Pacific Northwest District of the Unitarian Universalist Association
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A Recipe for a Strong Membership Program
by Tandi Rogers Koerger, Program Specialist
From: September 2006

I am the kind of person who reads cookbooks like a good novel and then doesn’t follow a recipe when I’m actually in the kitchen elbow deep in ingredients and bubbling concoctions. This makes it especially curious that I love to measure outcomes and outputs and look for patterns. Sociology was one of my undergraduate majors. I’m hopeless that way.

One night I was blissfully poring over a grid full of numbers. I had the congregations in our district listed along with their membership numbers over the past decade. I also had listed things like fair compensation and Welcoming Congregation status and up-to-date website, clear directions on the website, staffed for growth, and things like that. I wasn’t surprised that these were characteristics of a healthy, growing congregation. The numbers were right there, and my experience confirmed these findings.

What surprised me was the strong correlation between congregations who were growing and those that have a membership journey beyond meeting with a minister (if there is one) and signing the membership book. And the reverse was true. Congregations with no comprehensive pathway to membership are either stagnating or declining. Size didn’t seem to matter, although, the larger churches are more likely to have a membership program.

But really the key ingredients to a strong membership program don’t exclusively belong to the larger congregations. An effective membership program answers the questions:

Who are we as a religious community?

• What does it mean to be a Unitarian Universalist?
• What does it mean to be a member of this particular Unitarian Universalist congregation or fellowship? What are the stories? What are the points of pride and the challenges?
• What is expected of members in regards to having a personal mission and/or theology, stewardship, and behavior in and out of the congregation?
• How can I serve, be fed, and have meaningful relationships in this religious community?

The Unitarian Universalist Association put together an excellent manual covering all the ins and outs of the Membership Journey. You can download this 53 page document for free: http://www.uua.org/documents/congservices/membershipjourney.pdf. I highly recommend that all board members, church staff, and committee chairs look this over and integrate aspects of membership grooming into their facet of church work. Really, we’re all on the Membership Committee.

What I know about cooking also applies to church work. You can follow a recipe, but if your ingredients are fresh and you put your prayers into the meal as you cook, then the meal really comes alive. And it just tastes better gathered around a welcoming table.