This is the complete version of comments prepared for Sunday morning’s church financial forum by Dick and Debby Kreitner. In the interest of time, they said, they omitted some of this at the meeting.
We would like to thank the Policy Board for soliciting our opinions before they decide on the budget submitted to them for approval. It is unfortunate, in this age of rapid communication, that we could not get word out to all our members about this forum. Affected constituencies were able to spread word but many other members did not find out.
First, we need to be clear about the problem. This is not an expense problem. It is a revenue problem. Furthermore, we believe it is not a problem with the average amount contributed per pledge unit -- the congregation has increased the average pledge by 50% since 2004. The Stewardship Committee should be complemented for the excellent job they have done in this regard. However, continuing to push for even higher pledge levels risks alienating people.
The real problem is that we are a declining congregation. You can’t look at membership numbers – membership hasn’t really changed in 10 years. You need to look instead at the involvement and commitment of the members:
1. Attendance – It is obvious to regular attendees like us that we aren’t getting as many Sundays where people are really packed into the pews.
2. Church School – both enrollment and attendance numbers show sharp declines
3. Pledge Units (most important indicator) – The number of pledge units (our primary source of revenue) has decreased 20% in the past 3 years.
So what does this tell us? Our members are less interested in what we are doing as a church.
Implementing the budget submitted to the Policy Board will dismantle many programs which built up this church and will risk further declines in involvement and pledge units. Therefore, we urge the Policy Board, before taking any action, to closely study why we are a declining congregation when other UU congregations and the denomination as a whole are not declining:
1. Is it our programming? Have we become stale, boring, and insufficient to meet the interests of our members?
2. Is it a lack of intentional member involvement? Are we not making people feel wanted? Are we not reaching out to people to invite them to participate in the activities that the staff can’t and shouldn’t handle?
3. Is it inadequate communications? Are our current communication methods not timely, too infrequent, and not sufficiently comprehensive? If one is not in church (as is true for more than one-half of our members on most Sundays), do they miss out on important communications? Are our communication methods geared too much for the convenience of the staff, not the benefit of the members?
4. Is it a question of ministerial effectiveness? If there are problems with our current #1 minister, shouldn’t we deal with this before hiring a #2 minister?
We also urge the Policy Board to look beyond the current year before making its decisions. Any solution needs to work over a longer term. We need to avoid a continued decline, so we are not back here again in a year, talking about the next cutbacks.
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2 comments:
Thank you. This was a brave thing to say. I wanted to applaud but didn't have the courage.
I don't know either of you well enough to tell you this in person, but you have stated so well what many of us have been thinking and feeling over the past year.
My family and I visited the church before, during and after the transition in ministers. A good friend of ours left the church in disappointment after Jan was selected, but we decided to join because we were impressed by the strong music and religious education programs available for our children.
I had hoped that we would be able to develop a relationship with Jan, as we have with the ministers in every previous church we have attended, but that has not happened.
Jan is a nice person, and I am not saying this to be hurtful, but the reality is that she fails to connect with a significant number of people -- our family included -- either personally or through her sermons.
I have become increasingly aware of the great divide between people who experience this lack of connection, as we do, and those who feel that Jan is the ideal minister. I really think that the church is developing into a divided congregation, and we are definitely not included in the "A" Team.
Even though we still pledge and volunteer at the church, we are among the folks who have stopped attending church services regularly, except on holidays and when the children are present.
I know we miss out on information and experiences because of that absence, but it is so depressing to hear a long sermon from someone with whom you lack any connection.
We have been involved in the church for five years (including meetings with Jan), and I honestly don't think she could identify any member of my family by name, much less remember anything significant about any of us.
If we did not volunteer with some really wonderful folks, my husband and I would lack any emotional connection at all to the church.
In the next few days, we will be increasing our pledge in the sheer hope that they will not eliminate the quality music and education programs that brought us to the church (as well as maintain our longtime custodian's hours).
In the sad event that those programs are eliminated (and, really, Orwellian characterizations aside -- laying off high-quality people effectively eliminates existing programs), I worry about the impact on our children.
After they lose the music teachers that they genuinely love, will our children connect with volunteers (assuming there are any)?
Will these volunteers be poorly trained and/or inclined to favor certain children (expecially their own offspring)? I have seen both things happen in other churches.
Most of all, will my children lose their sense of security and their spiritual connection to the church?
The children know that they may lose their teachers, and they are already upset about that prospect.
Given the sadness and frustration we feel at our own lack of connection, we would really be devastated if our children ended up feeling the way that we do.
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