As the title says, what’s the secret ingredient to getting new members?
I am on a community to get the word out about my church in I belong to. The current congregation are much older and we just have a handful of families with small children.
This holiday season, for the first time, we are participating in the town’s Christmas walk. We’re having a table with snacks, drinks, crafts, along with literature and such. We will see how well it goes. Keeping fingers crossed.
What kind of community do you live in? Is your congregation involved in any sort of mutual aid or social justice outreach? Those sorts of things are good "friendraisers" by getting the word out that you are there to do good. That's how my UU church got me.
If you are doing those sorts of things, how loud are you about it? Let the community know you're a force for social progress and justice. Lots of people are eager to join in for that these days.
That's my two cents anyway because, again, that's how the church got me. I'm on the social impact committee now, I've been going less than a year.
Yes, we are involved with both, mutual aid and social justice outreach programs.
Nice. If you haven't been then find ways to let the public know. Advertise and host a Know Your Rights program for protesting/dealing with ICE or something along those lines. Maybe an organization in your community would come to a "stop the bleed" first aid class that you host.
Advertise and host a Banned Book Club, like a regular book club but you're reading historically banned books.
We started hosting drag/burlesque shows kind of by accident but it is surprisingly effective outreach.
Just to offer an idea that I haven't seen, because if you have a service space it is also a performance space and we don't always think about that as a recruiting opportunity instead of just a rental opportunity.
You might want to take a poll and see how current UUs learned about it and what made them decide to check it out.
I suspect a lot of people have learned about my local church because it hosts a lot of community events.
There’s no one secret. And your appeal to your local community will depend on your local community’s demographics and culture.
Off the top of my head, some of the things I’ve seen attract people to my local UU churches are: - Live-streaming services so people can “preview” what a service looks like prior to showing up in person - Having a good religious education program for children and adults - Small group ministries (like meditation groups, grief support groups, groups for parents [childcare included], LGBTQ+ groups, book clubs) - Renting out or giving space to local organizations and nonprofits aligned with your values—PFLAG or other LGBTQ+ groups, racial justice groups, NAMI or similar mental health orgs, the DSA, vegetarian/animal welfare groups, etc - Taking action on social justice issues important to the congregation rather than just talking about them—organize groups to volunteer at local food pantries or books-to-prisoners programs, make care packages for unhoused people or people in your local domestic violence shelter, etc
I don’t know whether social media or SEO particularly matters. Most of the UU churches I’m familiar with have very basic social media presences and websites that are charmingly old-fashioned.
I often wonder about reaching people via the internet. I don't know of a single UU church that has a really strong online presence, and I can't help but think we're missing out on a lot of potentially interested people by sticking to those old-fashioned norms. At the same time, it takes a TON of work, time, and/or money to build and maintain a social media presence or even a proper website.
Second Unitarian in Chicago is quite active on social media. First Unitarian of Dallas is as well.
I think most churches are challenged by the fact that they don’t have staff or volunteers with the time and skill to run social media accounts. Moderation is also a concern since UU churches and the UUA itself sometimes get hateful comments on Facebook etc.
Totally the case at my church. We had a few meetings trying to get social media off the ground (more than our very basic weekly Facebook post about the upcoming service) and decided now is not the time to take it on. Our congregation simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to start a whole new committee of like 10 people just for social media, especially since we don’t actually know if it will bring in more visitors/new members.
I’m glad to hear about UU churches that are taking it on, though! I think the rest of us need a model for what a truly strong internet presence looks like.
I think it is also a challenge to know what social media to focus on. Doing everything badly is not a good strategy nor is trying to chase trends or the hot new thing. And right now there is a real risk that you will put a lot of work into a platform only to have it blow up or start engaging in shady stuff (see eX-Twitter).
Social media is really not my thing - I do not want to think about how many platforms I have abandoned. I do think it is important that if you are going to go that route that you do your research to make sure the platform you are investing in is one that is popular with the right audience and that your content is platform neutral. You don't want to become so married to one platform that you cannot readily shift if it falls apart.
Yeah, the hard thing about this is that pretty much all social media corporations are evil. One of the reasons we decided against a big social media push was because the best options were TikTok or Meta. Bluesky didn't really take off like a lot of UUs thought it would, and I have a feeling that whatever corporation is behind it will also be revealed to be evil one day (although to be honest, I have never looked into it).
The only reason we kept our Facebook was because the person who runs it posted on there asking if we should keep it and a whole bunch of people said yes, they still use it. So we kept it but aren't expanding.
For what it's worth, I think chasing trends could be a good strategy if you had the right content creators working on it. But that gets back to needing too many volunteers or paid staff to make the whole thing viable in the first place.
One of the Larger UU churches in Minneapolis is currently doing a very aggressive Reddit ad campaign.
People come to church during two events in their life typically:
Usually they’re looking for community. If you seek those people out and table at those events you could probably get new members. ALSO, if first-time visitors are introduced to 3-5 new people when they first come, they’re more likely to return.
Most people who come to UU church are looking for a like minded community. My church seems to be very worried about spending money on SEO and social media. Once people come there’s not much of anything going on there. There needs to be ways to make friends and social justice activity or most churches just feel like a bunch of old,white people drinking coffee.
Three barriers preventing me from joining:
I moved to a city where I didn't know anyone and was unfamiliar with the area. I immediately sought/found connection through Facebook events, Facebook ads, Meetup.com, local newsletters, local Facebook groups, and local subreddits. I did not encounter UU in any of these even though there are two of them close to my house.
I start perusing their websites. Neither are maintained. There are descriptions of groups, commmitttes, events, and sermons but insufficient info on how to join them. There is an embedded Google Calendar with recurring events, but it does not match anything on the website, as if someone set up a bunch of recurring calendar events a long time ago and left them to decay. Clicking on the calendar events did not yield any more information.
Of the groups, committees, events, and sermons that I might like to join, it seemed like many were scheduled during my and many others' working hours, M-F from 8-5.
What about tabling at bridal shows?
Only if you are actively seeking outside wedding rentals. We have had to back off on this at my church because they take up a lot of staff time. I once attended a church with a volunteer wedding chapel coordinator who was one in a million but even she had some stories, including one case where the wedding party flaked out not once but twice.
I think a big problem with some churches is how stagnant they can feel sometimes. How many people are going to church vs how many people are showing up to go on auto pilot? My church i worked for had maybe 50 members, but I felt like 0 people were... there...
I think taking notes from more aggressive universalizing religions could be a start. How are they spreading their gospels? How are they accommodating towards the local demographics? Why choose our faith over someone else's (this one is easy because you can double time it, lol).
It's like people don't even KNOW about the coffee!
I talked a bit last week with two new people and couple with kids that had started coming because they were new to the area and had found the church through a service Sunday we had or heard of it while looking for open-minded religious communities.
One thing people haven't mentioned: make sure there is an attitude of abundance coming from the congregation.
Attractive vibes: "We've got a good thing going on and we don't want to keep it a secret. There's room at our table, come join in!"
Unattractive vibes: "We're worried about the future of our church if we don't attract more members. We need more people to fill the volunteer jobs and keep the lights on."
On a more practical note, we have a rockstar staff in part because we cover health insurance. If you're an employer, be a good one.
I think this is a marvelous point. People don't want to get on a sinking ship.
I joined my UU church a year and a half ago. My kids are 3 and 5 and they go to the “sprouts room” (nursery room) during service. It’s only an hour a week but it means so much to my husband and I be able to sit together and listen to the service and know the kids are taken care of. My church also has an active RE program. We probably have around 125 adults in service on Sunday, 20 youth, and 5-7 in the nursery.
There are so many different interest groups that meet, all lead by congregation members who are interested in that thing. Pagan group, exercise group, grief support, board gaming, LGBTQ+ socials, art shows, gardening group. There are so many ways to get involved in sharing your interests with other people, and none of them are fancy or tale a lot of effort from leadership or specific members. There is alwaysssss something going on at our church, the building is being used constantly.
And our minister is incredible. So down-to-earth, kind, and very involved in building relationships with other faith leaders in our area. He is also quite active in activist spaces and was the main speaker at our first No Kings rally. We are in a red state so our church community is very different than every other church in town.
It's really all about families. We just had a booth at a harvest day festival and had games. We have an awesome DRE and are getting more families that way. But TBH, most people coming in are either UUs moving here or liberals seeking community during the Trump hell.
Glitter blessings from the Revs ✨
a congregation I used to go to needed to have a consultant come in whose sole purpose of existing was to help them recruit and keep new members. he was always a bundle of joy, always with a smile, always Mr Happy. that was his purpose, to be Mr Happy and to make sure that the congregation got it into their bones to be more than just a stiff cardboard group of old old retired old people.
Your congregation needs to be more welcoming, and I am not using the word welcoming here as a codeword for attracting gay people, but you should be welcoming code word for gay people also.
honestly look around your congregation and see how much you are a group of people with a perpetual stick up your assholes. do you all look like you have had spinal fusion? is the most exciting thing in your day being a member of the big hat club that meets for Sunday brunch after this Sunday lecture? is what Granny Susan did at bingo the hot topic of conversation at coffee hour? do you guys even have a coffee hour? is the phrase Hot topic confined to bingo, as not in any way connected to a clothing store for the youth?
on one hand, chicken and egg problem. Nobody wants to bring their kids to a place that has no kids.
ignoring this and moving on to the bootstrap. how do you bootstrap yourselves? honestly look around to see how you can be more normal. take the broomstick out of your assholes. stop being the typical Unitarian universalists crowd people.
you don't have to be Mr coffee with a permanent smile on your face, but you can't be old fart Grandpa.
Be active in your community. have a Twitter account, or maybe even fucking blue sky or some shit. have an online presence. Even Facebook. Yes, Facebook is boomerville, but since your church is likely boomerville anyway, own it.
do you have activities that are actually honest activities? Holiday shit, potluck shit, soup kitchen shit, donating food and clothing drive shit, homeless shelter stuff.
covenant groups, both men and women. have activities for church people that are not just Sunday lecture bullshit and coffee hour bullshit. covenant groups on Thursdays and Tuesdays or whatever. have a group visit the old folks home or whatever. visit the hospice on the regular or whatever.
have a religious education program. The our whole lives sex ed program has a section for adults. having adults class for our whole life sex ed.
create an actual life in your church. Life in your church will attract life in your church. broomsticks up the asshole will attract cobwebs and a severe need for diarrhea. how can you people loosen up? have an actual life of shit actually going on.
when people need help, do they end up getting a closet full of casserole, instead of actually real fucking real actual real help? if somebody in your church needs help with some stuff and all that get is casserole bullshit, they're going to wonder why they are even at your church instead of completely moving to the fucking Midwest.
Only start social media if you intend to keep it up and understand the platform. Dead or out-of-date social media is almost worse than no social media.
And yes, churches should have ways for members and friends to interact with one another, but programs for the sake of programs or to "look busy" isn't it. Churches suffer at least as much from activities that are continued past their sell-by date as much as from the perceived lack of activities. Do a few things but do them well. And then increase intentionally, once the resources and interest are there.
Disclaimer: I took the easy way out.
Google says hosting community events, engaging in social media outreach, and encouraging current members to invite their friends and family.
I think a lot of people don’t know about UU. So even getting the idea and the concept out there to the community feels like step one. Be present in places where people are (physically and on social media).
The music program is the most important. A good RE program is next in importance.
fwiw, I left my UU church because they downplayed and misrepresented covid and ignored my emails asking them to change the incorrect into on the website. my 2c there.