no buildings, just bodies
no positions of power, just powerful people

i don’t “go” to church, but I am “part” of church

Sorry about the abbreviation, and I’d like all other “Surviving the Workday” readers (you should call them “survivalists”) to know that YMMV stands for “Your Mileage May Vary”

CC

Just so you know, CC, I had to look up YMMV.

I guess part of what you and Jim may be sensing is my attempt to reconceptualize what a church that appeals to (and feeds) me would look with (alternative service times, practical sermons, a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and programs, maybe lay-led). It’s hard to imagine that because I haven’t seen a UU version, but I’d certainly be curious enough to check it out. Whether I felt “fed” remains to be seen.

But I honestly think the Sunday service time is far more significant than just a farmer’s market issue. I think that it’s a h-u-g-e issue toward church attendance in Unitarian Universalism, and beyond, so while the way I phrased it seems flippant, the idea behind it really isn’t.

At the very least, congregations need members to stay alive, and “I’d rather go to the farmers market because church doesn’t give me what I need” is a very distressing thought to those of us who are getting what we need from church and very much want our churches to continue to exist!

I have no idea what to do with the point about families in that my observation is that both families with small kids and single people feel constantly slighted and that the other gets all the attention and the programming. (Ever met a parent who thought RE got enough of the church budget? Me neither.) I can understand how this could literally be the case in some small churches if one group dominated. But my church has RE classes and events for every concievable age bracket and everybody still feels this way. (Again, except for me, because I’m too busy with YRUU to do the stuff offered for adults anyway…)

It’s probably easier to feel that church is serving you when you don’t have a theology degree. I doubt there’s anything I’ve learned from my minister that you don’t already know. My guess is that a lot of the adult RE offered anywhere would only be reminding you of things you know rather than giving you a really new experience.

Also, my minister said a few kind words to me when my grandmother died a few years ago, but the bulk of the expressions of concern came from people I’d met through serving other people. Those expressions were sustaining to me in my time of grief. Service does happen sometimes when people know you well and find out you need it. It sucks to have to reach out, though.

YMMV, and you really don’t have to come back to church if you don’t want to. Really.

CC

And frankly the Sunday morning timing issue seems to me to be mostly a cop-out as there are lots of folks who somehow manage to attend both a UU church service AND the Church of the Yuppie Farmers Market each week.

But I do think Unitarian Universalism can gently shift beyond the congregation is everything attitude that we get with congregationalism (and is necessary to an extent) to looking at different ways of providing ministry (Thursday p.m. services, Sunday sundowns, house/home church). I think that the Sunday a.m. service in liberal congregations competes with so many other activities that without the threat of eternal damnation, I fear the day/time thing may be part of the cause of numbers of unchurched and affiliated but non-attending folks.

By the way, that church you linked to had a LOT going on.