Submitted by: Bart Solomon, President
Last month the Board met for its annual retreat. We were joined by our minister, new church administrator and a representative from the Southern region of the UUA. I asked the group to focus on the areas of membership and growth. While I have seen an increase in the “vitality” of the church and its programs over the last few years our membership numbers have remained stagnant. This does mirror national trends for UU churches (for the same period mainstream denominations have seen a decline) and yet I still wondered if UUCC was doing everything possible to attract visitors and encourage membership. Also, my perception is that Chattanooga is becoming more progressive, not less, so why then are we not growing?
Our group brainstormed and chose the the following top three reasons to explain our stagnant growth: 1) poor engagement of visitors and and visitor follow up, 2) lack of programs for young adults, 3) failure to emphasize our mission. We then set out to identify ways to address these shortcomings.
We had already begun the process of addressing our visitor engagement and follow-up by the hiring of our new administrator, Mandy Cowley, and the assignment of new job duties to her position. Rather than relying on the membership committee alone it was decided that we needed the work of a non-volunteeer to spearhead many of the things that committee was trying to do on its own such as greeter training, visitor follow up and new member classes. Mandy will also be heading up small group ministry. However, I am most excited about our new membership classes with a program we are trying out called “Faith Forward.” These classes have already begun (Sundays at 12:30 after service) and should provide a much more cohesive program for learning about our faith and providing a path to membership for new attendees.
Don’t forget that being a welcoming place for new attendees is the responsibility of each and every one of us. Please take the time on Sundays to engage visitors and make them feel welcome. If you see visitors sitting by themselves, get out of your “I always sit here” box and go sit next to them.
With regard to our mission, with our minister Cathy’s help, we developed and voted on a new mission statement earlier this year but realized we have done little to emphasize the mission statement to congregants or visitors. We now have our mission statement made into signs that will be prominently displayed in the church and occasionally made part of the service.
We decided that action for programs for young adults required more input from them to determine their needs. On October 22 the church is hosting a young adult picnic (ages 21-35) at the River Park from 3:00 to -7:00 p.m. for both fellowship and to survey these members or potential members on the programs that they would like to see at the church. We have sent out invitations already but please spread the word. Additionally, my daughters have agreed to form a UU club at UTC to address the need for liberal religion to our college-age young adults.
While I am not a proponent of growth for growth’s sake, I do believe that there are many people in our community hungry for what our church has to offer and am hopeful that the actions that we are taking will help us find these folks and that they’ll be encouraged to become a part of our wonderful fellowship.