District Staff Blogs

Seems like one of the most popular episodes of Ally McBeal was ”Theme of Life,” the one where her therapist (played by Tracey Ullman) tells Ally that she needs a theme song. I mean I never really watched the show, yet I knew about that episode. I mention it because the teaching story for this week’s [...]

In preparation for writing the introduction to the spiritual practice of Yearning, this week’s small group ministry session based on resources from spiritualityandpractice.com, I decided to do a search for what appears to be a nonexistent word: the opposite of nostalgia. You see, if nostalgia is, as the dictionary says, “A sentimental longing for the [...]

A few weeks ago I mentioned Barry Andrews’ article “The Roots of Unitarian Universalist Spirituality in New England Transcendentalism” in a post about the role of spirituality in our tradition. That post (and Barry’s article) come to mind as I think about this week’s small group ministry session on X-The Mystery, based on resources from [...]

If there’s one practice that may connect the disparate traditions that inform Unitarian Universalism, it may be the theme of this week’s small group ministry session based on resources from spiritualityandpractice.com: Wonder. Wonder may be at the root of all human yearnings for the transcendent, the ultimate, the divine; and as such, it motivates much of [...]

Now that I’m almost done with my semi-regular Sunday feature of small group ministry sessions based on resources from SpiritualityandPractice.com (32 down, 5 to go), I’m feeling like I’d like to continue the practice. So once I’m done with Zeal, the final practice, I’m going to go back and revisit them all, beginning with Attention. [...]

I have to confess that I’ve found it a little difficult to write about Vision, the topic for this week’s small group ministry session based on resources from SpiritualityandPractice.com. It’s an odd situation for me since INFP (my Myers-Briggs type) is one of three types they label as “visionary” (has something to do with the NF—intuitive [...]

The UUA has recently added a new resource to its Web site — a 14-page document called Multicultural Welcome: A Resource for Greeters in Unitarian Universalist Congregations. The resource invites theological reflection on welcoming and hospitality; includes a section for training greeters; gives suggestions on inviting conversation with newcomers; a list of additional resources for reading and reflection; and more. Often, we’ve discussed how we want to move forward on becoming more multicultural, but have decried the lack of resources.  This looks excellent, and I invite you to give this some thought and try out the ideas. You can find it here: https://www.uua.org/documents/idbm/multicultural_welcome.pdf 

When I think of Unity (the subject of this week’s small group ministry session based on resources from SpiritualityandPractice.com), I think of two spiritual tasks: one is to learn to act from the Unity in our own being, our own nature; the other is to learn to see the essential Unity of all creation. As Parker [...]

Some parents at First Unitarian Church in Des Moines IA have come up with a new idea about how to avoid overwhelming the local landfill with barely-used toys and books as they clean out their children’s rooms to get ready for another holiday season. They’ve launched a program called Play It Forward. This month, families are invited to bring in their excellent-to-good condition toys and books, and on one Saturday, the books and toys will be available for others to take home — for free! The only catch is that you can’t choose something for yourself, just to give to someone else. As an incentive to give, families who have donated toys can start their “shopping” an hour early. As a parent and grandparent, I think this is a great idea! Let’s share what our children no longer use. Recycled toys and books – yes!

Here’s a way that one congregation has found to assure that their building is an attractive and safe space during the week.

First Unitarian Universalist Church of Rochester MN has a team of 6 – 7 sextons. The sextons sign up for a week at a time through the year. On a daily basis, that week’s sexton goes to the church, walks through the building looking for open windows, unlocked doors, or clutter. The sexton turns off lights that are not in use, straightens up when there is clutter, and makes sure that the rooms are ready for the next group to use. They inspect the restrooms for adequate paper supplies and cleanliness. After checking the church building schedule, they program the thermostats in various rooms where meetings will take place. And on Sunday mornings or at other large events, they assist the staff or person in charge as requested.

The church has regular paid custodial help during the week. Snow removal is also contracted out. During the winter, the sextons put out orange cones in the parking lot on Sundays to guide drivers in parking their cars.

This group of sextons gather periodically for great parties; they make it fun for the team to do this work for the church! [Thanks to Sexton Patty T for sharing this information with me!]

I was reading an article in Huffington Post by Skye Jethani about Megachurches (Megachurches: When Will The Bubble Burst?) when I ran across this unsettling quote: “On average 50 small churches close their doors every week in America.” What? Fifty small churches are closing their doors every week? That’s not very encouraging, especially for a denomination, like, [...]

Once upon a time I used to read a lot of poetry. That was back in another life, when I was a graduate student in poetry and creative writing at a couple of fine universities in Maryland and Virginia. I still read poetry, of course, but not as voraciously or as seriously as I did [...]

Okay. Before I get to the main point of this post (increasing the Spirituality Quotient of the average UU congregation), I’d like to offer a couple of great resources that can help congregations that may be putting a “greater emphasis on social service programs or church committee work than on promoting spiritual growth” (see yesterday’s [...]

I normally wouldn’t use the word “stupid” in the title of a post (or in the post itself, for that matter, unless I was referring to something stupid I had done). But in this case, I’m taking the title directly from something I found recently in the Huffington Post (which has an excellent “Religion” section, [...]

My recent webinar on Digital/Spiritual Literacy is now archived and ready to go. Here’s some blurbage about it: Digital media and web technologies have already changed the way many congregations do church, leading some observers to ask: “At what cost?” In this webinar we will examine the potential for these new media and technologies to [...]

Do you remember those Charles Atlas ads in the back of comic books? My favorite was the one about “The Insult that Made a Man out of ‘Mac’”? Poor Mac is sitting on the beach with his date when a bully runs by and kicks sand in their faces. When Mac offers a feeble protest, [...]

I’m probably not the best person to be writing on this subject. There are plenty of other bloggers (Unitarian Universalists and others) who are much better at the whole thing than I am. But I have been blogging for some time now (5 or 6 years at least), and I have learned a thing or [...]

Tomorrow night I’ll be doing an encore presentation of a webinar called Digital/Spiritual Literacy. (There’s still some room left, by the way. Click here if you’re interested.) As part of the preparation of the webinar I’ve scoured theweb looking for resources. Thing is, just when I think I’ve found the just the right online articles and [...]

Teachers are getting a bad rap these days. They’re being blamed for all sorts of things, from falling test scores to failing schools to budget deficits. But I’ve always kind of liked teachers. My father was a teacher, both Junior and Senior High, as was my brother for awhile. I know through them just how [...]