Rev. Dr. Richard Speck Workshop Participants

Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association Ministry Days

0004 Building Healthy Congregtaions

Presenters: The Rev. Dr. Richard Speck

Prepared for UUA.org by: Bill Lewis, Reporter; Jone Johnson Lewis, Editor

Healthy congregations are growing congregations. Thus the best strategy for growing Unitarian Universalism is to have healthy congregations.

With a team of colleagues, the Rev. Dr. Richard Speck has developed a series of workshops in which congregational teams are trained to use system analysis to diagnose and restore the health of their communities. The Healthy Congregations Workshop series has been presented for the past two years in the Joseph Priestley District, and their team is now prepared to offer the training for the series to teams from other districts. Building on the work of Murray Bowen, Ed Friedman, and Peter Steinke, the series offers the team's best current information on making congregations healthy.

In many congregations, active members may identify that one of their fellow members presents an obstacle to growth or progress. They may then work to replace, transform or remove that member. Even if they succeed in that, they will later realize that they still have the same impediment to growth and progress because the congregational system was not changed. That's because, given the same system, the role of the difficult member remained and another member stepped in to fill it.

In successful system analysis, the members of an emotional system – in this case, a congregation – are enabled to see how re-defining and changing the roles within the system can help them bring their actions into harmony with their goals and aspirations. Instead of focusing on one or two individuals within the group, the members analyze the roles of those who participate in the active life of the congregation and determine, collegially, whether they are willing and able to change those roles to improve the relationships between them. When they do, they usually find that congregational life has become both less stressful and more productive.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Speck is Executive Director of the Joseph Priestley District.

Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St. | Boston, MA 02108 | 617-742-2100