Community at the Edge of the Earth

When the Mountain Desert District of the UUA gathered for its annual meeting in Sheridan, Wyoming, described by one attendee as "the edge of the earth," the congregations who sent representatives were overwhelmingly from the small to tiny congregations that populate this fringy area.  On Saturday morning, MDD Executive Nancy Bowen gave us our marching orders, and we headed out to see what we could share and learn in a really interesting selection of workshops.

Paige Rappleye and I offered a workshop on "Foundations of Growth for Small Fellowships," since  Glacier Fellowship is experiencing some growth, and since I have been gaining experience with the ups and downs of smaller congregations.  It was gratifying that thirty or so hardy souls packed into our little room AFTER the annual meeting to talk about this touchy and tender subject. We were alone -- no big congregations were represented!  So we could let our hair down.

The morning workshop on being a liberal church in a conservative area had helped us warm up -- somehow that session had drawn many of the same folks. Ours was act two of a conversation that was already under way.

We talked about how the real foundations for growth are in the way the congregation does its work, that the first thing needed is to be doing a good job of being a UU fellowship.  And how some simple things can make a difference, especially on Sundays.  Though come to think of it, they might not be so simple.  And how it's important not to make yourselves crazy trying to do things to attract newcomers, because if you're going crazy that really does defeat the purpose.  But a clean, neat room that is well set up to be a UU worship space (even if it's a borrowed facility) really is important.  And so are some basic rules of safety and decorum for the people who participate.

But mostly we talked.  It felt warm and friendly.  No, you shouldn't make people board members when they first show up, except sometimes in a small congregation you have to.  One of our group confessed to being in his second year as a UU and also his second year as Board chair.  We all laughed!  We know we shouldn't, because so often people treated like this burn out and run away.  So I think we learned to try hard to avoid it and give lots of support to the person recruited too early when that's the way it is.  We resolved to try to follow safe congregation guidelines even though "we're all family," remembering that often a child's abuser is a family member.  We shared strategies for having services in the summer without burning out the Sunday Service Committee.  I hope this group finds ways to get together and talk like this again before we forget how valuable it was.  These people are truly inventing liberal religious community in the places they serve, breathing life into it and making it work.

What a fine group of congregational entrepreneurs!  I felt privileged to be among them.  I want to be with them again, and I'm already contemplating how to make it happen.