| abstract |
Unitarian Universalist congregations are designed and called to be locations and models of Beloved Community amid a hurting world, so their organizational effectiveness can be described as an act of public theology. But what makes a congregation effective? Furthermore, are there lessons that congregations learned through the Covid19 pandemic in 2020 that help point the way toward longer lasting effectiveness, a new vibrancy for the faith community's next chapter?
Organizational development research and congregational study shows that three markers of congregational effectiveness in the current age are: attention to mission; nimbleness; and creating an ethos of belonging/Beloved Community. This paper looks at the experiences of six congregations, congregational partnerships and other religious departments to see how the emergency-level changes they were forced to make due to the quarantine enabled these three qualities to emerge and enhance their operations.
Not to be overlooked, a major quality of building an ethos of belonging in American society is taking steps to dismantle the systems of oppression automatically at work in our congregations and in most American institutions. The thriving congregation of the future will embed equity into its operations. There is no possibility of true Beloved Community without significant effort to combat the ways oppression erodes it.
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