Introduction
Stewardship campaigns at UUCUC frequently provide an opportunity to ask members and friends about their perspectives on the Church. Two years ago the Stewardship Committee organized a number of cottage meetings at which discussion was focused on the newly instituted schedule for Sunday services. The stewardship campaign this year, which is directed to FY2012, the last year of the current strategic plan, was an opportunity to ask a different set of questions. Essentially, the question is: What priorities does the congregation wish to stress in the next strategic plan? The questions weren’t stated exactly this way, but are making the same point – what does the congregation identify as important issues and opportunities for our church.
The following three sections are the responses people made to our questions. They are responses to specific questions, asked either by a person in the congregation who volunteered to contact people on Stewardship Committee’s contact list, or asked via a questionnaire included in the pledge packet. Section 1 gives the responses of people who were asked about their involvement with the church. Section 2 is based on the request to give five words that describe the church from the perspective of the respondent. Section 3 gives responses to questions about changes the respondents envision for our church.
Each section includes a summary and further information about how the responses are organized. In collating these responses, I have treated each response as a vote for moving in a particular direction. In some cases, which are pointed out, I see the paucity of some responses as a red flag.
So, enjoy 17 pages of responses from you and other members of the congregation who took the time to share their thoughts about our church - as it is, and as it might be. The responses are conversational for the most part. Snippets of sentences. Or fully developed ideas. Many responses were written by a Listener; others were written by the respondent. Some names have been deleted, but I’m sure you will recognize your own responses, and a few others.
But, before you read the many suggestions for change, read one person’s comment. “I think we need to take time to appreciate what we already have in our church. We are so fortunate to have Axel, to have so many people working together. Do we realize what we have? I have been coming to this church for some time, and I can tell you, moving to two RE times has made a big difference here. The first service used to be really quiet, with not many people. But everyone worked together, and the choir arranged it so there can be music at both services, and now both are vibrant and meaningful. I don’t think we should go on without taking the time to pay attention and appreciate what a wonderful church we already have.”
Section 1 – Diversity of Our Respondents
Summary
The respondents represent a good cross-section of the congregation. Some are life-long UUs, others have come to our congregation from many other faiths – or none. Some have been in the congregation for decades while others joined in the last few months. Some have been active as members of committees, in the choir, teaching in the RE program, or on the Board. For others, participation in the church has focused on Sunday services. Some come as members of a family, others alone.
Question 1: Tell me about yourself and your involvement with the church.
Coming since 2001-02; knitting group, kids RE, financial secretary, Auction – stewardship – helped with OWL.
Member 15 years; attend Sunday services regularly; have taught RE many years, many grades; Have been on RE and Membership Committees (many years); helped start Women’s Community Group, started and led a chalice circle; served on Board 2 years.
Members 15 years, Children’s choir Director; Pianist occasionally; church coffee houses; ice cream socials; new member potlucks, twice a year.
Less involved than would like to be because caring for very ill companion. However, keeps the bridge group going and these people have become close friends.
We wanted to find a place that was interesting and not just dogma; open minded; not excluding anyone in any shape or form. Something that was "uplifting for my soul." A place of worship where I felt comfortable.
Started coming in December, 2010; became a member on January, 2011. SAC; improving the community; civic welfare.
Moved here from Florida, liberal catholic background
New member as of May, post-college wanted a new community, agnostic atheist, interested in social action committee
Background: Moved from North Indiana in 08-09, the UU church is a good fit for her
Life-long UU – 3rd generation
(1) Moved from Chicago 1 1/2 years ago. She was a member of a UU church in Deerfield, IL. She attended the Stewardship dinner and has gone to several meetings of the Feminist Book Group which is really well run. She also attended the Tai Chi class that was held in the basement.
I’m a member of the church. My wife is not a member.
She and her husband started attending about a year ago. She used to be on the board at Channing Murray. They enjoy the people. She said they were raised Catholic. She thinks they would now be described as friends of the church.
They found the church about 2 and a half years ago. They had been looking for a different support network when they found us.
Have been here many years, served on many committees. Involvement with church – in many ways. She has cut back on membership and volunteer coordinating now that she is on school board. He serves on Finance committee.
Involvement with church – mostly just attending; he will start helping with mailing crew; she is on the Care Core list; bring cookies to events.
Mainly with the discussion group; comes less often now that he is at Clark Lindsey and many activities and discussion there. Especially interested in having a strong RE and Youth program and activities
She has been a UU all of her life. She was born into a Universalist church and attended the Green St. Church in Urbana when she was in college-- between 1934-1938. She was here when Harmon Gehr was minister (of Universalist church; wife Isabel). She and her sister were welcomed to the home of a Mrs. Smith for Sunday dinners back then.
She has been an RE teacher; he is on the substitute list for being an RE teacher in 8th grade; they hosted a table at the Stewardship dinner last weekend.
Was made aware of the church through the documentary film "The Lord is Not on Trial Here"; was interested in singing in the choir -- knew someone who sang in the choir, at the time; daughter very recently joined a UU church in Washington (state).
Has been involved for about 10 years; was drawn by a place to find peace & quiet; knew UU's in the 60's who were very socially active, and admired them a lot; knew, for a long time, that I would look for a UU church when I decided that the time was right for expanding my spiritual life. More recently, very impressed with how useful the remodeled Fellowship Hall is for events involving people outside the church - quite a few have mentioned that they feel very comfortable and welcome there.
4 years ago - saw ad for choir rehearsal; when I started attending, I was very pleased to find that there was no pressure toward a theistic world-view; much impressed with the services provided, like child care, also, enjoy diversity of views expressed in the pulpit, including the variety made possible by having visiting ministers; also Care Core
Member since May, 2003; before that went to UU church in another locale, without ever joining; quite active on committees: social action, the board.
I have been a member for 3 years but have been coming to the church for many more years. We have young children, so we are involved with the church through RE. I’ve helped with RE and with the church grounds. We very much enjoy the sermons, and we enjoy visiting and connecting with people after the service. We only wish we had time for more involvement.
I have been a church member for 17 years. I’ve been very involved in the past, teaching RE, and now I’m trying to make more time to be involved again. I really enjoyed the “pledge party.”
Section 2 - One-Word Impressions (Or Sometimes a Phrase)
Summary
The invitation to “List five words that describe the church to you” brought a torrent of words that tell us a lot about how members and friends think and feel about the church. Each of the five-word responses has been treated separately. Similar responses have been grouped, partly to make them more manageable. There are gradations between these categories. The divisions are not hard and fast, and you will find some series of words that you think could just as easily be combined with another, as well as some words that could be moved to other groupings.
The number of times the words appeared is included in parentheses after each grouping. For example, the words in the first group - Community, Connected, Sharing, Family, Togetherness - appeared 33 times.
Groupings were ordered by the number of times they appeared, from most to least frequent. Likewise most of the words reflected positive impressions but a few did not, so they are divided into “Joys” and “Concerns.”
There are few surprises here. These are the sorts of words that we use to describe ourselves and in many cases what we most value – community, our liberal faith, great music and fine services, our friends and friendships. But there are some interesting contrasts that may feed into the responses in Section 3 and be grist for a strategic plan. For example, notice how few times “welcoming” and “friendly” were used. This appears again in the Concerns list – “Closed; Hard to break into; Friendly – eventually.” These were not used often, but they confirm a concern that is discussed at Membership Committee meetings – that our aspirations exceed our performance here.
Question: List five words that describe the church to you.
Joys . . .
Community; Connected; Sharing; Family; Togetherness (33)
Caring; Loving; Supportive; Kind; Empathetic; Supportive; Care-Core (18)
Open; Open-Minded; Liberal Religion; Interdenominational; Eclectic; Ecumenical; Inquiring; Diverse; UU Philosophy (17)
Intellectual; Stimulating; Thought-Provoking; Meaningful; Smart; Intelligent; Inquiring; Engaging (15)
Comforting; Peaceful; Quiet; Centered; Mindful; Relaxing; Warm (13)
Fantastic Music; Music; Choir (13)
Qccepting; Embracing; Inclusive; Not Oppressive; Tolerance; Can be Oneself (10)
Fun; Vibrant; Enthusiastic; Activities; Social Life (9)
Services; Sermons; Great Minister (8)
Friends; Friendship (8)
Social Action; Helping Others; Values; good Citizens (7)
Spiritual; Spirituality; Meditation (5)
Work; Committed; Busy (4)
Comfortable; Small; Cohesive (3)
Welcoming; Friendly (3)
Politically Liberal; Progressive (3)
Inspiring (3)
Interesting; Pleasant (3)
Fulfillment; Personal Growth; Growth (3)
Responsibility; Obligations (3)
Creative; Evolving; Enthusiastic (3)
Joyful (2)
Children’s Programs (2)
Individualistic (1)
Historical (1)
Well-Kept building (1)
Coffee! (1)
. . . And Concerns
Closed: Hard to Break Into; Friendly – Eventually; Sometimes Inwardly Reserved (3)
Complacent (1)
Lack of Diversity (1)
Intellectually Offsetting (1)
Deeply Ambiguous about Spirituality, God (1)
Section 3 – Building for the Future
Summary
Section 3 reports all of the responses to questions about the future of our church. Broadly speaking, these responses relate to programs and services within our church, and to our outreach beyond the boundaries of our church. The responses have been divided into these two categories.
With regard to within-church issues, many responses focused on staffing, the need for more staff to improve the suite of skills available to us, and staff compensation. Sharing the work of the church more broadly and the issue of burnout received much attention. The RE program, for both children and adults, and other programs for both children and adults were addressed. Respondents strongly expressed the desire for greater diversity, to be a more welcoming congregation and to increase membership. Improved maintenance and upgrade to our buildings and property received much comment. Finally, a few comments have been placed under the heading of Governance and Communications.
Outreach and service to those beyond our congregation received very strong support – in fact the greatest number of comments in this survey. These included the desire to be known in the C-U community as a socially engaged congregation. Many specific ideas and statements of desire for social action projects were expressed. Finally, one response that relates to UUA beyond our walls points to a fundamental aspect of outreach that is seldom considered.
Again, these are responses as reported on the questionnaire or as collated by Listeners. They are signposts pointing to actions to be considered in a strategic plan, and are not fully formulated.
Three Questions: 1. If you could wave a magic wand right now, what would you change about your church life? 2. If the church had all the money in the world, how would you like to see us as a congregation live and actdifferently than we are doing right now? 3. Other questions or comments that might be helpful in designing the next strategic plan or stewardship campaign.
Programs and Services Within Our Church
Staff – Compensation, Positions
I would make a full-time membership coordinator position with the mandate to help people find their way in the church, both spiritually and practically.
Our church would enjoy the addition of a community minister.
Staff salaries increased.
Staff – full-time office administrator; full-time youth minister; full-time (at least half-time) volunteer coordinator
More money for staff issues.
Paying staff a competitive wage; high quality staff
Pay staff a competitive wage; high quality staff
A minister who takes more leadership within and without the church in caring for members
Pay staff more
Would like to have a minister paid and working through the summer.
With more money, she’d like the staff to be paid more and she wonders if benefits for the staff are up to snuff.
Fair levels of compensation for all staff and adequate staff. Part-time volunteer coordinator and add an office assistant for more routine office tasks so office administrator can spend time on higher level management.
Would like to see the church use the new RE staffing to improve supervision and staffing lines. Need to improve employee relations in the church; these are subject to the ups and downs of supervision by the volunteer committee with inherent problems of turnover, etc. They would like to see a paid property person; again to lessen the load on volunteers.
Ensure that the staff are well-paid
More pay for the office manager
Pay our staff! They make the church work!
Compensate the staff
Would want the staff paid more fairly
Important to keep staff fairly compensated
Involvement in Work of the Congregation
People would share the work load better – more people would be on committees, more people would take turns doing Sunday crew and teaching RE (that includes the choir).
People more involved in work of church. Ethical issue – we take; we should give back. Less burnout if more people helped.
With her magic wand, everyone in the church would be active in service to the church.
More volunteer involvement in all aspects of the church; enable more people to take leadership positions in the church.
Would like to be more strongly involved without having to do the tedious things that come with being a committee chair. So many jobs to make the church community work – so few people.
Get more people involved in the church, (and more diversity)
Would have my spouse more involved. I do think the church offers lots of good opportunities for involvement. There is something for everyone, of every age and interest.
Would dedicate more time to being involved. I want to take part more.
Would like to explore ways to improve individual participation in the activities/mission of the church, mechanisms for matching people with committees (I mentioned our volunteer coordinator’s efforts at this to them) and for conveying some expectation to new members that service is part of the package of joining.
Get people involved in more activities.
Find ways to get people who aren’t deeply involved (except for Sunday services) to make their voice heard. Need to talk about visions of the church.
Applaud the leadership of the church for keeping it going.
Community Building – Service to Each Other
More family involvement (from a reticent member)
Special group that helps members in need find jobs. Watch out for low income people who need ride to church.
We could live and act the same, but with greater generosity.
Address our internal church relationships and think about what it means to live the 7 Principles, to learn how to disagree and be diverse, respectfully.
Would like to explore the idea of sponsoring senior shared housing – where older members of the congregation that are living on their own could join up with other older members and share housing costs.
Have an exercise facility for our members.
Her mom has Alzheimers and recently entered an assisted living facility, so a lot of time and energy is going there. We talked about whether there are ways to help us identify people who are overwhelmed, or under the weather, or just in need of outreach. She said she asked for help by contacting Karen Retzer who runs the group for caregivers and getting some useful information from Karen. But she wonders about the people who need help but don't ask for it.
Sunday Services
Like to see guest speakers from different points of view
Would investigate whether we need two services and would expand our choice and range of hymns.
Choir more involved with the church. It is distracting and, for lack of a better word, annoying when a large part of the choir exit the service in the middle of a service, though they understand the logistical problems involved with having to sing at bother services. It gives the respondent the sense that the choir is aloof from the rest of the church.
Couple has concerns about finding time for spirituality in the service. The sermons have been great but are more cerebral than spiritual. This member wants to be a doer and also find time to meditate in church, to find an inner peace with quiet connections to others. Spoke of finding or creating that sacred place of just being. Suggest meditation or quiet time of ten minutes as well as standing up and holding hands together in quiet time, chanting together or dancing together.
Summer minister
Disappointed that there isn’t minster all the time (e.g., summer). Being more on the spiritual side, sometimes find the church a bit too intellectual.
Much prefer one service – would require more room for RE.
Sunday morning service times later – even a little later (every bit helps!)
Shake up services a bit. Tired of same thing each week. Need variety.
More warmth from the pulpit and more variety. (Variety is exactly what we are getting during the sabbatical.)
Would like to have other Unitarian ministers who are traveling (in the pulpit, instead of ministers who are not Unitarians)
Why is it so cut back in the summer? Continue to do in the summer what we do the rest of the year (one service is ok). Love the music! I just love Kent Conrad! (I hate the “guitar strumming” at some churches).
Also, would enjoy it more if the joys and concerns were read out loud to get a better understanding of what is going on in people’s lives.
Religious Education fir Children and Youth
Full RE at both services (respondent will find herself in the position of having to attend the second service because that is the only one with RE for older kids. Respondent knows of late-rising people who might come to our church but for the fact that we don’t have a pre-school curriculum for the second service.
Kids no longer in RE, but we need more social activities for RE families – create an RE community. Sunday potlucks, Sunday outings help. YRUU kids have UNISTAR, which is important.
Loved RE; loved OWL program
RE is important; Friday play group
Would like to have a Parents Night Out through the church; also need to utilize space better.
Would like children to feel more drawn to children's choir--this is an issue of the fact that his friends aren't involved, so he doesn't really want to be; would like to have something musical for children who can't read music to coincide with the time of the children's choir (it's difficult to have a 3-year old who wants to do something musical when older brother attends the children's choir. The fact that there isn't something for younger kids makes it difficult for parents (what to do with the other child when we get there so early).
A middle school student asked for more choice in the RE program. Seeks an alternative class when the curriculum is not something he likes.
Improve adult and kid’s RE
Full range of RE in both services.
Attention to religious education (needs to be more “publicized” – that is, what RE means to UU church. And the attraction to intelligent, thoughtful members.
Adult Religious Education
I would see that there are ongoing, attractive adult education offerings for spiritual growth and learning – and that I had the time to take advantage of them.
More adult RE that is focused explicitly on UU (rather than on comparative religion, for example)
Improve adult and kid’s RE
More adult education classes – maybe a general survey of religions or exploring the Bible as an historical document. Weekend or weekday evening classes ok.
Explore further the idea of “What does it mean to be UU?”
Find a way to further explore a sermon topic after the sermon is over.
Adult RE as a way to bring new people to us.
Likes the adult discussion group – membership waxes and wanes over the years. Half of the members of the adult discussion group do not go to the service and/or are not members of the church.
More regular meaningful adult RE
Church Programs, In Addition to Adult RE
More choices of Chalice Circle times – hard to attend Monday-Thursday evening.
Would like something that involved movement (dancing or something); we’re very cerebral. Would like to have ballroom dancing.
Have RE teachers engaged in what other activities in church are – in other words have excitement about the 3rd Sunday outings be something that the RE teachers also know about and get kids excited about. Would like activities to be more intergenerational; would like activities to be more publicized -- we talked about the possibility of having a calendar available on the Welcomers table that contained all of the events in the next few weeks; also the 3rd Sunday outing could be posted on the door.
She said she had signed up for the feminist book group and attended once, but had scheduling problems. She’d like a feminist discussion group to discuss issues, not books, but was worried about stepping on the toes of the book group. I encouraged here to start a group and told her the Membership Committee was prepared to help her with this.
More stuff for kids (Easter egg hunt, Halloween party). Activities in summer for kids.
Congregational Growth
Larger church; more visibility in the community
More advertisements
Get word out about the church
Write a regular column in the News Gazette, a comment building on the Community Minister idea.
Explore and consistently implement efforts to grow the congregation (e.g., “Bring a Friend” Sundays, more follow-up with visitors.
Increase membership
Diversity of Congregation
More diversity
More members, more diverse and reflective of the greater community of C-U. They would get more personally involved; don’t remember second Sundays.
Our membership would be a better cross-section of the community.
Church membership is not very diverse (this also applies to the UU denomination as a whole.)
Very difficult to grow the congregation if we only attract the same type of people – which are becoming a smaller subset of a larger, more global community. For example, Meadowbrook Church has a very multicultural, more global congregation with a socio-economic mix of people. Easy to idealize, but putting talk into action is much more difficult to accomplish.
Proselytize across social and economic levels. Make use of WDWD, e.g., having Axel on the Jim Turpin Show.
Find a way to become more intergenerational.
Appeal to young members; if we only het people in their 50s and 60s, we can’t survive. Keep doing what the church is already doing; maybe add some more of the same.
Things she’d like to see in the next strategic plan – more diversity
Welcoming Congregation
People would be more kind and loving to each other; Everyone would be more welcoming and go out of their way to greet and welcome newcomers
Growing congregation by being more welcoming so people would stay.
More systematic efforts to keep visitors coming or follow up with them when they stop coming.
We would speed up the process of making friends.
Growing connections with other people; more ways to connect and welcome new people
Would like my wife to come to church with me.
Building/Property
If we really had all the money in the world, I would build us the perfect church building: inviting, inspiring, and without a trace of musty church aroma.
Create green space for picnics, receptions, outdoor worship – tear down HSH
More money; bigger space
Heat the women’s bathroom properly. Improve sound in Fellowship Hall. Properly address maintenance issues. Make the rood loft usable, especially for the choir.
Concerned about the church having enough close-in parking, especially for older or more frail members. She says she has seen older members drive through the parking lot and then drive away when there was no place to park.
A high school freshman would like the adults to have more room in the church as comfortable and precious for them as the YRUU room is to her. (What a thoughtful and wonderful observation!) An adult commented that he would like the Rood Loft to serve that purpose.
Deferred maintenance on building taken care of: alternative energy – completely green – generating power.
More money for property issues.
Upgrade building – roof, heating system, elevator. Making space usable; use space of High street House
Maintain current facility well
Complete all the jobs once included in the capital plan.
In addition to the sound system improvements now underway, get professional advice on the sanctuary’s acoustics – and how to improve them.
Get rid of High Street House. Church shouldn’t be in rental business. Distraction from other more important projects.
Big priority – taking care of the building.
Seek UUA Green Sanctuary status
Some money should go into a capital fund and left there so we have it when we need a new boiler or to replace windows, etc.
Bigger parking lots, tips for new members about parking lot courtesy for older members, alternate parking spaces (Timothy John salon)
Energy efficiency
The Uniter; Communications Within Congregation
Uniter News- e.g., birthdays listed, other news of congregation, e.g., nursing home occupants and home-bound listed (not “cars for sale” items). Feels strongly The Uniter should include more news about church members and friends.
Community outreach – getting the word about UUism.
Governance
Group change: reevaluate governance to make it streamlined and not burn out people. There seems to be no way out of a leadership role, or the fear of that – then people just don’t do the things they commit to due to too much burn out. Maybe we could ask people to each try to be involved with one thing. Hopes the strategic plan can be simple, transparent, understandable process.
Would like to see publication of general stats about canvass, e.g. how much we need as an average pledge to meet last year’s budget.
A written statement needs to be sent to UU Board, Minister, RE committee and Mediation committee to highly recommend that a decision be made regarding how to handle future conflicts that arise between a church member and the RE Director. A boundary and limit should be set that advises church members that the RE Director and RE Committee have final decision-making authority in the decision pertaining to RE program.
Evaluate the outcome of this campaign.
More carrying forward of information gained, from year to year, during the planning process.
Securing a better-balanced child safety policy that would eliminate keeping secret files on church school volunteers. It would be better not to let “suspicious” persons teach.
Outreach and Social Action
Interfaith Activities
Maybe more interfaith activities (interfaith alliance); socials with other groups, black church partnership; visit (like civil rights movement)
Have a leadership that is more socially active – would like to see us involved in interdenominational activities; congregation would be inter-racial and inter-economic.
Strengthen inter-faith connections. Can we get to know and/or work with “foreign” congregations?
Social Action – Involvement in the Community
Social action projects that involve whole church; better ongoing relationship with community – all church involved, not just money. People in their own way, but together on projects. Give church common and unifying goal – outside ourselves, for example volunteer at Refugee Center; have joint potlucks – get involved. Share gifts, not just money.
Need for outreach
Social action information integrated into the website (blog)
Spoke of how to be more engaged and want to be engaged , but in the community. That the church should be intimately connected with the community and that the congregation should have many options to contribute.
More external involvement and spreading of “the Word.”
Couple wants more than RE for their children. Seeking a place to both learn values but also live the values (work projects?). They very much want more of this to happen as they talked at length about ideas for projects to engage the community that were not just social but that would have an impact in the community. They are now trying to decide how much more they may invest in the UU church and would do more if the church was more externally focused (as well as more spiritual)
We have a lot more to contribute than we do; invisible. People know about Wesley Food Pantry (if not the church). We are small, don’t have lots of money, but should establish a presence.
With her magic wand, she would like to see us take a stand on social issues. This has been a thing that has stopped them from joining the church just yet as they are not sure that they can belong to a church that will not take a stand on social issues. In particular, she mentioned the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Would like to be more involved in a social action project.
Find more time in my life to do more in the church, especially social action
The church would be more involved in the community.
Members as individuals are very active, but not very active as a group. Hard to get 50% of people to support a group project.
Social programming in the community. Green initiatives. Encouraging volunteerism.
Community presence; more mileage from doing something (public awareness)
She’d like us to do more community service.
She’d like us to give more time and money to different needs like poverty/housing.
More social justice/action projects. Give subsidized space for community groups involved in social justice/action
More social action to get to the root of social problems in the community; e.g., achievement gap in the schools (racial?). Have a greater presence in the community and be known through the activities that we are involved in.
Outreach to the community – to the poor community and serve them beyond donations.
Have some Family Service Trips where smaller kids could be included to work together as a family.
Have a large social action budget – line item for social issues. Take on a major community social action project.
Community outreach – open the church doors wider, e.g., host after-school activities
More social action – real funding (for e.g., Habitat houses)
Stronger commitment to social justice issues by congregation as a whole. Currently, more emphasis on reflecting our own paths; left up to one’s conscience to be committed. Need leadership from the top.
More support services for the community; do more to support community organizations. More social action but in a way that fits for us.
Give more money to good organizations
SAC projects and things like that.
Support a homeless shelter
Support Channing Murray.
Have more community presence as a unit and in the political scene locally. More structured community service.
Thinking through what we mean by social action/justice and integrating that into the fabric of our church life.
Things she’d like to see in the next strategic plan – more community events
Greater support to ECIRMAC
UUA – Relations with UUA at Regional and National Levels
Have more members involved in denominational affairs, especially at the national level.
Comments
Likes the fact that the community literally has their own cash invested in the church
The partner church service was uncomfortable because of the portion of the service devoted to communion (was clear that it was optional, but still felt weird and awkward when choosing not to take communion).
We are very pleased with Axel as a minister. I have been involved with other churches where there were conflicts. This is such a good ministry here. For us, it is a centerpiece and our main reason for being here. I will be glad to hear Elaine do the sermon next week too. I think the Sabbatical Committee is doing a great job. This is a good time for us to think about what we have here and what we don’t want to change.
She and her husband were perplexed over making their first-ever pledge and I encouraged her to just find a comfortable amount for now and jump in.
Like Axel very much; wonderful playground
I think we need to take time to appreciate what we already have in our church. We are so fortunate to have Axel, to have so many people working together. Do we realize what we have? I have been coming to this church for some time, and I can tell you, moving to two RE times has made a big difference here. The first service used to be really quiet, with not many people. But everyone worked together, and the choir arranged it so there can be music at both services, and now both are vibrant and meaningful. I don’t think we should go on without taking the time to pay attention and appreciate what a wonderful church we already have.
The Stewardship Party was so fun! Our RE is strong. We need to keep a strong RE. I like the two services; the flexibility for families is good for the church. I like what we’re doing!
The first thing they said to me was that they were so appreciative of the “fantastic” help that Care Core provided last year during their family crisis. Also, they love the music – the choir and Kent!
She appreciates the way Sam Beshers and his committee have created a good-looking schedule of services for the sabbatical.
I like the people and the enlightened attitude about religion.
It respects all roads leading to God
There needs to be a voice of reason from the religious community and UUism offers that.
I came to the church looking to make connection to the community at a time when I was feeling particularly alone. I became a member because I think it is important to have an open and liberal church with a voice in our country, world and local community.