Minister's Musing

Rev. Mark Ward
Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville

March 2007

Earlier this month in our annual report to the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), our administrator, Marilyn Martin, listed the membership of our church as 550. That certification formally places us among what the UUA designates as “large” congregations. There is nothing especially magic about that number, but in our association it is significant. It places us among a relatively small number of churches that are looked to by the UUA as beacons of liberal religion. These are churches of sufficient size to support excellent worship, education and programming, to provide deep and meaningful support to their Members and that through their commitments and their actions are able to make a difference in the world. This is what it means to be a “large” church.

We have been bordering on being “large” by our numbers for some time, but our greater challenge as a congregation has been to truly, in a sense, live our “largeness.” One reason why we will be holding a single worship service at 10am on Sunday, March 4 at the Diana Wortham Theatre downtown is to remind all of us how large our community has become and what amazing resources we have to bring to the work at hand. The week before that service I will attend a meeting of ministers of large UU churches where I hope to learn a bit about how other churches are leveraging their size to make a difference in the lives of their Members and their communities. I understand that several top UUA leaders will also be at that meeting, because they feel that large churches can play a pivotal role in the future of our movement.

In April our Strategic Planning Committee will hold a series of meetings in homes and at church to help us reflect on our vision for what role this “large church” will play in the future of this community. Who are we? Who do we need to be? How will we get there? The state of the world today is evidence enough of the need for the continued growth of a hopeful, open, compassionate faith tradition. I invite you to approach this season of stewardship and visioning with an attentive mind and a generous heart, to bring all of your gifts to the work of this growing community.