Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Weaving the Web

February 10, 2006
Rev. Amy Zucker Morgenstern

Along with half the Membership and Growth Committee, I attended a fascinat- ing workshop at the Leadership Development Day held here a few months ago. The presenter, Linda Laskowski, pointed out that a person’s membership journey has many stages: visiting for the first time, returning, joining, becoming more deeply involved, and departing. A congregation may do very well at one stage and not well at others. She suggested we track the figures for each stage and apply some norms. For example, surveys of churches of many types all over the country suggest that if one out of every seven visitors becomes a member, you’re doing well.

I have assumed, as have others, that here at UUCPA, we get plenty of visitors, but that a low number of them join. In other words, that we aren’t very welcom- ing. Inspired by the workshop, the Membership and Growth Committee and I looked at our figures, and guess what? I was wrong! We actually have an impressive record when it comes to turning visitors into members. But we have a significantly lower number of visitors than is the norm for a growing church.

This tells us three important things. One, we should be proud of how warmly we welcome visitors. Two, we should keep up the good work at greeting newcomers, inviting them along to lunch, wearing our name tags — all the things we do to make people who come in our doors feel at home. And three, we need to let people who haven’t yet visited know about us so that they check us out! Here are ten suggestions for what each of us can do to invite people to UUCPA.

1. When a friend says something that makes you think he or she would be at home here, say so. Invite them to come with you to a service. Or invite them along to an Adult RE class, meditation group, concert, Elder Journey, or movie night at UUCPA. When your kids have a friend sleep over on Saturday, invite the friend along to Children’s Religious Education on Sunday morning.

2. Direct friends who are interested in spiritual questions to www.belief.net’s “Belief-O-Matic” test. (If it tells them that their beliefs most closely match those of Seventh Day Adventists, you’ll still have helped them along their spiritual path.)

3. Leave a copy of “UU World” at your salon, barber shop, dentist’s or doctor’s office. Peel off your address sticker and put in its place: Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, 505 East Charleston Road, (650) 494-0541. Sunday services 9:30 and 11 am, Children’s Religious Education 9:30 am.

4. When you do volunteer work, march in a protest, write a letter to the editor, or do anything else that’s inspired by your UU principles, take every opportunity to tell people, “I’m doing this because in my religion, we act on our principles.” Wear chalice jewelry or a UU T-shirt and explain what it means when you’re asked.

5. Come to the New UU (you don’t have to be new!). It’ll help you become comfortable with telling your story and with describing UUism.… we need to let people who haven’t yet visited know about us ….

6. Pledge generously! Our advertising budget was cut over 25% last year and people who used to see our services advertised in their local paper no longer do. Let’s get our name back out there.

7. Practice your “elevator speech” — your concise explanation of what we’re all about. Keep a few of the UU Principles and Sources cards in your wallet and give them to people who want to know “what UUs believe, anyway.”

8. Ask Ed Zebroski about the Pacific Central District’s radio ads. Ask me or Jeff Kuescher about the proposed UU talk show on Air America.

9. Whenever you put on an event in the church — a class, a political event, a discussion group — post it on area Community Calendars. Even better, send a press release. If you’re a committee member, your red committee notebook has all the contact information for local media and a how-to on writing press releases. So does the PR Committee. Put up flyers on local bulletin boards. Then, have pamphlets about UUCPA and UUism displayed on a table for visitors to take, and encourage them to fill out green cards if they’d like to learn more about us. Pamphlets are in the Main Hall foyer and green cards are in a drawer in the foyer desk.

10. When something happens at UUCPA that makes you happy and excited, tell your friends, family, and co-workers about it.

Remember: unless you are one of the lucky few who grew up a UU, there was a time when you didn’t know about this church. Aren’t you glad you found out? Don’t hide the good news from the other people out there who are “Unitarian Universalists without knowing it!”

— Blessings,
Amy