And Now, in News of Religion from Elsewhere…

And now, in news of religion from elsewhere… perhaps a galaxy far, far away???

In Wales, a man dressed as Darth Vader received a suspended sentence after he struck the founder of the local Jedi church with a crutch. The founder of the church, Master Jonba Hehol,  and his cousin, Master Mormi Hehol, were both attacked. Perhaps “Darth” should just have tried the Force instead of a crutch.  Somehow I don’t think Master Yoda would approve.

[Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 15, 2008]

Meeting the need for intimacy in a growing congregation

Research tells us that if newcomers to a church don’t make some significant friendships in the church within a few months, they’ll leave the church.  Wise leaders in growing congregations provide many opportunities for people — newcomers and longer time members — to get to know each other and begin to form friendships. Here are examples from two growing congregations in Prairie Star District.

Shawnee Mission UU Church in Overland Park, KS [335 adult members and growing!] has many groups that are open to all - visitors, members, and friends. Some examples are the Thirtysomethings Potluck group, the Tuesday Book Group, the Ulysseans [active seniors], the Thursday Book Group, the Halftimers [adults 40ish to 60ish], the Math and Science Group, the Quilters, the Men’s Group, the Playgroup, and so on. Invitations to participate are listed in the monthly newsletter and the weekly Order of Service. It gives the impression that there’s a group for everyone — or there could be. The President of the congregation told me recently, “We want to be the kind of church where if someone comes to us with an idea, we will ask just two questions: ‘Does it fit with the mission of the church?’ and ‘Does it bust the budget?’ If the answer to the first question is ‘yes’ and the answer to the second question is ‘no,’ we’ll say ‘go for it!’”

When I spoke with an active member of SMUUChurch yesterday, she mentioned a recent Women’s Health and Wellness Retreat. Held on a Saturday, it featured yoga, a talk on the healing aspects of music, nutritious food, other programming, and plenty of opportunities for women to chat and get to know each other. “How did this come about?” I asked. “Oh, two women had an idea, and it just went from there.” And more than forty women of all ages came together for the day!

Here’s another example. I recently attended the Building Dedication for the UU Fellowship of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. [See photos in the sidebar.] During the reception afterwards, I spoke with the woman who’s in charge of the Covenant Groups** in this layled congregation of 93 adult members [and growing!]. She told me they have recently started a Covenant Group for people in Tomah, WI.

“Tomah?!? But that’s fifty miles away,” I said.

Yes, they have people who drive an hour to get to church on Sunday mornings. The congregation wanted the people in Tomah to have a way of bonding with one another at times other than Sundays, so they started the group for Tomah residents. And they’re thinking of starting another for people who live in Sparta, which is between LaCrosse and Tomah. In this way they’re meeting the needs for intimacy and connection for those folks who live too far away to come to LaCrosse for evening meetings during the week.

These forward-looking congregations know that people are coming to us looking for connection with people with similar values, for enrichment of their spiritual lives, and for ways to make a positive contribution in  the world. Providing these groups is a way of giving them what they’re seeking, and it can make all the difference!

**If you want to know more about Covenant Groups [sometimes called Connection Circles or Small Group Ministry], go to www.smallgroupministry.net 

Great Idea for Youth Groups

I was in Eau Claire over the weekend and, with someone who hadn’t been there before, had a tour of the UU Fellowship of Eau Claire [WI]. I was so excited about their youth group’s latest project that I just had to tell you about it.

This project combines our Unitarian Universalist seventh principle - “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” - with the adage ”Reduce, reuse, recycle” - and invites creativity and imagination and just plain fun. I haven’t spoken with the youth or their leaders, so I don’t know whether they thought of this themselves or read about it elsewhere.

What they did was this: they took used clothing and refashioned it into new items, using a variety of methods. Included in their display were several craft books where some of the ideas came from. I took a couple of  photos to show you the charming results!

 

Note the redesigned and decorated red shirt! Someone added polka dots and a decorative button to the yellow sweater. The knitted hat was created from the ribbing of an old sweater.

 

The mittens are made from old sweaters that were felted, cut out into a mitten shape, and sewed with a blanket stitch. A bag was created from another piece of felted sweater, and another bag was sewed from fleece. The white sweater has new, colorful buttons. The books on display were used to generate ideas.

I can just imagine how much fun they had with this! Great work, people!

 

 

Photos of the District Board - April, 2008

Here are photos of Prairie Star District Board members at the Board meeting in Nebraska last month. We were meeting in the newly remodeled parish hall at First Unitarian Church of Omaha.

 

Kathy, John, Libby, and Kathy

Cheryll, Bobbie, Kathy, and John

Fred, Mary, and Vickie listened to Nancy’s comment.

The Board meets three times per year in person and will be adding some bridge line calls to its schedule to keep up with the expanding work of the District. Our Board members are devoted Unitarian Universalists and care deeply about the congregations of the District.

Another Congregation Featured in Local Newspaper

Another of our congregations has received great coverage for their new “green” construction. The UU Congregation of Duluth, Minnesota, was featured in the Duluth News Tribune on Wednesday, April 30. Several photos and a list of the new building’s special “green” features, plus information about the church, is on the newspaper’s Web site at www.duluthnewstribune.com  Way to go, UUCD!

This building project was awarded a Chalice Lighters grant by Prairie Star District in 2006-07. Read more about the Chalice Lighters program here: www.psduua.org/chalicelighters/chalicelighters

Green Construction Garners Publicity for UU Congregation

The congregation in Wichita, Kansas, got some nice publicity when they moved into their new building this spring. A reporter from the local newspaper, the Wichita Eagle, did a feature article on the “green” elements of the building. The March 20 article included two large photos showing the energy-efficient windows and the ductwork placed inside the rooms, rather than beneath the roof. The accompanying text mentioned the recyclable carpet and the congregation’s plan to purchase chairs made from renewable plant-based materials.

Letting the local press know about new developments in your congregation is one way of inviting positive publicity for your church or fellowship. You can send this news out in the form of a press release, and it can feature a new program, a lecture series, a new class for children, or, in the case of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Wichita, the “green” aspects of their new construction.

The article didn’t mention the connection between the “green” construction and our seventh principle about “the interdependent web of all existence,” but we hope the average reader learned more about the values of Unitarian Universalists through the “green” choices that were made.

What is your congregation doing that could be announced to a wider audience?

No Scarcity of Good Ideas

When I have a few spare moments, I read newsletters from our congregations in Prairie Star District. We have fifty nine congregations that are affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association, and we have several more that are smaller, newer,  and working toward affiliation. Almost all put out a newsletter which gets mailed [or emailed] to their members and friends.

As I read, I’m always amazed by the great opportunities being provided to people in our congregations. Here are some examples from the latest bunch:

• In Duluth, MN, members can take part in two study groups — one is reading Class Matters: Cross-class Alliance Building for Middle Class Activists and the other is studying a Feminist Psychology of Men, using a book by Christopher Kilmartin. In addition, there’s a monthly book club reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett for April. It’s amazing to me that anyone in Duluth even has the time to read, since they’re just moving into their new “green” church building, planting an Interiorscape garden, finishing a kitchen, and more. But they’re not ignoring the needs for interesting programming, even in the midst of the move.
• In Des Moines, nine “Provocative Propositions” were developed in a visioning weekend, and the nine teams are working up action steps to move in new directions for Communication, Community Building, Growth, Lifespan Religious Education, Social Justice, Financial, Arts and Music, Leadership Development, and Building and Grounds. In the meantime, there are classes in Buddhist meditation, two children’s choirs [on Sundays and on Wednesdays], a movie night, a parenting group, and much, much more.
• The Bloomington, MN, congregation is offering a free showing of “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a video about how people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child or family member. [I've seen this video mentioned in other newsletters, as well.] And members can sign up to be part of a Habitat for Humanity Work Camp this summer.
• Shawnee Mission UU Church in Overland Park, KS, is sponsoring a Moms Against the War event on Mother’s Day, May 11. See more about this here:  www.juliasvoice.org  They intend to “reclaim Mother’s Day as it was intended by Unitarian Julia Ward Howe — as a day to promote peace and show the impact of war.” In April, there’s a Saturday workshop on developing a strong and robust lay ministry program, with guest speaker Rev. Ken Sawyer.
• At Peoples Church in Cedar Rapids, they are providing a place to recycle old batteries and CFL light bulbs because of the mercury and toxins, and selling tote bags to use instead of the “plastic or paper?” ones at the grocery store. They’re also sponsoring a Poetry Night and a Movie Night and several social events this month.

This is just a small sample. If you are looking for new programming ideas for your congregation, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to read other churches’ newsletters to get some. If you go to our Web site www.psduua.org and click on Find a Congregation, you can go to a variety of congregations’ Web sites and read their newsletters there. There’s no scarcity - that’s for sure!

A Dry Spell in Blog Land

It has been a long winter in Minnesota. And yesterday, in a cruel pre-April-Fool’s-Day joke, we received seven inches of snow! Last week I caught a cold and cough, like so many other people. Viruses and germs multiply like — well, like germs and viruses — during the winter here, because we spend so much time cooped up together, indoors, breathing each others’ air. So I caught a cold and cough and it’s settled in my sinuses, so this week I feel like I’m operating at about half my usual pace.

All this is by way of an apology. It’s been a long winter, and I’ve been in the midst of a dry spell in my writing for this blog. I haven’t known what to write, so I haven’t written anything.

There are blogs I read every day. The blogs I read every day are about knitting. And these women [and one man] write about their kids and their books and their frustrations and joys with their knitting projects and about everything else. I love to check in with them when I get home from the office every day, and I’m always disappointed when several days or a week goes by without a new entry.

So today’s entry is just to say — hello! I’m still here. I’ve been “under the weather,” as well as “under 7 inches of snow,” but I’m still here. The sun is shining, the snow will melt, and Spring will arrive in Minnesota. I’ll get inspired again, and I’ll write again. We DO believe in resurrection, don’t we?

All Too Common and Totally Preventable

The headline was in today’s newspaper: Church Treasurer Charged in Theft: volunteer accused of pilfering $18,000. The story went on to tell of the story of a St. Paul man who’s been accused of stealing nearly $18,000 from the weekly collections of a Christian church. Imagine the distress of the church leaders – the betrayal of trust – the difficulty the church will have now that the money is gone. And the question they all must be asking themselves is “How could this happen!?!?”

Well, of course, we can guess how it happened. One person was put in charge of counting the money in the Sunday collection plate, and of taking the money to the bank, and of depositing the money, and of writing checks from the church’s account, and of signing those checks.  How many red flags do you see in that sentence?? The newspaper report says that over several months, the treasurer wrote a number of checks payable to “cash” and cashed them himself. Since the treasurer would have been the person receiving the bank statements, there was no one to sound the alarm. Again, red flags!

A congregation needs to be able to trust the people it empowers to act on its behalf. Safeguards need to be put into place so that temptation is minimized. Safeguards not only protect the assets; they also protect the volunteers from false accusations of misdeeds.

The Sunday offering should be counted by two people who are not related to one another. One of them could prepare the deposit slip, and the other could take the money to the bank if this is not a staff responsibility. If the church has staff doing financial work, the staff can check the deposit slip against what’s actually in the envelope handed over from the volunteers. The volunteers counting the money and taking the money to the bank should be someone other than the treasurer. The treasurer can check copies of the deposit slips against the deposit receipts and against the bank statement which comes back at the end of the month. Multiple checks and balances will go a long way to ensuring security for the assets.

If your congregation has someone who knows about good accounting and money handling practices, ask that person to go over your practices and give you advice on improving them.  www.amazon.com  lists several books available to assist congregations with accounting systems and cash control. One that I particularly like is Richard J. Vargo’s book Effective Church Accounting [now out of print]. Vargo lists 50 internal controls for churches.

The bottom line is this — leaders need to ensure that congregation members can trust that the money they give to the church will be used wisely, and that includes setting up safety policies and practices for handling it. Without those assurances, why should they give?

2nd in Web site series

Here’s the second in an occasional series about Web sites that I like, from among those of congregations in Prairie Star District. It’s the Web site for Blue Hills UU Fellowship in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. Founded in 1981, this congregation has just over 50 adult members. The Web site can be found here: http://www.bluehillsuu.org/  I like their colorful logo, which dominates the page. I think the home page could be improved by adding the congregation’s location [city and state] right there, too.

Note that the vital information is all there — a place to click for the map and directions; a place for Visitors to find information about the congregation; a link to the current newsletter; and an implicit statement about UU values in the section called Green Living (Order a reusable bag here.) When you click on that link, it takes you to a very long list of ideas for sustainable living. It’s clear they are concerned about environmental issues, and they give practical ideas about how to work on those issues.

The religious education page has a list of the goals and objectives of the program, with a section about the Peace Pole, which you’re invited to look for when you drive to the Fellowship Building. My only complaint about this page is that it lists some possible youth projects — for 2004! This page needs an update!

The Blue Hills Fellowship attracts people from several small towns in northern Wisconsin. Some drive up to an hour to get to church on Sunday. I salute them for their Web site, which is welcoming and has a number of photos which give the flavor of their gatherings and services. Well done! Thanks for being a vital presence for religious liberals in northern Wisconsin!