Dear Companions,

A few weeks ago, our UUA field staff met in Boston with our new UUA President, Peter Morales. He shared with us his expectations for our work. Not surprisingly, he asked us to lift up the question of numerical congregational growth and to devote time and resources to where growing congregations is most likely.

There are several kinds of growth to consider in congregational life: spiritual maturity, congregational stewardship, organizational health, effective social witness, and simple membership enrollment. I'll address these in the next few issues of the FLD Connections.

I begin with numbers because, to quote our President, each number represents a living person who is or wants to be part of our religious community. We are in the people business. In this deep sense, the numbers do matter. They tell us how well we reaching people!

Broadly, the numbers are worrisome, across the board for traditional churches and Unitarian Universalists among them. We are in the midst of a huge cultural shift. Fewer than 50% of American people participate in any worship in a given week. The historic "mainline" churches are all in decline. Among ourselves, our Association has only a few more members today than it did upon formation 48 years ago, currently just over 172,000, down from the previous year. Our Florida District declined by over 100 members last year, to fewer than 4900 adults. Yes, numbers matter. But what do they tell us is the harder to fathom question ~ except that we should pay attention!

President Morales cited research that indicates Unitarian Universalist congregations host 5,000 or so guests EVERY week. These are people who seek us out. In a year, that's over 250,000 people, more than our existing membership. [There's another empirical study from the Gallup organization that argues over 750,000 people claim to be members of our congregations; it sure would be nice if they were actually known to us!]

Often, during the recent Presidential campaign, Morales would say, to grow our faith, we need simply to stop repelling our guests.  Here's the truth: we are attractive to a great many people, but we don't hold them. Could it be that when they experience us up close, we fail to feed their yearning? Is Peter Morales right: we actively repel people?

In my role as your DE, I have preached the need to do a better job with welcoming, hospitality, and having intentional pathways to membership. Our numbers suggest the need to say it again!

I encourage you to do a few things to test your growth potential: 

Ask: How well do you welcome guests? Ask them, not yourselves! Do you follow up return guests with any kind of personal contact? If not, why not? Were I to express interest in joining your congregation, would you be able to tell me of a process more demanding than "sign" the book?

 

Calculate: Add up the number of guests you had in the last 12 months. Divide that count by your membership number. If your ratio is less than 1, you need to do a better job of public relations, letting people know you exist. When the ratio is less than 1, you will be pressed just to hold even due to losses by moves or death.

 

If the ratio is greater than 1, you have improving odds for growth. The test then becomes how well you invite people into membership, converting them from "attendees" to active participants. A simple secondary test: ask your new members how many friends they have made after six months. If the report is fewer than 5, the odds are poor that they will remain as members two years later. That suggests, hospitality is ever an on-going matter of how we build a deeply engaging, life-transforming, soul-uplifting faith community. 

These are the most practical tips I can give you to measure your potential for growing your congregation.

True, numbers are not all that matters. But they do matter! We'll chat about the other kinds of growth next time. Meanwhile, start counting ... on a good new year!

All blessings, Kenn