Reflections on the UUA presidency and growing UUism
Now that the race for the UUA Presidency has started, and the two candidates are casting their growth visions for our movement, I am mindful of an ancient story…
…about a mouse who was in constant distress because of its fear of the cat. A magician took pity on it and turned it into a cat. But then it became afraid of the dog. So the magician turned it into a dog. Then it began to fear the panther. So the magician turned it into a panther. Whereupon it was full of fear for the hunter. At this point the magician gave up. He turned it into a mouse again saying, “Nothing I do for you is going to be of any help because you have the heart of a mouse.”
This is a story for us to consider seriously. We can talk about “repelling fewer visitors” all day long–we can enumerate specific mechanical (magical) strategies which promise (although it’s really more presumption) to ensure temporary numerical growth. But the real issue has always been and continues to be: what is the state of our hearts? What is the inner dimension of Unitarian Univeralism that connects people with the sacred, heals relationships, and changes lives? What is the courage and conviction that will make us mice unafraid of cats, dogs, panthers, hunters, and all else that gets in our way?
There is a huge distance between “repelling fewer visitors” and people being swept up into a way of life that is adventurous and transformative and healing. With the latter, people are guaranteed to stay a while–rather than being initially excited but then eventually discouraged and disappointed.
I want the next UUA president to focus on the heart of our “mouse” movement. The issue is not centrally about numbers or size; numbers and size are byproducts of something far more important, which is clarity of purpose, a sense of adventure, and the availability of effective practices that grow our souls.
Great story. This is exactly what I was trying to get at in my Berry St. Essay.
I guess I think that the problem of our mousy heart can’t be solved by the UUA president. It has to be solved in churches and the most we can ask of the UUA is that they go with the flow of transformation.
I wonder if you have thoughts on how we got a mouse’s heart and what we…especially we in churches…can be doing about it?
Reply to Christine Robinson,
Thanks, Christine. I hear you when you say that “the problem of our mousy heart can’t be solved by the UUA president.” Granted, if what we are wanting is a solution–but this smacks of the kind of “magic” that the story I told ultimately suggests is irrelevant.
What the UUA president CAN do is what all great leaders do: cast a clear vision of future possibility, one which is (hopefully) so beautiful and compelling that people (perhaps not all, but some, even many) would want to step up and step into it, despite the threat of change and anxiety.
I think our “mousiness” is, in part, related to an anxious stuck-togetherness in our congregations which muffles and stifles clear positions. A kind of “niceness” which simply lingers and goes nowhere….
The UUA president can model what it means to lead from a place of clarity and integrity–and this is something that will have significant ripple effects throughout our denomination. Some people will not like it, but that is OK–in their “not liking,” they will be moved to get clearer about why. Clarity is a necessary ingredient for dynamism, for movement; and in this, ministers and congregational leaders alike can take heart.
There is one voice in our movement which commands a hearing in all our congregations, and this is the UUA president’s voice. The voice can certainly be discounted or even ridiculed–but it will challenge people to respond. It will wake sleeping congregations up.
Thanks again,
Anthony
It’s true that the president has a powerful voice, and a strong president leading from vision is a good thing for the association and a good model for local leaders/clergy of spiritual risk-taking. I thing our current president has done pretty well at this, actually.
But I guess I think that our mousy heart has to do with our fear of the Spirit, and our mousy congregational life which is so disappointing to many newcomers is mousy because of that fear. The vibrancy that comes when we take spiritual risks…even modest, tentative, agnostic spiritual risks is so compelling, but almost all of that has to be local, it has to be at least modeled by local clergy who support each other in facing that scary task.
Reply to Christine Robinson:
Thanks again, Christine. My thought is this: given what you have said, then may the new UUA president use the power of his or her voice to speak truth to the fears that keep our congregations captive. May he or she cast a vision of a life of spiritual adventure and risk. May he or she show us a way into the life of the Spirit.
One question, which I ask with a smile: what does a “modest, tentative, agnostic spiritual risk” look like? How can a true spiritual risk be modest, tentative, and agnostic?
Reminds me of a story that Anthony De Mello tells:
After thirty years of watching television, a husband said to his wife, “Let’s do something really exciting tonight.” Instantly she conjured up visions of a night in town. “Great!” she said. “What shall we do?” “Well, let’s exchange chairs.”
Thanks again,
Anthony
well said Rev. David. I’d add that the UUA President and UUA leadership has the ability to tap prophetic people. As an institution, it can get ‘stuck’ in maintenance mode, and of course, like any human organization, fear change and that which it cannot control. Growth brings a lot of that.
Rev. David, let me take up your challenge with your facile dismissal of Peter Morales’ key approach of ‘repelling fewer visitors’. The dismissal ignores that almost all of those people had already thoroughly checked out UU online prior to their visit, had read beliefnet, listened to sermons on that church’s website, or called for details. They came through the church door because they had concluded that in principle, they should fit right in, spiritually, ideologically. So it must be something we’re doing wrong to make those quarter million people leave.
How could we possibly justify to continue doing things wrong and shunning those who are actively seeking our community, denying them the religious home they seek? Is this only about us who are already in the club?
A president who can shake up people to live up to their own stated desires (which list growth at the very top) will be a blessing for our movement.
I find misleading how you use the term ‘mechanical’ with regard to growth strategies, and there’s certainly no magical thinking involved, on the contrary:
Peter’s growth workshops have proven effective because they don’t rely on one-size-fits-all ‘mechanisms’ but instead lead a congregation to look soberly at their ingrained disfunctional practices and habits, and to come up with individual solutions themselves that work for them. Yes, there are ‘mechanisms’ to be dealt with and ‘mechanisms’ that need to be replaced by better ones. But done in the right spirit this can be a deeply meaningful, and, yes, spiritual, practice.
Here’s a vastly more useful term in the context of growth: critical mass. This “growing our souls” that many of us aspire to is much more easily achieved in a congregation that takes steps to leave stagnation and decline behind. A growing, rejuvenating congregation has more volunteers, more children, more task forces, more services of different kinds, (and, yes, eventually even more tenors and basses). You need critical mass to be able to start more appealing programs or forms of service and action, and we don’t have critical mass for a lot of those (including, incidentally, youth RE and nurseries!) in the vast majority of our congregations.
I don’t believe for a minute that preachily appeals from a UUA president Hallman to strengthen our spiritual UU self esteem would have any effect whatsoever. Such appeals might even be counterproductive in that they might be received as an invitation to feel smug about ourselves because our religion is just sooo wonderful. Rev Hallman says our faith is unstoppable. Is it really? What, then, explains our continuing decline?
Never mind optimism, but it may have been that same kind of optimistic ‘inebriation’ with self-delight and hopeful vision that made a number of UUA high rollers, led by Laurel Hallman, choose the most difficult of all possible models for a church planting instead of a less bold but more achievable church planting model. I’m talking of course about what was initially known as the Pathways “Fast Start” Congregation. I’ve just reread the 2006 report about it and it looks to me like the planning was extremely poor: a long list of very predictable high hurdles had apparently only been drawn up after its collapse, instead of in the early planning stages when that same information would have been available for those asking prudent questions.
Why do I bring up this painful chapter? Because it highlights how important it is for a leader to anticipate arising problems, to ask probing questions early, and to proceed using proven strategies that are within our means. I see Peter Morales with a sober analysis of very concrete problems facing UU that don’t even seem to be on Rev. Hallman’s radar screen: the demographic shift that will tremendously shrink our historical core constituency, the need to replace half of our ministers shortly, the continued slide into statistical marginality and the resulting reduced effect of our faith as a force of good in society. Not only do I see problems ignored or denied, I see solutions ignored and denied.
I want a UUA president who can shock congregations into facing those realities and tackling them with creative use of simple tools they already possess. Business as usual in conjunction with inspirational feel good talk won’t do.
If you want spiritual growth I’m predicting it will come with congregational growth in a similar way in which getting off one’s butt and starting physical exercise is linked with increasing mental well being: once you start doing things as opposed to just pondering possibilities or reveling in either self pity or self aggrandizement you’ll soon find yourself on a different, more fulfilled level.
The mouse heart is not our permanent condition, but it needs to be energized by becoming active.
I’ve created a blog website where the two candidates’ positions are featured side by side, in a neutral framework.
http://uuapresidentialdebate2009.wordpress.com
While the posts are completely neutral (only what both candidates said, with the candidate forum at GA as its starting point), the comments are a free forum for discussion. I invite you all to contribute with civilized critique or praise. For balance, I included Aaron Sawyer of http://DiscoverUU.com as co-moderator with equal rights, and we’re seeking an outside ombudsman so that readers have assurance that there are real mechanisms for fairness in place. (Details on our About page).
I think in time it will develop into a prime spot for discussion and will enable a conscious, educated choice in 2009 that is based on policy decisions rather than seniority or personal loyalty. I hope to read your comments there, and I hope you will link to it on your blog roll.
Martin Voelker, aka jUUggernaut
http://uuapresidentialdebate2009.wordpress.com
Dear Martin,
Thanks so much for your comment on my recent blog concerning the upcoming UUA presidency. Clearly, you are very passionate about Rev. Morales’ candidacy.
I want to address one thing you mention in your comment:
“Never mind optimism, but it may have been that same kind of optimistic ‘inebriation’ with self-delight and hopeful vision that made a number of UUA high rollers, led by Laurel Hallman, choose the most difficult of all possible models for a church planting instead of a less bold but more achievable church planting model. I’m talking of course about what was initially known as the Pathways “Fast Start” Congregation.”
In fact, the Large Church Start Up initiative was in no way “led” by Rev. Hallman. You can access the historical facts at http://archive.uua.org/cde/newcong/index.html
The initial blueprint for the project was developed by the following people (see http://archive.uua.org/cde/newcong/New%20Congregation%20Task%20Force%20Report%201002.pdf):
Ms. Margaret L. Beard, UUA Extension Ministry Director,
Dr. Wayne B. Clark, UUA Director of Congregational Fundraising Services,
Rev. Dennis Hamilton, Senior Minister, Horizon UU Church in Carrollton, TX,
Mr. Bob Johnsen, District Growth Consultant, Joseph Priestley District,
Rev. Linda Olson Peebles, UUA Board of Trustees,
Mr. John Pattillo, Chair, UUA Congregational Properties & Loan Commission,
Ms. Sherry Smith, Member, UU Congregation at Shelter Rock, Manhasset, NY,
Rev. Arvid Straube, Senior Minister, Eno River UU Fellowship in Durham, NC.
**
These people were in charge of developing the basic ideas for the project, which were then developed even further by a number of UUA staffers. See http://archive.uua.org/cde/newcong/strategic_map.pdf
Tracey-Robinson-Harris
Margaret Beard
Tom Chulak
Wayne Clark
Susan Gore
Stefan Jonasson
Paula Cole Jones
Michael Tino
**
While it is true that Rev. Hallman was involved with the project, there was no time in which she led the whole initiative, as your comment seems to suggest. If you look at the actual Dallas Fort Worth Strategic Plan (see http://archive.uua.org/cde/newcong/dfw_growth_strategy.pdf) you will see many, many people involved with the project, and in neither the Steering Committee nor the Large Church Start-Up Task Force was Rev. Hallman the leader.
I am asking you to support the health and integrity of the race for the UUA presidency by communicating accurate information in a way that is fair.
I would also mention, finally, two other things:
1. BOTH candidates affirm the importance of repelling fewer visitors. Thus Rev. Hallman talks about the importance of maintaining clean, attractive nurseries, which is key to repelling young families. Neither candidate “owns” this very important issue.
2. I have been struck, over and over, by the righteous indignation that various people over the past several years have expressed over the fate of the Large Church Start Up. Clearly, it did not go according to plan, a plan which was formulated by many many people. Whatever the flaws in this plan might have been, or in its implementation, I think it is critical that we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Many UUA staffers and leading ministers in our movement tried to do a new thing—they experimented with a new way of beginning churches. It is this spirit of innovation that we need to continue supporting and cultivating, even as we work hard to improve things on the implementation and accountability end.
Let’s learn the many lessons of the first Rapid Start Large Church—some positive, some not so positive—and move on. WellSprings surely has; they have benefited tremendously from the lessons of Pathways—and this, of course, was one of the purposes of the Pathways project: through trial and error, to develop a sound blueprint that could be used by other rapid-start congregations. (Why is it, by the way, that people have demanded perfection out of a project which was, from the start, supposed to have been “trial-and error”?)
We need to thank our innovators and encourage them, rather than tear them down, subject them to ridicule. Unless we do this, we cut off our nose to spite our face. We paralyze ourselves. We become a movement that is too freighted with self-criticism and self-condemnation to be imaginative and playful. And, since imagination and playfulness are the doorway to essential creativity, this is serious business.
Rev. Anthony David
Wonderfull Anthony, on several points. Growth, church planting, attracting visitors vs. incarnational missional approaches, or both/and approaches where possible—all of this reminds me of the saying that if you want, really, to build a boat, you don’t focus on the engineering and the carpentry skills or design first; first you instill a yearning for the seas, and when people have to be out there over the horizon, then the means to be there will emerge (and they will come in diverse shapes). Ron