart of it’s
very particular (even peculiar) character and its unique constellation of gifts….
But to hear the whisper of a unique call – deeply rooted in the past and deeply
relevant to today’s context – leaders need to find a much more subtle and
idiosyncratic vocabulary of congregational giftedness.” P. 76 Mann
› Within
› Explore Spiritually - individual theology
› Among
› Create a community of diversity, openness,
acceptance, support and collective action
› Beyond
› Live our faith in the world around us and help shape
our cultural values
15. Our Mission
Current Mission Statement:
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury is an open religious
community that welcomes a diversity of people, ideas and beliefs. We
celebrate together that which is good in life, and offer comfort and care
in times of need. With others, we work to create a just society and a
sustainable Earth. We stand as a beacon for independent thought, and
encourage lifelong spiritual and intellectual exploration.
Focused, Memorizable Alternatives (examples):
We are an open religious community of shared ministries committed to
justice, compassion and service.
We are an open-minded religious community that shares a ministry of
love and justice within, among, and beyond ourselves through deeds not
creeds.
16. How Can We Grow?
› Assessment – Who are we today?
› Recommendations – Vision: Who can we be
tomorrow?
› Action Plan – Make it happen!
› Leverage & Harness our strengths
› Bolster our weaknesses
› Remove/mitigate the threats & barriers
› Seize our opportunities
› Manage the process
18. SWOT Analysis - Definitions
› Strengths– What we re doing well and factors
that position us well for growth
› Weaknesses – Elements of our work, under our
control, that are inefficient or ill-formed and
are therefore barriers to growth
› Opportunities
– Untapped resources that are
available to us which would promote growth
if accessed or leveraged
› Threats
– Factors that could challenge our
growth if they are ignored and/or not
addressed
19. SWOT Analysis – Strengths
› Liberal Religious Values
› Visible and Accessible
› Sunday Worship Experience
› Abundance of Willing Leaders
› Governance
› Commitment to Spiritual Growth
› Caring Community
› Community Connections
21. SWOT Analysis – Threats
› Catastrophe
› Religious Competition
› Other
institutions better serving their
congregations
› Economy
› Continued
or worsening economic and
employment conditions
22. SWOT Analysis – Opportunities
› Refine and Focus our Mission and our Message
› Enhance Governance
› Regenerate Financial Vitality
› Enrich Worship Experience & Spiritual Practice
› Vitalize Membership Path and Lifecycle
› Build and Energize Partner Relationships
› Capitalize on External Resources
23. SWOT Analysis – Cautions
Potential inhibitors if not properly managed:
› We have too much change too fast
› We stray from our mission and focus
› We fall short in our fundraising
› We continue deficit spending
› We mismanage conflict
› We don t market & communicate adequately
24. Learnings & Insights
› We are just below the threshold of being
able to grow per the System Index, yet we
say we want to grow.
› We don t have a clear approach for how
members are introduced, become
engaged, contribute and become
committed to UUCD
› Our committees are silo-ed which creates
a number of outcomes such as working
cross-purposes, lack of integration,
creating multiple, conflicting events
occurring on the same day
25. Learnings & Insights
› Language is important
› We
need to change our language to
grow in ways we want to
› Growing will require a lot of work
› Growing requires a culture shift
› Growing
requires an ongoing plan that is
monitored and evaluated systematically
26. Learnings & Insights
› We are a small group of committed,
passionate people. This serves us well in
that we have a presence in the Greater
Danbury area greater than our numbers
should warrant. The downside is people
burnout, we try to be all things to all
people, and we don t always sustain our
plans.
› We need to say no more – take a step
back – to consolidate to grow.
› We need processes whereby new
initiatives can be evaluated and decided
upon.
27. Learnings & Insights
› We have to realize that each time
people enter a room, they walk in with
ambivalence, wondering whether this is
the right place to be. This is because they
believe that someone else owns the
room. We need to enable everyone to
feel that they own the room.
28. Learnings & Insights
› The
system model could depict UUCD as
comprised of five ministries:
› Stewardship – BOT, CC, Finance, B&G, Admin
› Spiritual Growth – SSC, Music, SGM, COM
› Membership – Welcome, Hospitality, Care
› Programming – RE, Adult Ed, Events
› Social Action – Sow Green, Team Green,
Dorothy Day, New Sanctuary
30. Update our Leadership Practices:
› Our mission is our owner.
› Harness our Passion
› Become process and job-based versus people and
passion-based
› Construct Job descriptions
› Increase organization and change structure,
language and way groups interface
(i.e., committee heads to ministry leaders)
› Match gifts (talent and skills) with work required
› Require Leadership Training (Certification)
› Capitalize on external resources.
31. Diversify & Enhance Fundraising:
› Raise expectations that we can deliver a balanced budget
with the Annual Budget Drive alone.
› Diversify fundraising efforts
› Put more energy into already existing revenue streams
› Innovate to create new revenue streams.
› Consider the future of the congregation’s plan to grow
reserves and begin saving.
› All fundraising aligned with our our calling, mission & vision
33. Endowment Reserve Spending
Weekly Offering
Supplemental
Rentals Pledge
Events
What s Missing? How can we grow
our other revenue
streams and/or
improve the
effectiveness of our
annual budget drive
Annual Budget
Drive
Preliminary Budget Revenue Streams
34. Annual Budget
Drive
Balanced Budget
What s Missing?
Endowment
Weekly Offering
Rentals BUT WAIT!
Events THERE S MORE!
Preliminary Budget Revenue Streams Annual Budget
35. Preliminary Budget
Annual Budget
Actual Revenue
Imagine if each year we were actually fundraising for two
budget cycles ahead…
36. Focus our Spiritual Practices:
› All work in the Congregation is a ministry
› Grow multi-cellular collaborations.
› Enrich
and expand worship opportunities and
experiences
› Growlifespan opportunities for members to mature
and deepen their spiritual identities
› Prioritize and focus our social action efforts.
37. Establish Membership Lifecycle
› Spell out with specificity what becoming a member looks
like, from visitor to committed member.
› Establish responsibilities of ministries to proactively and
systematically maintain membership.
› Cross-ministry ad hoc team to map out life-cycle and build
implementation plan.
› Build and energize community and outreach partner
relationships.
38. Ultimately, we must…
› Honor our mission as our owner;
› Focus our passion and cultivate leadership;
› Diversify and enhance our fundraising efforts and save for
the future;
› Mature and enrich our spiritual identities; and
› Cultivate our future through clear membership practices.
39. Goal Setting
It s not about time but where we put our energy
Immediate
Deliverables
Short Term Goals
(3-5 years)
Long Term Goals
(6-20 years)
Larger Vision
Fulfilling our
distinctive
calling…
40. Next Steps:
› Board Review of Recommendations
› Choose Recommendations to Support
(with resources of time, talent and treasure)
› Short Term and Long Term Planning
› Hand
off to Growth Implementation
Coordination Team
› Implementationand review process aligned
with 6 month goals and 3 year UUA process
41. Next Steps: Implementation Synergies
Establish Membership Lifecycle
Members
Enhance Fundraising Focus Spiritual Practices
Gift Ministries, Spiritual
Release Programs Practice
Expand Programs
Organization
&
Governance
Update Leadership Practice
