millennials

Reaching out to the nones

The Rev. Renee Ruchotzke has a three-part essay titled “Could the Nones Become Unitarian Universalists?” on the UUA blog Growing Vital Leaders. She notes, “Young adult ministry has been a challenge for congregations of all liberal protestant denominations for decades but the game is changing in ways we couldn’t have imagined back in the post WWII church-building boom.”

Many young adults find conservative churches too restrictive, she says in Part 1. And liberal ones have not articulated a compelling theology. In Part 2 she ticks off reasons why young adults leave churches. The reasons include not developing a close friendship with anyone, and not getting help with discovering their own mission in the world.

In Part 3 she highlights congregations like First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY which have created small group programs that lead to deeper engagement and spiritual development.

Growing Vital Leaders is a good blog for congregational leaders to bookmark. Other recent topics have been on cohesive leadership and making members and the larger community aware of your congregation’s outreach ministries.

Ruchotzke is Leadership Development Consultant for the Central East Regional Group (CERG), of the UUA.

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Growth, Resources

Why Unitarian Universalism is right for Generation Y

The Rev. Renee Ruchotzke writes about Generation Y—the Millennials—on the UUA blog Growing Vital Leaders. Ruchotzke is Regional Leadership Development consultant for the Central East Regional Group of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

In a blog post from June 28 titled “To Be ‘Bona Fide,’” she quotes sociologist Robert Putnam, who notes in his book, American Grace, that the Millennials—born from the late ’70s to early 2000s—are less likely to have been raised in a particular religion than any previous generation and are less likely to believe that any one religion holds exclusive access to the “truth.” Millennials yearn for authenticity, she says, adding:

I believe this is good news for Unitarian Universalism. The promise of our faith is the promise of a living tradition, not the dry bones of old, irrelevant texts. The promise of our faith is the promise of personal wholeness; from our identity-based ministries to our antiracism, antioppression, and multicultural work. And the promise of our faith is the promise of being connected to something greater than ourselves . . .

The best gift we can give each generation is to embody that promise, to invite each new generation to join us, to nurture them as they become a part of our communities and grow in their own faith and commitment, and—most importantly—to step back and allow them to transform our living tradition as generations before have done.

Ruchotzke also recommends David Kinnaman’s book, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith.

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Growth