Commissioned Lay Leaders

The District’s CLL program has been discontinued.

Only four congregations have participated in 19 years it has been in existance, and there are no persons in training at this time.

Program Description

The Commissioned Lay Leadership (CLL) program is designed to strengthen local congregations in the Prairie Star District by training their lay leadership. Qualified lay individuals are given special religious and secular education and experience so that they may serve their own congregations or the District more effectively. Topics covered include:

1. Church administration
2. Denominational organization, structure, and polity
3. Group work skills
4. Growth techniques and long range planning
5. Pastoral care
6. Professionalism
7. Religious Education, for adults and children
8. Rites of passage
9. Unitarian Universalist history
10. Unitarian Universalist philosophy
11. World religions
12. Worship/celebration of life

Candidates for the program must be sponsored by their congregations. The candidate and congregation must submit an application (included in the Policy manual). The program normally takes two or three years to complete.

Candidates work in an independent study project with a mentor who is a professional religious leader. Candidates who satisfactorily complete the study requirements are given a commission by the Prairie Star District Board of Directors and are entitled “Commissioned Lay Leader” (CLL).

Congregation participation in this lay leadership program is entirely voluntary: each congregation is free to care for its leadership needs as it deems proper and practical. This program is offered to facilitate local effort, provide some ready resources, and finally, to acknowledge achievement.

Documents

The following documents are posted online. These are PDF files; you will need Acrobat Reader (or similar program) to read or print the documents. See About PDF for more information about PDF files.

• CLL Policies and Procedures Manual — PDF file, 112 KB
  This manual describes the program and application process in full detail.
• CLL Training Manual and Syllabus — PDF file, 153 KB
  This outlines the topics covered in the program.

The District’s CLL program has been discontinued.