This is an invitation to our April 14, 2026 UU Growth Lab live strategy session for UU clergy, staff and volunteer leaders.
For generations, we've built congregational life and membership development around one assumption: people will find their way to us.
"They'll discover us, visit on a Sunday, make their way through coffee hour, and eventually find belonging. Our job is to be ready when they arrive, be nice, and over time they'll organically move into membership."
That model is struggling and most of you know it.
Within our UU Growth Lab trainings we've been working on strengthening our welcoming, hospitality and conversation systems in response.
But I think we need to do more than that.
🛑 We need to stop waiting for people to come to us.
🚀 We need to start hosting!
I think we need to start hosting the conversations we're excited to invite everyone we know to and that they're excited to atted. Not Unitarian Universalist centric conversations, but conversations on the issues of our time.
This isn't just about membership growth. It is about designing a practice that actively does the following:
1. enables us to lead on the issues of our time
2. addresses the need for meaningful connection and conversation
3. build relationships that amplify your congregations mission
4. build relationships between members and larger community
5. outreach, visibility, and membership growth benefits
Our April 14th UU Growth Lab live session is on "Fast Tracking AI Community Conversations" with that modeling a multipurpose community conversation event template.
More on the rationale below, but first, here's what you'll get.
Community Conversation Template: I'll share a new ready-to-use model and event template for hosting community conversations that bring people into your building through the networks your members already have. No outside speakers. No budget. No new programs. Just your people, your process, and your capacity for meaningful conversation offered intentionally to a wider circle that is already hungry for exactly what you know how to do.
This model, inspired by decades of small group program design, can be used with any topic your leadership cares about. For this session, I'm using AI as the topic as its a hot topic of wide appeal with many dimensions that can be explored. It also ties in to what it means to be human and connects beautifully with topics we explore within our congregations all the time. Perfect on so many levels!
Is this something more to do? This model accomplishes multiple things congregations need to do to fulfill their mission, be of service, build and grow community, engage in outreach efforts, and cultivate relationships that lead to membership development, resilience, capacity building, and more. I see it as a net time saver.
A Smart Strategic Service Oriented Practice
Given the loneliness epidemic, meaning crisis, and exponential AI tech driven tsunami of change coming, I think hosting conversations is a discipline we all need to be practicing.
Bonus: This model can be used in any context -schools, non-profits, civic groups. The key is that it isn't expert oriented, but focuses on making space for conversation, crowdsourcing wisdom, and building relationships that empower action.
I believe our capacity to lead change, navigate challenges, and work together is dependent on the nature and quality of our conversations.
Hope you can join us!
