A Title for Our Church Volunteers?
In the UU Growth Lab, they are talking about congregations becoming more like seminaries with requirements for classes similar to the ones taught in seminaries. I think this idea could draw our circle smaller since not everyone in our congregation would have that interest or a master's degree intellect.
I was thinking we could have "Lay Ministries" as some congregations already have. This idea came to me when I saw how the education in many Wiccan groups is stratified in a way that seems very useful to their members and yet empowering and not demeaning, but encourages further learning.
The lay ministry status could be in different areas of congregational work and have different requirements. The "proof" would not necessarily be a lot of classes, but might be written or audio or video taped to get "Prior Learning" credit as many Universities now do.
My idea would be for the district, or congregations that are large enough to do it themselves, to offer certification for Lay Ministers. Certainly other denominations have lay ministers. The ministry status could be in different areas of congregational work and have different requirements.
This could bring new interest to congregations. The decline of religion is discussed in an article from the Association of Religion Data Archives and shown in the Google Trends on the word "church" and the general low searching on religious information as shown in Google Insights.
Also, volunteer work, such as one often does in a religious community and in UU committee and social action work, can be put on a resume, especially for those looking for jobs who have little experience, as stated by this Monster resume expert, though maybe the title "Lay Minister of _____" in that instance wouldn't work as well as "Chair of _____" or "Leader of _____" since our working places are discouraging religious references.
What do you think? Would a "Lay Ministry" training and designation be useful?
[Sorry, I've had trouble with LJ html mode today.]
I was thinking we could have "Lay Ministries" as some congregations already have. This idea came to me when I saw how the education in many Wiccan groups is stratified in a way that seems very useful to their members and yet empowering and not demeaning, but encourages further learning.
The lay ministry status could be in different areas of congregational work and have different requirements. The "proof" would not necessarily be a lot of classes, but might be written or audio or video taped to get "Prior Learning" credit as many Universities now do.
My idea would be for the district, or congregations that are large enough to do it themselves, to offer certification for Lay Ministers. Certainly other denominations have lay ministers. The ministry status could be in different areas of congregational work and have different requirements.
This could bring new interest to congregations. The decline of religion is discussed in an article from the Association of Religion Data Archives and shown in the Google Trends on the word "church" and the general low searching on religious information as shown in Google Insights.
Also, volunteer work, such as one often does in a religious community and in UU committee and social action work, can be put on a resume, especially for those looking for jobs who have little experience, as stated by this Monster resume expert, though maybe the title "Lay Minister of _____" in that instance wouldn't work as well as "Chair of _____" or "Leader of _____" since our working places are discouraging religious references.
What do you think? Would a "Lay Ministry" training and designation be useful?
[Sorry, I've had trouble with LJ html mode today.]