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Posts from the ‘Leadership’ Category

Aug 29

Services or Servant Leadership?

I am often asked, “What does it mean that you’re the ‘Director for Congregational Life’?

I do wonder from time to time!

Officially I am the director for the UUA staff group which oversees our field services, congregational stewardship programs, and growth strategies.  We call this staff group “Congregational Life” rather than the previous “Congregational Services” because we want to convey our conviction that the UUA does not “service” congregations in a mechanistic or consumeristic sense.  Rather we understand ourselves as being partners with UUs in fulfilling our mission.  Does changing the staff group name help us in communicating this?  Probably not.  But it does start an interesting conversation about our purpose at the UUA, which is not that different from conversations that are happening in many other walks of life. Read more

Aug 26

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Learning Communities

It seems appropriate to begin this blog as I participate in the second “Leap of Faith” conference, designed by the Unitarian Universalist Association to place vital congregations in learning relationships with one another.

The whole concept of “learning communities” is one that is not unfamiliar to Unitarian Universalists — we’ve always held the philosophy of believing that the capacity for growth and change is within us and among us.  What is different lately is that we are asking communities to “learn out loud” — to risk the prospect that they may not know the answer and may have to make mistakes along the way to living their call. Read more

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