Borderlands Unitarian Universalist

Amado, Arizona

Membership

Welcome to Borderlands Unitarian Universalist (BUU). We want you to feel comfortable while you are here and to have your questions answered. You may participate in all of our services, activities, and committees as a Friend of BUU.

When you decide that you might like to become a Voting Member, contact the chair of the Membership Team, Jeanne Macauley by completing the contact Membership Team Form at the end of this page. She will provide you with a New Member packet and arrange a meeting with you. Prospective members may also wish to schedule a meeting with our minister. As a guide, the following steps are suggestions for a Path to Membership.

7 STEPS TO MEMBERSHIP

Know that you are welcome here! Please chat with our friendly Greeters and Congregants.

1. Start by checking out the information table in the hallway to the left of the entrance. You will find a Welcome Visitor to Borderlands UU forms on the Visitor Table in front of the green sign that says, “Visitor Table.”

You can pick one up when you’re in church, download it here, or call Jeanne Macauley (206-595-4858) and she will bring you one. This sheet will let us know whether you would like to receive an email each week to stay informed about what we do.

Also check out the Talent and Skills Form to find a place of engagement you might enjoy. Once you complete that form just leave it on the table.

2. Ask for a Welcome to BUU packet (see contact form at the bottom of the page), read the information at your leisure, fill out forms and return them to the Membership Team chair.

3. Attend our Prospective Member Class for new and longer-term members who want to learn more about UU and BUU. Sessions will be listed on our website and in the Unitel newsletter.

Be sure to check our website for information on Services, special events, forums Book Club, Caring Clusters, BUU itself, and more.

4. Attend Newcomers’ Social(s) to meet fellow newcomers, along with some long-term members with background in BUU.

5. Let the Membership Team chair and the minister know that you want to join us by speaking to them at Sunday Service or completing the Contact form at the bottom of this page.

6. Buddy Program: If you would like, we will introduce you to a member with whom you may connect about BUU, Unitarian Universalism (UU), committees and services, or just plain friendship.

7. Attend the New Member Ceremony and sign our BUU book. WELCOME!

Guests who COME to a Sunday Service want to know who we are and we want to know the same. If you continue to join us for Sunday Service, you’ll be invited to our other programing and this is the opportunity to CONNECT. There are many types of programing to appeal to your intellect, emotions, body and soul. When you engage in the programing that calls to you, you influence and change the people who are participating and we all take a step together to building bridges.

 

CONNECT can be a brief period or it can take years, the time it takes is unique to each individual, but we recognize that it comes to an end when a person shifts from feeling “I go to that church,” to “That church is mine.” When this shift happens we believe we will have established a mutual relationship and will want to invite you to officially COMMIT to membership.

This third step involves the sharing of time in service, talents toward the growth of programing, and treasure as a pledge to the financial sustainability of our congregation. While we have generic suggestions for how you might COMMIT, your sharing must be based on who you are and how you are currently capable of caring for what you feel is yours, namely our congregation.

 

 

These three C’s have led many to find a home in our congregation. If we were to end the path here, we might be a healthy institution, but as a Unitarian Universalist congregation, we are called to live in COVENANT. This for us stands in the place of dogma or creed, which are statements of right knowledge. COVENANT is right living.

It is our agreement and promise to support and challenge one another to live up to our aspirations. None of us can do this alone. COVENANT is the final C, but it also upholds the other three. It is more than the sum of our parts and is only realized through our support and struggle to live together as a beloved community.

 

 

Finally, the Path to Membership is not linear. It begins the first time a person attends on a Sunday, but it continues to be a part of membership each and every year. As all members grow and change in their lives, we hold the space for them to come back to the congregation with whatever new experiences they have had.

We recognized that everyone needs space to reconnect and to recommit too. We must all re-covenant from time to time, so that we keep the aspiration of being a living tradition. Instead of a cycle of membership, we believe the path is an upward spiral of growth for both each member and our congregation.