Growth. On the Board, we think it about constantly and we finally called in an expert on growth in small UU congregations, the Rev. Jane Dwinell. The Board and all of our committee chairpersons or their representitives met with Jane two Saturdays ago and had a great exchange with someone who really knows what we have been through. She was able to give us a lot of positive feedback about our situation and relieve some of our angst over the ‘Growth’ problem. Chances are we will never be a mega church but we will grow. It may be incremental and sometimes excrutiatingly slow but it will happen. We will have setbacks and weeks of small attendance at Sunday services but we will grow.

In what manner we grow is difficult to answer. Will we have a lot of young people or will we be representative of a more mature population? The bottom line is we don’t know and there is no magic bullet or potion that will create growth. According to Jane, we are doing a lot of good things now with our approach to visitors. She advised us about a small group of changes to our Order of Worship that are intended to make visitors more comfortable. We have made those changes and you may not have even noticed them but a visitor will be able to follow our service with little or no confusion, an important factor when checking out a new church or religion.

We will be trying out a variety of small steps in the future that we hope will lead to an increase in visitors who will stay with us. The most important thing you, as a member of our congregation, can do is to take a few moments at coffee hour to welcome a visitor and make them feel comfortable. We are all part of a wonderful community and it would be great to share it with those who are looking for something special.

Bob Rougvie

President

Posted by Bob Rougvie, UUCiA President on October 8th, 2009