Blue Boat of Youth and Young Adult Ministries5 Ways to Support Youth In Your Congregation
A.K.A. 5 Things Your Congregation Will Thank You For Our survey of 351 Unitarian Universalist (UU) youth provided some real gems and had some real flaws. Here are the five major takeaways we learned: 1. Build Opportunities for Connection This survey shows us that our youth want to be involved in the life of their congregation because they are already invested in their congregation. Think about the times when you feel most welcome in a situation. Did someone invite you to the party, to worship, to a concert? When you showed up, did they ignore you or did they welcome you and engage you in conversation? Invite your youth to worship! If they can’t make…
How Congregations Can Better Serve Their Youth
Leads for Keeping Youth in Your Congregation We started asking “How could your church better serve you?” after noting the responses to the magic-wand question were highly aspirational. Because they are qualitative instead of quantitative, measuring these two questions is more difficult than evaluating youth’s favorite part of church. The two most prominent responses were food-based and some form of “[My congregation] can’t because they already serve me well.” Other responses included promoting youth leadership: “It could send a youth leadership newsletter for opportunities such as those mentioned in the meeting at the UUA.” “More opportunity for youth leadership.” “Get the kids more involved in everything and tell us all about what’s going on in the general congregation.”…
What Would You Change with YOUR Magic Wand?
Youth Perspective on What We Need to Do Better One of the questions we asked the youth who visited the Unitarian Universalist Association UUA was, “If you had a magic wand, what would you change about your church?” This question – although seemingly frivolous – was intended to see what needs youth had that their congregation wasn’t serving. Instead, the responses showed us the aspirational vision our youth have for their congregations. Because of these responses, we added another question: “How could your church better serve you?” We shared the responses to these two questions with the leaders of the youth’s congregations. The “magic wand” questions elicited some fantastically detailed responses from our youth. Their…
Favorite Parts of Church and Why
Youth’s Favorite Parts of Church As you can see by the chart on the right, there is a very clear winner in terms of what youth enjoy the most about church. 44% of youth prefer youth group over every other aspect of congregational life. This isn’t new information; we’ve known that youth prefer the opportunities for community and connection that youth group provides. We also know that youth group serves young people’s needs regarding identity formation and community participation. Social events, religious education, and coffee hour follow youth group as the most popular activities (15%, 14%, and 11% respectively). These programs serve very similar needs as youth group in meeting the social needs of youth. Religious…
What Youth Do at Church… and Why
Youth Participation As mentioned in the previous post in this series, this survey has some flaws. The first question we asked was a check-all-that-apply, “When I attend church, I go to…” that had five possible responses: The worship service, Religious Education classes, Youth group, Coming of Age, and Our Whole Lives Because we didn’t define the time period, we don’t know if this comes from the last year, last six months, or just gives a general sense of preferences. It was left to the respondent to decide what church attendance means to them. There is also no qualitative data to back up the data we have. We don’t know why they responded the way they did….
Service and Community
KATHY by Kristen Psaki kristen.psaki@gmail.com @kristenpsaki Kathy Glatz First Unitarian Society of Denver “After being raised Catholic and having 30 something years of agnosticism, I was in a life-threatening car accident. And, I pondered, ‘why did I live?’ In my pondering my dear friend Jan Owen said, ‘Well, come to church with me.’ She was with First Unitarian at the time and it, uh, just felt right.” And so, in 1999 Kathy went to church. On #LivingUU Kathy Glatz is covered in buttons. From “End Israeli Apartheid” to “Migration is Natural” to an image of the word “Racism” underneath a big red prohibition sign that carves through the letters. Service. Kathy is clear and…
Little Separation Between UU Principles and Life
BRIAN by Kristen Psaki kristen.psaki@gmail.com @kristenpsaki Rev. Brian Ferguson Minister San Marcos UU Fellowship San Marcos, TX Rev. Brian Ferguson sauntered through GA wearing a pair of very cool shoes. Much to the chagrin of their daughter Isla, Brian and his partner Natalie actually picked up matching pairs of these hand-painted deluxe kicks at Austin’s annual “Armadillo Christmas Bazaar.” Reflecting on their bowling-shoe-like appearance Brian mused: “Why don’t people wear bowling shoes more often? They are just great shoes.” Agreed. On #Living UU “As a UU minister there seems to be very little separation between my UU principles and my life. But every so often it does fall-out. I always like what Martin…
It’s Just Sort of Inclusion Right Away
NANCY by Kristen Psaki kristen.psaki@gmail.com @kristenpsaki Nancy Stevens Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon “I was invited to join the UU Fellowship in Frisco, CO in 1996 and my friend said, ‘This is a church for the non-religious’ and I said, ‘Oh that would be me!’ So I started that in ’96. And I’ve been part of three different fellowships since then.” Nancy Stevens’ heart grows bigger by the second as she shares how her UU communities have impacted her life. “A big thing for me – I get all teary here – um, that the LGBT community is welcome in this fellowship. It’s not very often that we’re accepted. It was so neat to…
My Own Little Blue Boat
BEAR by Beth Cortez-Neavel ecortez.neavel@gmail.com @ecortez_neavel Though below me, I feel no motion Standing on these mountains and plains Far away from the rolling ocean Still my dry land heart can say: Bear Amezcua-Waters is 32 years old. He lives in Austin, Texas with Gil, his husband. They both recently began attending the First UU Church of Austin. Bear shared his story with me and @KristenPsaki, on the first evening of General Assembly. For all three of us it was our first GA conference, and we were all happy to connect to friendly faces through Bear’s gracious telling. Bear grew up to a body-building mother, now passed, who taught him in the ways of the…
A Spiritual Awakening
WESLEY by Kristen Psaki kristen.psaki@gmail.com @kristenpsaki Wesley Botham Unitarian Church Lincoln, NE “Sometime in late high school and early college I was definitely sure I was no longer a Christian.” Wesley Botham grew up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA Lutheran), which worked for him until it didn’t anymore. “I remember thinking: It would be nice if there were some place, this is a completely absurd thought, but it would be nice if there were some place where you could go and not be a Christian.” Wesley ended up dating someone who invited him to a UU church, but it didn’t stick just yet. A chapter or two down the road Wesley lived…
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