Church Strategic Objectives
Adopted by the Executive Board on 8 June 2004
Worship & Spiritual Development
We enable spiritual growth, for each of us and as a church community. We provide a place where new and long-time members from various religious backgrounds feel free to question their beliefs and find support in seeking their own personal insights into life's meaning and value. We encourage each member to decide what is truly important in his or her life and to make life changes accordingly.
We join with one another in providing, nurturing, and celebrating a free religious community through common worship offering both spiritual and intellectual depth, as well as through other forms and settings.
We provide a worship setting and experience consistent with Unitarian Universalist principles and values and including traditional elements such as music, readings, sharing from individual participants and a sermon. We include varieties and variations on these elements regularly, e.g. different forms and types of music and different service structures.
We encourage and support smaller groups of members and friends joining together to explore areas of particular interest for spiritual and personal growth.
We promote a sense of family through mutual support, friendship, and by attending to each other's needs.
We offer opportunities for members to act on their personal spirituality to make a difference in our church community, neighborhood, and the world.
This includes such activities as outreach programs, with meaningful opportunities (financial and otherwise) to contribute to them.
Religious Education
Our religious education program uses the sources, traditions and principles of Unitarian Universalism and the world’s religions to help our youth and adults develop a religious and spiritual basis for living life, with all of its joys and difficulties. We don’t provide answers but help them to think for themselves in developing their own beliefs.
We provide adults with opportunities, both as individuals and in groups, to actively engage, dialog, and develop their individual religious perspectives.
Our students are given opportunities to develop and be appreciated for their individual interests and strengths. Diversity is valued and celebrated.
Our curricula offer a variety of approaches to achieve our objectives, such as art, drama, and discussion.
Our religious education program provides "hands on" opportunities for our children to contribute to and work on community service projects. In doing so, they experience and develop values of compassion, generosity and justice.
Church Community and Fellowship
As a caring community, we ensure that existing and new members have the support of people who connect them to the church, to be there in good times as well as during life’s challenges.
We consciously identify and contact members and friends who may be drifting away or who leave the church.
We consciously welcome and embrace visitors and new members. All church members proactively help new members feel welcome and become aware of and involved in the life of the church.
This includes such opportunities as the UU 101 class, a mentoring program, committee volunteering, and covenant groups to foster learning and comfort with our church.
We provide opportunities for fellowship.
These include such activities as yearly group trips to Ferry Beach in the spring and Cardigan Mountain in the winter, circle dinners, the service auction, and group efforts that support causes outside of our church.
Community Presence and Outreach
Our church maintains a strong and generous presence in our community. We define community in a large sense: as a group with whom we share common interests, whether local, state, national or international.
We build relations within our community to extend our outreach, promote our values, and live out our mission. Our church continually extends our presence into different areas of the community.
We are flexible to respond to crisis or urgency, and we assert our “voice” when our principles are being violated or when we can promote our values by speaking out “in favor.” We take a stand when government policies, industry practices, or individual actions threaten the health, safety, or natural resources of the communities in which we live. And we express our agreement when a new policy, practice, or action is in line with our values.
Our church makes a difference in the greater Nashua area through our beautiful and welcoming physical facilities. They host our Sunday services, provide space for numerous public and private events, and offer a meeting place to many groups in our community, especially groups who might not otherwise have a place to meet.
We support the White Wing School program to offer high quality preschool and kindergarten and the school’s efforts to serve a diverse population of children from the neighborhood and greater Nashua area.
Our church contributes significant funding and church member involvement to outreach programs that address social, economic, and educational needs in our community. In this, we share our wealth and talent with groups in need of our help and establish our community presence by our participation.
As an example of our outreach, we support the Granite State Organizing Project (GSOP), which is working to build a stronger voice in the community and improve the lives of people in New Hampshire.
Denominational Presence & Outreach
We choose to be a Unitarian Universalist congregation that participates fully in both the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and in the New Hampshire-Vermont District of the UUA. We do to join with and mutually support other churches sharing similar and compatible principles.
We keep our congregation informed about denominational issues and activities.
Our church provides its fair share of financial support to both the UUA and the District. We send delegates and workshop leaders to activities and conferences whenever feasible.
We provide professional expenses for our staff to assist and encourage them to actively and fully participate in their respective professional groups. We encourage the leaders in our congregation to participate in the activities of the UUA and the District. In so doing, they help us to learn from the experiences of other churches and to share what we have learned.
We also seek to make and maintain connections with other Unitarian Universalist churches internationally.
Our church provides financial support for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee’s activities to advance social justice throughout the world and to put into practice our Unitarian Universalist principles that affirm the worth, dignity and human rights of every person, and the interdependence of all life.
We provide a teaching congregation to support the development of student ministers. Our church life is enriched by what they bring to our ministry.
We offer year-round services to provide spiritual support for our members throughout the year and to make ourselves available to visitors who may be looking for a church, no matter what time of year they choose to visit.