I love that I don’t have to vet the classes folks want to teach and that finding people to facilitate is so much easier than asking them to be a subject matter expert. These curriculums already address antiracism and article ii and I don’t have to bring all that to them. That means so much to me as a minister. It lets us have high quality offerings out of the gate. We should not be course developers. - Rev. Denise Cawley, interim minister Countryside Church
From the facilitators at Countryside Church: All of our facilitators were appreciative of the video and hand out options that helped to guide the classes. All in all we received excellent participant responses. We have completed Elevator Speech and Biblical literacy and Spiritual Development are still in process. But feedback to date has been favorable. We’ve had an enormous response to the classes we offered this past fall. Our attendance for classes often topped out at 10 or so but we’ve had double the attendance with Faith Forward. We also found that the ready-made curriculum helped us to find our facilitators.
I have never been more confident in recruiting Adult RE volunteers than with Faith Forward. Our facilitators report an effort/reward ratio from leading Faith Forward curricula that far exceeds any RE volunteering experience from the past. Inquirers has been a game-changer for our welcoming ministries, and we have a far more robust group of new attendees than in previous years.
- Rev. Jonathan Rogers
We were impressed enough with the Inquirers Series that we felt confident we could adapt your other offerings to our congregation's needs. I'm breaking the Spiritual Practices series into two 6-week sessions, with the fall set starting on Monday. Interest has been solid. Our adaptation of the Inquirers Series has a team of 6 facilitators who are about halfway through round two now, and just had our first reflection meeting. The feedback is excellent, and participation has been higher than we expected. Your materials have been a blessing to us in this liminal year of wonky attendance and a less active volunteer base, and we anticipate seeing ripples of impact for a long time to come.
- Skyla King-Christison, Director of Religious Exploration at UU Fellowship of Corvallis, OR
“The clear path to membership that had been missing...”
The Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist congregation started using the Inquirers series of Faith Forward in the fall of 2015. We experienced a noticeable surge in membership within a few months of beginning the series. People had found the clear path to membership that had been missing in what we offered on Sunday mornings.
— Rev. Tandy Scheffler
“A great resource for our congregation!”
Faith Forward has been a great resource for our congregation! We now have more people in the membership process than we ever have before. This path, beginning with the Inquirers Series, is what people have been looking for, and we're so grateful to now have a clear process for visitors and members to get connected.
— Rev. John Crestwell, UU Church of Annapolis, MD
“These sessions made me focus on my Unitarian Universalist identity and made me realize I need to live my ideals outside the walls of my congregation. It has been the impetus to me going back to volunteer at an inner city charter school here in town. I am going back again to hopefully make a difference.”
— Jill Thomas, participant in UU History from the UU Church in Peoria, IL
“I took this class during a time of grieving. Listening to others approach the same readings broadened my world at a time that my world was very tight. Attending the class gave me a vocabulary to deal with the spiritual aspects of what I have lost and what I’ve gained.”
“We very much appreciate the generous gift from Dallas UU this COVID year, that you shared your “Spiritual Practice” curriculum. We are small (40 members) and appreciate access to adult RE that is easy for us to present, and we’re aware that the need for all to strengthen their “spiritual muscles” is so great during the past 12 months of lockdowns, on top of the many other concerns for the world.”
I can’t tell you how lovely it is to have your congregation’s hard work and thoughtfulness backing us up in this important endeavor of growing the faith.
— Rev. Sydney Morris
“We found a home, and it was a real home.”
— Sarah Greenman, Faith Forward participant, First Unitarian Church of Dallas
“Participants LOVE the videos!”
— Mike Stanton, Faith Forward facilitator, First Unitarian Church of Dallas
Faith Forward has been a wise investment for our congregation.
— Rev. Pamela Wat
TO READ MORE ABOUT FAITH FORWARD'S SUCCESS AT THE DENTON, TX FELLOWSHIP - A GROWING, 130-MEMBER CONGREGATION - SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.
The Faith Forward program is what was missing the first time I came to the church. Thank you for making it happen!
-- David Faulkner, Faith Forward participant, First Unitarian Church of Dallas
“I’m lucky now to serve as an usher, and I feel as though I own part of this space.”
— Danielle Brissette, Faith Forward participant, First Unitarian Church of Dallas
Faith Forward is going really well in the congregation. We are doing Inquirers every Sunday, and it’s been AMAZING! The newcomers are making connections, and getting deeply engaged in the congregation. We have several folks joining as members in December who were the first group of people who started Inquirers this Summer. It’s amazing how much a part of the fabric of the congregation they've become, in such a short time.
— Janine Gelsinger, UU Congregation of Phoenix, AZ
Hear from participants and facilitators of Biblical Literacy for Unitarian Universalists about their experience.
Christine Ashworth, a lay leader at First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City, Utah shares about her experience with Faith Forward.
Caitlin and Josh, members at First Unitarian Church of Dallas, share how Faith Forward was an important part of their path to membership.
Rev. Lyssa Jenkens, member of First Unitarian Church of Dallas and Faith Forward facilitator:
Read how Rev. Pamela Wat and Denton UU Fellowship in Denton, TX has adapted and implemented Faith Forward for her growing, 130-member congregation:
Faith Forward has been a wise investment for our congregation. The Inquirers Series took some time to adapt to our particular congregation, but that work has really paid off. It has been a key element in how we welcome newcomers and re-engage longer-term members. The series has demystified how to get involved in our congregation, what programs we offer, and what we teach our youth, and other aspects that we thought were quite transparent (but clearly weren't). We had already offered a workshop for newcomers, but this extended series is much more effective and creates more opportunity for connection and learning. We don't offer it consecutively, but run it as an eight-week series four times a year.
The Spiritual Practices workshops create a great way for Unitarian Universalists to explore methods of centering their spirits and connecting to something larger than themselves. I find that many of our newer members are yearning for this work. I especially appreciated the goal-oriented focus on creating a spiritual practice plan. We offer the Spiritual Practices series as a once-a-month offering throughout the year and we open it to the larger community as a free workshop. We also supplement the workshops throughout the year by inviting guests to present (to offer yoga, tai chi, etc.) and to draw in seasonal practices (like a New Year’s vision board practice).
The UU History series included videos that presented our history in an engaging, meaningful way so much so that we replaced our high school UU history program with the one from Faith Forward. Our high school students loved the stories and it helped their UU history come to life. As an added exercise we invited them to imagine a title and cast for each story as if they were going to create a movie of it. We have found that the creative energy of Faith Forward has helped inspire our creative energy as well! We are considering using more workshops from Faith Forward to lead youth programs.
The materials are very well-presented and help us reach the high bar of professionalism that many of our younger and newer members are seeking. There is minimal preparation to lead the classes, allowing even busy volunteers and staff to implement a series with very little work. In addition, most of our membership is new to Unitarian Universalism and they have not felt like they have the knowledge or authority to lead classes on Unitarian Universalism. The videos from First Unitarian Church of Dallas staff fill that gap by providing the expertise and the information, while our church members simply engage the group in discussion based on the provided discussion questions and the questions that come from the group after viewing the videos. In the meantime, as they lead and take the classes, they become knowledgeable UU's and stronger leaders.