1st Meeting - Make new friends but keep the old!
2nd Meeting - Identity and purpose
3rd meeting - How do we serve?
4th Meeting - Greeting and Attracting
The Membership Journey
Making New Friends & Keeping the Old
Introduction to the Membership Journey
Circle Fellowship is on a Membership Journey
On this journey we are learning about ourselves, deciding what groups we want to reach out to first in our community, investigating how we might do this outreach. And this is only the beginning of the journey, for a member's whole time with Circle Fellowship should be a journey of continuing involvement and commitment, not to Fellowship per se, but to the good works, both internally and externally that the Fellowship undertakes. Growth as Fellowship should not just be numerical, but should also include personal growth, growth in leadership skills, spiritual growth, growth in the "how to" of Social Justice
"Our Membership Journey" in its current stage revolves around the concept of "Mission Based Growth".
"Mission-based growth" is the set of concepts we have been and continue to be working with for our "Make New Friends, and Keep the Old" membership recruitment drive. The truth is that as Unitarian Universalists we have exciting and important perspectives and truths to offer the many, many people who are seeking more inclusive alternatives to "one true way", or alternatives to liberal Christianity. We also offer a unique option to those who never have been and don't desire to be affiliated with a more traditional church, but still want a community where they can grow. As Circle UU Fellowship, a member-led UU congregation, we have much we can offer to serve the needs of people seeking a non-hierarchical home where they can find personal growth, be it intellectual, spiritual or social action oriented, for themselves and their loved ones
As we have discussed in the past, if the main reason(s) we want new CUUF members is for what they can do for us—such as their money, time and energy, we might as well close our doors. On the other hand, congregations that don't grow eventually do close their doors, if nothing else because of natural attrition as people move, get busy with other things, etc.
In these sessions, we are defining and deciding our overall Mission Statement for the next few years, and as part of this Mission-based approach to growth we are prioritizing who our first months and year(s) of the Make New Friends Outreach will be most focused towards recruiting and serving, along with making the actual concrete plans for attracting, recruiting and serving our new friends and members.
As we move through our various program on our Membership Journey, we will update pages here about what we have done. Please feel free to follow along and, please, come on Sunday mornings ad join us!