Building Community
Strengthening Beloved Community may be among the most important goals of any ministry. Building and sustaining community, internally and externally, is especially central to the important work transitioning ministers lead during periods of change. Internally, congregations can explore new ways of being together, new layers of understanding of the meaning of covenant, as well as new ways of relating to professional ministry and other professional staff. Externally, congregations can consider new and different outreach to the community outside the congregation: the local town or city, national events and movements, denominational affairs, and hands-on involvement in social justice projects .
Reports are growing about how isolated many Americans feel. Many more people live alone; we communicate electronically rather than face-to-face; multi-tasking limits our opportunities to create deep connections. Cell phones have become mini-computers: not only for phoning and texting, but also for creating photo albums and watching the latest movie. Combating isolation is one reason people go to church and seek spiritual deepening, so to join like-minded, like-spirited people with common values who help inform our life journey and counter personal isolation which can arise even when we live among and with others. Clearly, during the Covid pandemic we have learned new ways of defining church and creating community through online connections, but may we also not forget the importance of direct, person-to-person interactions.
It is not only within the congregation that ministers strive to build connections. Within the profession of ministry itself, it is vital that each minister establish and maintain a network of connections: connections to UUA denominational activities; connections to UU minister colleagues, connections to people and activities outside Unitarian Universalism.
We can strengthen community connections through many activities: attending congregational events, professional meetings, denominational workshops; participating in social justice in the public arena; networking through and drawing inspiration from the arts; disseminating research and writing about this faith tradition through printed media.
The faith of a church or of a nation is an adequate faith
only when it inspires and enables people
to give of their time and energy
to shape the various institutions --- social, economic, political --- of the common life.
James Luther Adams