The Ministering Congregation
A "ministering congregation" is one that has a communal sense of call, knows
the community that it is aiming to serve, mobilizes its resources and programs
to respond to the diverse ministry needs of its gathered congregation and surrounding
community, and provides a formation process to engage its membershp in this
shared ministry.
A ministering congregation
- is mission focused
- is committed to spiritual growth and development of its membership
and the congregation.
- knows its surrounding community and is responsive to the community's
needs for ministry.
- is clear about its ministry focus groups.
- has outreach that is intentionally coordinated with all the
congregation's programs
- has small groups that are a source of pastoral care, religious
education, membership assimilation, and leadership development
- conceives its programs as "ministries" to the congregation
and the surrounding community
- has an intentional and ongoing "shared ministry program" [process
for helping lay people discover their gifts and live out their ministries
in the church's ministries and in their daily lives]
- understands religious education as a formation process for
the ministry of the laity
- is able to reach out to and serve more diverse populations
within the community
- is committed in word and action to anti-racism, anti-oppression
and to being a Welcoming Congregation
- has responsible stewardship and engages in a mission budget
process that is informed by its sense of mission as a congregation within
a particular community
- is "Association-al" and has covenantal relationship with other
UU congregations in the area, district and continent
- engages with other faith communities' in common social ministries, advocacy
or service.
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