V. RECOMMENDATION OF THE LEARNING TEAM

        The Learning Team recommends that our church pursue a policy of intentional growth. We see intentional growth as more than just trying to attract new members. We know that there will always be some new members coming in our doors, regardless of what we do. Intentional growth is just as much about retaining both new and old members, as it is about attracting new members. If we attract new members, but overall membership numbers remain more or less flat, then we have a revolving door. The most important focus of intentional growth is meeting the needs of all members and keeping them engaged in our church, regardless of how long they have been attending.

THE BENEFITS OF GROWTH

        We believe that growth is important for our church for the following reasons.

Growth of our church will benefit the broader community. The world will be a better place with more Unitarian-Universalists. It is our duty to provide an alternative by strengthening the cause of liberal religion and reclaiming religious language.

Growth of our church will benefit the new members who find us. In joining our church, they will be able to make a positive change in their lives by finding what we have found here. We want to share our message and meaning with those who would appreciate us.

Growth of our church will benefit the church. Our church will be able to function better. More members will mean more pledging units and a stronger financial base. There will be more hands and heads to do what needs to be done, be it serve on committees or clean up after special events. This will help us avoid the burnout that comes when too much is dependent on too few.

Growth of our church will benefit us, the members already here. The growth process will help us clarify what we value and how to continue those values. Growth brings diversity and diversity is good. More people and new people would enrich us and help us become better people ourselves. We would all receive more religious and intellectual stimulation. With a larger membership, we will be able to create more small groups around special interests and to hold more special events and social opportunities. Members would have a greater chance to meet others they hold common interests with. Growth will bring greater intimacy.

GROWING PAINS

        We recognize that there are drawbacks to following a policy of intentional growth. First, there is always comfort and safety in imagining that we are staying the same, even if that is never really possible. To plan for the future is to confront it. Our church community will need to learn and adapt to a new dynamic in church size. As with any important decision, some current members who disagree strongly enough may choose to leave. There will be work involved, possibly lots of it. There will be additional expense, although that should be balanced out by the increase in pledging units. Intentional efforts to place our church more in the public eye may seem uncomfortably similar to proselytizing at times.

OUR FIRST PRIORITY - MAKING ROOM FOR MORE PEOPLE

        Past records show that both membership and Sunday attendance numbers have been more or less flat for the past few decades. The numbers occasionally creep up and approach the levels of a program church, but always correct themselves soon afterwards. For example, we recently had a peak period of attendance in January of 2004.  This pattern is typical of churches that get stuck at a pastoral-size level.
        In this study, we are focused on intentional growth. Of course, growth does not only come from intentional planning. If the conditions are right, growth can happen without any planning at all. Several times in recent decades this church has been on the verge of significant spontaneous growth and a jump to the next level in church size, but every time it has fallen back to the same size it was before.
        Whatever has prevented us from unplanned growth in the past will prevent us from realizing our dreams of intentional growth in the present if we do not make moves to change it. The most likely reason for our not having already grown beyond current levels is that by measurements of church capacity, we are full. Clearly we are not full every Sunday. But, the Sundays we are full are frequent enough that newcomers and visitors see us as full. Indeed, part of the reason we are full on those days is because that is when we have the most newcomers and visitors. For several decades, the entrance to our church has been a revolving door. The new members that did come in were offset by existing members who drifted away from a church that no longer had enough room.  
        The top priority to enable our church to grow must be the addition of a second service. And, it needs to be done sooner, rather than later. If we do not seriously embrace having a second service, then our other recommendations for growth may be pointless. No matter what we do, our numbers will continue to be caught in an endless up-and-down cycle and we will not grow.
        Beginning with his very first visit to our church, our consultant, Dan Hotchkiss, has consistently emphasized lack of space as our greatest barrier to growth. In his report of March 19, 2004 he wrote that if we do not address this issue, "this will probably mean that your congregation will not grow much beyond its current size. It is quite rare for congregations to remain much larger than 80% of seating capacity." More recently, in a June 12, 2005 e-mail he wrote, "In my view the best time to add a second service was several years ago, not several years in the future." Dan points out that there are only two alternatives to the second service - either we expand the sanctuary and parking lot, or we chose to not grow.
        In the Learning Team, we have had a hard time accepting the immediate need of a second service. We understand that many members of the board and the congregation will feel the same. However, our church has gone to great effort and expense to undertake this study and engage one of the best consultants in the field of church growth for our denomination. We may not want to hear the verdict, but we must accept the accuracy of the judgement.
        We must plan to add a second worship service within the next two years, at latest. The Board should appoint a committee to begin planning for the addition of a second service. The committee should be charged with researching how other similar-sized UU churches handle having multiple services, coming up with options as to how we might schedule our Sundays with two services, and otherwise examining the impact and logistics of adding a second service in our church. Rather than working towards a final report at an undefined future time, this committee should present its findings to the board and the congregation in an interactive process on a regular and on-going basis. It is the congregation's job to add the second service. The role of the committee is to gather information, ask questions, and facilitate the process in a timely manner.
        Until we have a permanent second service, Dan Hotchkiss has suggested that we hold a second service on select special occasions when we expect higher than normal attendance. Not only will this make the church seem less full to the visitors we are likely to get on these days, if the additional service is properly publicized we will get visitors we would not have gotten otherwise. As a start, we should plan on having two services on at least two special occasion Sundays in the Fall semester.
        It is important to realize that having two services, whether as a permanent move or for special Sundays only, will not just split our current Sunday attendance into two parts, but rather will increase total attendance, even without the new members and visitors we hope to bring in. Having two services will make it easier for existing members to fit church into their Sunday schedule. We should expect that the average member will attend church more often if we have two services.

OTHER NEXT STEPS TO PROMOTE GROWTH

        Below is a list of specific recommendations that the Learning Team has discussed over the past year as to what our church might do. Some of these are already underway, but they are included here for completeness.

        We must continue to encourage use of the bank lot for parking, especially by those who are not elderly and do not have young children. We recommend that the Board contact Per Mar to request permission to use their lot on Sundays as well. Members should be asked to make a commitment to use the adjoining lots on Sundays. One possibility is to have symbolic incentives for those who park at the bank. If use of the adjoining lots does not increase and we do not go to two services, there will be no alternative but to expand our own parking lot by paving over some of our green space.

        We need to continue to look for ways to provide members with the opportunity to connect with one another. This can be either in an organized setting, such as with small group ministries, or in informal settings through the addition of more social opportunities at church.

        With a larger membership, communication must be more formal and intentional. We need to examine what effective communication looks like in a program church. We currently have a good system of communications, with the twice-monthly QCU, e-mail lists, and the website. We want to be sure that visitors and new and prospective members are made aware of these. In particular, we must continue to support efforts to expand the website in order to demonstrate what we have to offer. The website has a unique role as potential members may visit it before they have set foot on our grounds.

        We should continue to find ways to increase the visibility of our church in the community. Making the church building available to like minded groups is a good example of this, as is our sponsorship of programs on local Public Radio stations. Not only may this help bring in new members, but also it strengthens our view of our church to see it taking a positive role in the community. It becomes more the kind of place we want to be a part of.

        We need to strengthen our sense of identify as a church. We need a stronger sense of "our church" to help current members better explain who we are to visitors and friends and to help integrate new members into the church. In this, we ask for the help of the Archives Committee in compiling an historical calendar of important events in our church's history. These should be events that reflect on who we are and how we became who we are.  Examples would be the visits by Emerson to Davenport, the move to our current location, Civil Rights activities in the 1960s, etc. Interesting dates should be briefly noted in appropriate places such as during the church service, in the order of service, or in the QCU.
        Taking this a step further, we would like to see the addition of a regular (every issue or once a month) column in the QCU in which an important event from our past is recounted in a half a page or so.
        Some important dates in the history of our church are coming up. In 2008, we will celebrate the 140th anniversary of our founding. The 50th anniversary of the opening of our building will be in 2009. And, it is not too early to begin looking ahead to our 150th anniversary in 2018. Commemorating these events provides a context for examining, reaffirming, and celebrating who we are. The Board and the congregation should begin planning now to make these anniversaries just as significant as the events that they commemorate.
        
        A growing church requires a strong policy board and an effective staff.  We have a strong board and need to maintain that. The Board needs to formulate a vision of the future and act out of that vision. The Board needs to examine how do we live up to the way a board acts in a program church. We have an effective staff, but it will need to grow as needs and finances dictate. In the immediate future, we should hire a membership coordinator to help us continue contact with visitors and other potential members, as well as to help new members find their place in our church.

        We should add air-conditioning to our sanctuary, so that we can use it for summer worship.

        Our summer services need to be more formal and more like the rest of the year. This is necessary so that visitors get a more consistent first impression regardless of when they come for the first time.

        Given that many of these recommendations require an expenditure of money, the Board should show that it is carefully considering those areas where intentional growth impacts the budget so as to avoid creating issues. As budgets have historically been tight, some more fiscally conservative members are concerned about this.