Meaningful church membership is a significant part of the cultivation of our souls. Here are some simple steps you can take for your own spiritual growth at Our Home Universalist Unitarian Church.

Worship
What is more important in our lives than worship? But, compared to the urgent demands of our bodies, families, and jobs, our need for worship can more easily be postponed. A spiritual discipline and habit of making time for worship helps us cultivate our souls and know ourselves. Regular worship services at Our Home Church are offered every Sunday at 11 AM. Arriving early allows for an opportunity to visit with fellow congregants and to hear all the announcements. Usually, the first and third Sundays of each month are conducted by our part-time minister. He encourages children to remain with their parents for the first portion of the service and join him at the pulpit for a moment before going to the classroom. The church has granted full freedom of the pulpit to our minister, who welcomes suggestions of topics.

Learn
Beyond reading the free brochures available in the vestibule and books available from the church library, participate in adult religious education. A group is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on the first and third Sundays of each month.

Contribute & Join
When you come to the point that you want your money to help increase the volume of our church's message to Mississippi and through our association with 1,034 other Unitarian Universalist congregations--to the South, to all of North America, and to the world, you are ready to join Our Home Church. Recorded financial contributions substantiate your commitment to practical support of this free faith. For each member, our church's fair share to our association's work annually is $39 per member to the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston and $15 to the MidSouth District office in Oxford, Mississippi. Our Home Church counts as certified members all those who have (1) recorded financial contributions (by checks or by writing their names on envelopes containing cash) totaling at least $54 each year to cover these dues requested by Boston and Oxford and (2) signed the Our Home membership book.

Signing the membership book is such a simple act that some qualifying contributors put it off. But it is a profoundly significant choice to enter deliberately into the stream of this local congregation's history. By signing the membership book, you officially identify yourself with a long line of principled souls committed to such noble ideals as freedom, tolerance, and reason in religion-some of whom paid with their lives for such a declaration. Mention your willingness to sign the membership book to a board member. You could add delight to our joy by signing publicly during a worship service. Bear in mind that by choosing to keep membership open to all who give just enough to cover our church's fair share to the national and district offices, the church board has trusted all members to contribute beyond that as they see fit to the greater local expenses. In a sense, it is not until after the first $52 that a member really begins to contribute to Our Home Church. As a spiritual discipline to keeping your heart liberally generous, consider the goal of donating to the church 5% of your income. Consider arranging a major gift to the church in your will. Contact a board member for details.

Volunteer
The best way to learn something is to teach it. Tackling new tasks with previously learned skills, we stretch ourselves. Making time for what is most important to us develops integrity of life and soul. Won't you take part in our cause by beginning to assist our volunteer board members in ongoing projects in the church? Or, if you notice a need within our church in which you feel your light could shine, raise it with any of the board members whose names are listed in the newsletter. Some you might consider
taking a turn over the next few months include: greeter, children's religious education, database management, Internet publicity, bylaws revision, representing our church at district or associational events (see publications or log onto www.uua.org or www.mindspring.com/~uumsd). A word of spiritual caution: church members are not immune to the inevitable misunderstandings and conflicts of bringing individuals of diverse personalities together. To expect zero criticism in the church could suppress communication, inhibit honest disagreement, and diminish creative thinking. The fact of life is that various people, including the minister, will not fulfill all your expectations. If you commit to a task in the church and become disappointed or find for whatever reason that you cannot fulfill it, please let a board member know as soon as possible. It is better to release a steady stream of healthy confrontations than let misunderstandings and disagreements silently pressurize until they explode. We cannot be all things to all people but we are committed to the democratic process within our congregation and society at large.

Following these simple steps should take you a long way toward meaningful membership in Our Home Universalist Unitarian Church. Wherever you are, won't you take the next step to foster your own and others' spiritual growth?

by The Rev. Terry Jonathan Moore, Ph.D.
Telephone (toll free): (888) 823-2499
E-mail: 70420.62@compuserve.com

Our Home Universalist Unitarian Church
2134 Highway 29 North
Ellisville, MS 39437
Our Home telephone: (601) 763-3101

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