Small Group Ministry Conference

We are days away from the Spiritual Growth Through Small Group Ministry conference. I have had a number of people comment that they cannot attend and that their districts do not have any trainings scheduled.

If this is the case, we should organize a training. Remember, in our association this is a grassroots movement. If you want to have a training, we need to work together to make it happen. The demand for trainings is high enough that most areas could support a day or weekend event based on registration fees from local participants. If you would like to discuss how this would work, contact me.

If you are not from a UU congregation and are interested in a training you may still contact me. Though this is a plug for my consulting work, it is also an important message. Don't wait for a training to be organized, YOU make the effort. Let me know you need a training. Let your district office know. We can transform our faith (and world) through lifespan small group ministry, but to do this we need to work together.

Request a training

Leaders or Ministers

An ongoing topic in my conversations with lay leaders and UU ministers is our concept of what being a "minister" is. Our congregations are rapidly shifting to a shared ministry model. However, in my experience few people, ministers included, are upholding lay members of the congregation as ministers. We have lay leaders, people on lay ministry committees, but not lay ministers.

With a small group I recently did an exercise looking at the continuum of ministry in a congregation. What are all of the "ministry tasks" that need to be accomplished? How are these tasks shared between lay people and the staff? What training would be needed to shift more tasks to the lay leaders? And, who gets the minister label and when.

Yes, we each have our own personal ministry and participate in the shared ministry of the congregation, but do you consider yourself a minister? Despite the sharing of ministry, we still have a binary system -- you are either a minister or you're not.

If you are a "lay leader" reading this, I'd love to hear from you. What would you need in terms of training, support, empowerment and/or recognition in order to consider yourself a UU lay minister?

Note: I will soon be posting my "continuum of ministry" exercise/resource. Come back soon or subscribe to the Small Group Leader.

What does it take to be a lay minister?