About five years ago, our current vision – Theologically Diverse, Radically Inclusive, and Justice Centered – was provisionally approved by the board for use on a postcard inviting the neighbors to attend our special events in December. We liked this vision so we kept it. Two years ago we had cottage meetings to identify our shared values, and came up with Community, Love, and Spirituality as the top three.

Now we’re launching an outreach initiative, and we believe that updating the vision to be more in line with our stated congregational values will also appeal more to the kind of people we want to attract. We want to try this new vision on for a while and see how we like it. It is:

Spiritually Alive, Lovingly Inclusive, and Justice Centered

“Theologically Diverse” is absolutely true, and even 20 or 30 years ago it was a big draw for UU churches. When there was pressure to attend church, finding one that offered freedom from religious dogma was a gift. But with that pressure gone, people who want religious freedom today just stay home. People looking for a church now, studies show, are hungry for spiritual connection and inspiration, and spirituality is one of our top three values. “Spiritually Alive” speaks to that.

“Radically Inclusive” might be a good goal for us in the future, but what does it really mean? We can all picture “Lovingly Inclusive,” and it brings in our top values of Community and Love.

We like the changes a lot. We like them because they are both descriptive (this is who we are) and aspirational (how can we do them better?).

We recognize the importance of congregational input and self-determination, and hope we can have a congregational visioning & missioning process later this year, perhaps in the spring. In the meantime, we think this change will help our outreach initiative, as well as how we see ourselves, and we ask your support in this. Try it on! How does it feel? Asking ourselves questions like “How can we be more lovingly inclusive?” might be transformative for us.