CERG

These resources are provided by Rev. Renee Ruchotzke, CERG Leadership Development Consultant. We also recommend you visit the UUA Resources Pages for additional resources listings..

You may also want to look at the resource pages on Conflict Management, Governance, Leadership Development, and Stewardship/Annual Canvass.


Also look for in-person Healthy Congregations® workshop series offered periodically throughout the region.

Web-based Resources: Articles

• Promoting Healthy Congregations by Peter Steinke
• Getting Feedback on Your Ministry: Three Ways to Do Evaluation by Roy M. Oswald
• Becoming Mutually Accountable: Strengthening Clergy and Congregations through Evaluation by Donna Schaper
• Differentiated Leadership by Arthur Paul Boers

Web-based Resources: Other

• Assessment Tools for ministries of both Congregations and Ministers
• Connie Goodbread's blog - The Smart Church
• And an hour long video with Peter Steinke by the UUA about this program.

Books: Healthy Congregations

• The Safe Congregation Handbook (free UUA resource)
• Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach by Peter L. Steinke - Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system, factors that could put your congregation at risk, and more.
• Behavioral Covenants in Congregations: Handbook for Honoring Differences by Gilbert Rendle - This down-to-earth workbook gets to the heart of modern congregational life: how to live creatively together despite differences of age, race, culture, opinion, gender and theological or political position.
• Against All Odds: The Struggle for Racial Integration in Religious Organizations by Brad Christerson - Explores the beliefs, practices, and structures which allow integrated religious organizations to survive and thrive despite their difficulties. Hear first-hand the joys and frustrations which arise from actually experiencing racial integration. The book gives an inside, visceral sense of what it is like to be part of a multiracial religious organization as well as a theoretical understanding of these experiences. 

Books: Congregational Assessment

• When Better Isn't Enough: Evaluation Tools for the 21st Century by Jill M. Hudson - Hudson's tools, looking at the ministry of the whole congregation as well as that of the professional staff, congregations can improve their ministry, help members and staff grow in effectiveness, deepen a sense of partnership, and add new richness to the dialogue about the congregation's future.
• Evaluating Ministry: Principles and Processes for Clergy and Congregations By Jill M. Hudson - Grounding evaluation in the theological and organizational context of mission, Hudson describes case studies of four successful evaluation models that include the whole church, which will result in stronger pastoral ministry and new directions for mission.
• Annual Church Review Procedure: The Church's Ministry and the Minister by Catherine Holmes Clark (pdf) - Assess and evaluate the effectiveness of your overall ministry—whether carried out by members, committees, or the minister. Includes questionnaires for various committees and ministry efforts. Report format.