We are charting our way to healthier stewardship! The Board has invited Stewardship for Us consultant, Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry, to learn about our culture, concerns, hopes and priorities, and provide us with recommendations for our future.
The focus of the weekend (January 16-18) will be on identifying recommended next steps and practical information to help us successfully develop a realistic, sustainable financial roadmap for our congregation’s future, including:
- addressing the upcoming construction loan balloon payment and ongoing plan for payoff;
- creating an ambitious budget drive campaign for 2026; and
- presenting our best possible portfolio to ministerial candidates.
How can you participate?
To ensure the success of this collaboration, as many members as possible need to be involved. We’re asking everyone to complete a (very short) survey to share your thoughts about the congregation by January 15.
There will also be chances to engage in conversation and workshops with Rev. Lydia, in large and small groups. The schedule framework looks like this for Friday-Sunday, January 16-18:
- Friday afternoon: UUCC staff team
- Friday evening: our board and key leaders meet
- Saturday at noon: A special stewardship workshop open to all (60-90 minutes). Bring a bag lunch – we’ll supply beverages and cookies! (more details to come)
- Throughout the day Saturday: our members and friends from various segments of congregational life will be invited to small group meetings
- Sunday service: Rev. Lydia and Rev. Lisa will jointly lead.
- After-service presentation to the congregation by Rev. Lydia with her initial recommendations, open to all
If you would like to participate in this process, 👉 complete this form. We will be assigning small groups and times early next week.
A detailed presentation will be shared with congregational leadership within a few weeks of the visit, then shared with the entire congregation.
Please make room in your schedule to participate so that we will get the most out of this visit. Thank you!
Happy 2026!
Laurie Coltri, Next Steps Weekend Local Coordinator
Meet Rev. Lydia
Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry loves helping congregations thrive. She brings over 20 years of parish ministry experience into her consulting with Stewardship for Us. Having served three congregations of various sizes, she has helped each of them align their vision with their values, and then foster generous giving to live into that vision. She brings experience of having led a congregation that successfully completed a $4.5M capital campaign for an environmentally sustainable building project in 2020. Rev. Lydia is most passionate about the individual and community transformation that is possible when people come together to create something none could have imagined alone.
A quick note of thanks to Laurie Coltri for her eagerness to take on the role of coordinator for this weekend. A lot of work is going into preparation for this collaboration. We are deeply appreciative of her continued dedication to this congregation.
In Faith and Service,
Laurice Grae, Executive Director
More about Stewardship for Us
The Stewardship For Us Team brings a unique combination of skills and experience to their work. They are the only fundraising resource staffed exclusively with committed Unitarian Universalists (UUs). Not only do they understand our challenges and goals, but they also have a deep understanding of UU polity, governance, values, theology, and we ground our stewardship consulting in Unitarian Universalism.
They have a wealth of experience in the non-profit universe beyond UU congregations. Collectively, we work for some of the largest non-profit and Non-Governmental Organizations in the world, providing a range of services in strategic planning, board development, organizational systems, and of course fundraising.
Third, we have supported over 100 UU congregations over the past 7 years, including many of our largest congregations.
The Next Steps Weekend is the first step in providing our leadership exceptional insight into your options as a congregation in the context of your stated goals. It is the beginning of our work together.
A congregation is a community, a network of systems. Next Steps provides the opportunity to examine and measure that community and those systems across a wide spectrum, not just stewardship, to ascertain the overall health and capacities of the congregation.
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