9 min 49 s
Play can be that difference between a meeting being just business, or meeting being ministry (some examples);
Shifting the headspace at the start of your meeting so the Spirit can flow;
Are your church meetings too much business and not enough fun and joy?
Play has so many benefits for not only individuals, but for our ministries and our leadership.
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11 min 50 s
Injecting Play into Curriculum, like Confirmation, can boost engagement and focus purpose;
Tips and examples for how to incorporate play easily into class curriculums;
Advice for the leader who doesn’t think of themselves as a “play” person – who feels uncomfortable leading a play activity;
Play directly affects people’s level of engagement and motivation;
Using play to release Holy Spirit energy!
Play has so many benefits for not only individuals, but for our ministries and our leadership.
Examples of simple and more advanced games;
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12 min 2s
When thom said that committee work can be an essential means of faith formation, it gave me pause. After all, serving on committees is what many people try to avoid. But what he said made sense: when committees practice intentional reflection on their work, it can be faith forming. Put differently, committee work is faith forming when it builds up the beloved community by probing and affirming shared values, purpose and goals. Rev. Dr. thom bower elaborates on this concept and offers a simple 5-step process to guide committee work in this episode titled, “Transforming the Work of Committees to Faith Formation.”
It’s in committee work that adult faith takes its life;
Need to approach committee work in a way that recognizes that management itself is faith formation;
A 5-step process to make committee work a community building practice;
12 min 2s
The word “community” is used a lot when talking about church life, yet it’s often a vague notion. But if we frame it as a spiritual discipline – that is, creating community as a spiritual disciple – we get much more traction: What does it mean to be a community now? What does it mean to create community as a Jesus follower? What does it mean to be a Jesus follower in this congregation? At this time and in this neighborhood? How do we keep what is essential and yet lean into the future where things are changing for us? Rev. Dr. thom bower speaks to these questions and more in this episode titled, “Learning to Be Community As a Spiritual Discipline.”
“What does it mean for you to be a community?” – essential question for a congregation;
What does it mean to have a spiritual discipline?
What does that look like as a community activity? (Community as a verb)
Community as the content of faith formation, as the process of faith formation and as the outcome of faith formation;
What does it mean to be a community now? In our context?
Four questions –
22 min 48s
Many pastors say that multigenerational worship is important, yet admit that finding a healthy balance between togetherness and separateness is elusive. In this episode titled, “Multigenerational Worship: How We Found the Balance, and What It Looks Like,” Rev. Allison Palm and Sadie Kahn-Greene of the Unitarian Universality Church in Nashua, NH, share their journey of innovation and discovery to finding a format that works well for their congregation and why.
It has been a journey of trying to figure out what it is we want our Sunday mornings to look like, and what really serves our community, which is a very multigenerational one.
Multigenerational – all together all the time – worship was the ideal I believed in for faith formation when I started my ministry here 10 years ago.
Why a consistent rhythm of programming is important and what ours looks like;
The Wonder Box &
Switch-it-up Sundays
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Multigenerational thriving is the dream of every pastor for their congregation. And yet, it doesn’t happen simply by bringing people together. Rather, it results from having evolved a good strategy through careful listening and negotiating the needs and interests of people in their various stages of life.
In this episode titled, “Building Multigenerational Community: How We Found the Balance,” part 2 of the multigen series with Rev. Allison Palm and Sadie Kahn-Greene, they share specifics about their strategy and programming that is making authentic and joyful multigenerational community a reality for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua.
Coming out of COVID, the challenge we had was, How can we learn how to be in community together again when we haven’t been together in a while?
How can we welcome in new folks who are joining us so that they can get to know the community? And how can we help our community get to know our newer members?
Sadie Con Green explains the decision to focus on having fun together as a congregation in the spring of 2023.
The congregation organized multi-generational events like game nights, a talent show, and a camping trip to foster interaction across age groups.
The success of these events led to the introduction of more age-specific events to cater to different needs and preferences.
The introduction of circle dinners and kids’ movie nights allowed for both multi-generational and age-specific connections.
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