Adult Faith Development Can Be Catalyst For Vitality

Faith development is among the most important reasons people come to church.

When the professional staff at the First UU Church of Wausau, Wisc. (230 members), suggested that the congregation needed a formal adult program, Richard Olson felt inspired to make it happen. He put a notice in the church newsletter, formed an “adult enrichment” committee, and people began suggesting ideas. “Everyone felt we needed this,” he said. “The time was just ripe to do it.” The first year there were eight programs. This fall and winter there will be a dozen or so.

Olson said forming the committee in itself created a lot of energy in the congregation: “People are taking notice and asking questions and signing up for programs.”

When creating adult programming, be sure to get lots of input from the congregation so that people feel ownership, says the Rev. Sarah Gibb, the UUA’s adult programs director in the Lifespan Faith Development staff group. And share the leadership. “Often, the programs that are on shaky ground are the ones that were developed by one person,” Gibb says. “They might do it a number of years but when they burn out there’s no one to take over.” And don’t let it be simply consumer-driven. “Church members have to do more than suggest ideas for courses. They need to help take responsibility to make the courses happen.”

Also, a congregation needs to decide what perspective it can bring to a program that would make it different from one offered by a community center. “There is a spiritual angle to many courses that our congregations are well equipped to bring out,” says Gibb.

When considering courses, look first at www.uua.org/re, which has a list of available curricula, including those developed by independent authors. Beacon Press books with study guides are also listed there. Setting up a successful faith development program is kind of like setting up a successful small business, Gibb says. “You can start small with low overhead and offer one thing and then expand it,” she says. “The other way is to do a lot of research and launch a program fully formed that reaches out to many different people.”

A balanced program is important, says the Rev. Dr. Barry Andrews, minister of religious education at the UU Congregation at Shelter Rock (675 members) in Manhassat, N.Y., where there are 40 to 60 adult programs annually. “People have a feeling here that the program is integrated and is trying to take them somewhere,” he says. “Faith development consists of fostering a religious identity along with nurturing spiritual growth.”

Andrews believes there are four categories of adult faith development courses: spiritual development, ethical development, UU identity, and faith development. In other words: church, world, self, and mystery.

Is your congregation too small for many adult offerings? Five Denver-area congregations joined together in the Denver Center for Spiritual Renewal (see article).

First Parish in Needham, Mass. (242 members), has expanded its adult offerings in recent years. Two years ago the Rev. Dr. John Buehrens initiated a Sunday morning forum series called the Needham Lyceum, which brings in speakers who talk about issues of local, national, and international interest. Buehrens often follows these with a sermon on the day’s issue. The forums are well attended and Needham has also added midweek course offerings for adults.

Brian Donoghue is a member of First Parish’s adult education committee. “If the parish was not offering these programs we’d have a vacuum,” he says. “We’d lose a lot of the excitement that we have. These programs open our minds to a lot of social issues, to other religious traditions, and there’s no doubt we’d have a different type of congregation without these opportunities to explore and learn.”