A Small Congregation's Public Presence

I had an excellent visit with the Board of the Missoula Unitarian Universalist Fellowship before Thanksgiving.  They were wondering how to have more of a public presence as a very small congregation in a town of about 67,000.  I wondered, too.

They are just in the midst of a project to move to a different building,  They were pleased that media seemed to be interested in that, and wondered how to make themselves better known in the process of making this change.

We explored the landscape of public presence, and found some places where the amount of effort and skill they could bring to bear looked likely to yield real results.  We also realized that much of what they want has to do with personal connections with leaders of religious and civic organizations.

Social media looked like the top pick.  They need to adjust some things on their website, they thought, but facebook looked like the target for more energy.  More frequent, shorter, postings, maybe the use of invitations to "events" for special occasions, links to the newsletter and introduction of blog posts for updates on goings-on in the fellowship all seemed like good ideas.  People made commitments to follow up on these.

Participation in special events in town also seemed managable to the group,  They could step out beyond the Pride parade to at least one other parade type event, and maybe set up a table at another occasional opportunity.

They were cautious about taking on too much. I thought that was a really good idea.

The main thing was not to shift so much attention from the core activities of the fellowship that their way of being themselves went out of focus.  They need to maintain the strong worship, strong religious education for children, and strong participation in community service that is making them feel good about themselves.  It's that feeling good about themselves that is making them feel like having a stronger public presence, after all!

I'm excited about the new building.  There are some hurdles as they move through local approvals, and it is still not a completely done deal.  They ave wisely positioned themselves as "maybe" being about to move, and want to be stronger as a congregation whether they do or not. They are advancing confidently in the direction of their dreams... putting foundations under them as Thoreau advised.

Lincoln School building -- Missoula UU's new home?