Diversity Growth Plan

Davies church sits in the richest and most educated African-American community in the nation – Prince George’s County, Maryland. The southern section of the county, where our church is located, is 75% African-American. The county at large is 62% African-American. There’s a unique opportunity here, both for the congregation and the Association.

Our vision is two-fold. First, we intend to raise community awareness of Unitarian Universalism by inviting our neighbors and sharing with them the good news of the Unitarian Universalist faith. Second, we intend to gain new members because we have a message to share that lifts people up in a way that other religions do not. To live by our faith is to truly see the inherent worth and dignity in all and help them see it in themselves and others, too. If we’re sharing this message well, more people will come – people from all races, ages, classes and genders. We will grow in racial diversity.

A. Powell Davies, after whom this church is named, was the most influential liberal minister of his generation. He preached to Senators and Supreme Court Justices. He led the drive to integrate restaurants in Washington, DC. He spoke out against Senator McCarthy. A liberal religious evangelist, he established eleven new Unitarian churches in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

This congregation has the opportunity to continue the legacy of A. Powell Davies. It was appropriate that during the Civil Rights era, this congregation was a leading voice in our county. And it is appropriate now that this congregation has the opportunity to be a leading voice in racial and social justice, while growing itself into a multiracial congregation, to make real and model the Beloved Community. Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour in the country and we are working to change that!

In the 1990's, this congregation recognized the need to grow, and undertook a plan that involved deficit financing. Membership grew from 101 to 126. Religious Education enrollment grew from 15 to 58. We doubled the rate of addition of new members per year from 7 to 14. And the percentage of adult African-American members in the congregation increased from 3% to 10% (the Religious Education program is about 24% African-American and about 16% other children and youth of color). Some of the growth we wanted has occurred, but not as much as we had hoped.

This is a transient area; we have had and will have attrition. Outreach is necessary just to retain our numbers and continue the programs we have. We want to go beyond just keeping the status quo. If we share our message well with our neighbors we will bring the racial composition of our church into balance with the community without losing our present members. This means a need for a substantial increase in numbers.

Our goal for the first three years is 100 new members. This will bring our total membership up to 200, allowing for attrition. We hope to continue after that 3-year period and eventually have to either add on to our building or spawn new congregations or both.

Our Target Audience

As of Spring 2003 when the Growth Plan was first proposed, our church membership was 90% Caucasian in an area that boasts the richest and most educated African-American community in the nation – Prince George’s County, Maryland. The county itself is ~62% African-American, well-educated (84.9% have at least a high school diploma; 27.2% have at least a Bachelor’s Degree), and middle class (per capita personal income is $31,037; median household income is $55,256).

New members will come from the local community which consists primarily of the area between Route 4 in PG County and Route 228 in Charles County, and between the Potomac and Patuxent rivers.

We are looking for “traditional UUs” in psychology. That is, they think like most UUs in that they are religious seekers; are “unchurched” or are dissatisfied with their present church; they are religiously eclectic, free-spirited, and open-minded. Their age or income level is not an issue.

There are over 405 congregations in Prince George’s County whose total membership accounted for about 250,000 out of a population of over 800,000 in 2002. Catholics lead the numbers with 79,000 members, followed by Baptists with 73,000. There has been a remarkable decline in church membership between 1990 and 2000, with some estimates as high as 148,000 people leaving PG County churches. This means that over 555,000 people in Prince George's County are not members of any church denomination. Of course, it is too simple to believe that this number of people are potential UU members. As a generalization, people who didn’t want to join any church are difficult to convince to join one particular church. In Prince George’s County, the competition for UU membership comes primarily from established and well-funded black Christian churches.

In a predominantly African-American community, these churches exert an historical and almost irresistible pull on the mind-set of that particular population. As a number of publications have reported, however, whatever pull black churches have for the African American middle-class is largely lost on African American youth.

We do not expect to draw members from those who already belong to a church. Our focus will be on those who are unchurched.

History of Our Growth Plan

In November 2001, John Crestwell, seminary-trained and interested in parish ministry, contacted Joseph Priestley District Executive Rev. Dr. Richard Speck to tell him that he was an African-American interested in a church; John asked many questions about how he could achieve his goals. Richard told our pastor of 11 years at the time, Rev. Don Cameron-Kragt, that he was very impressed with John. The Crestwell family showed up at church the next week. By January 2002, they had joined the church and become very active members.

Rev. Don provided John several preaching opportunities, and soon recognized his gifts for ministry. On May 16, 2002, the Davies Board of Trustees decided to sponsor John for the Unitarian Universalist ministry.

The professional and lay leadership of the congregation could not overlook the obvious. We saw that we had before us, through a unique combination of people and place, a special opportunity to build a suburban, multiracial congregation in our Association.

On February 19, 2003, a preliminary proposal was approved by the Board of Trustees of Davies Memorial UU Church. On February 26, Rev. Don, Dawn Star Borchelt (Director of Religious Education), and John met with Bob Johnsen, Growth Consultant of the Joseph Priestley District (JPD). On March 19, Rev. Don and John approached UUA President William Sinkford while he was in Washington, D.C. on other business. Prior to the congregation’s Annual Meeting on April 6, Rev. Don mailed a letter to members and friends to begin the process of congregational consideration of a proposal to the UUA.

We proposed that John be invited to join our staff as Director of Outreach, with the goal of being called by the congregation to join Rev. Don as Co-Minister after he is fellowshipped in June at the 2005 General Assembly.

We received UUA and JPD grants totaling $65,000, which started in Jan. 2004. This amount was not enough to meet our goals (more in the Financials section). John served as Intern Minister under the direction of Rev. Don until December 2004. He has also served as Director of Outreach throughout 2004. He has shown a commitment to our goals with hard work and results, while at the same time working to support his family since our funds did not allow us to pay him more than a small salary for his efforts. He was approved for Preliminary Fellowship in Dec. 2004 with much enthusiasm and will be fellowshipped in June at the 2005 General Assembly. He is a gifted young minister and the results are obvious. In 2001, we had a total of 6 African American members. As of January 2005, we have 28 members and 10 friends as well as nearly 20 children. Our work has been successful. Funding the dream has been difficult and without additional help, we are in danger of not being able to fulfill it.

The Committed Staff

Don Cameron-Kragt grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. His early years were shaped by the civil rights movement. He attended a high school which experienced racial violence and bloodshed during the integration years - three years of riots, with police and tear gas on campus every day, and eight students murdered. The press called it the ‘Wilmington Ten Riots’.

He received his BA degree from Duke University with a double major in Comparative Religion and African American History. He worked six years in the field of social work and counseling. Soon after he discovered Unitarian Universalism, he entered Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California. He has served Davies Memorial UU Church since 1992.

Don has been involved as an active voice in the local community. He served as Co-Chair of Interfaith Action Communities (community organizing model). He chaired the Prince George’s County Board of Social Services. He is also a member of the JPD Journey Towards Wholeness team.

Dawn Star Borchelt was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a third-generation, life-long Unitarian Universalist. Growing up, she attended one the few racially integrated congregations in our association: the UU Church of the Restoration in Mount Airy, Philadelphia. She learned from and worked with elders, children and youth of all colors.

She is a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD. The St. John’s program of seminars focused on the “Great Books” offers an intensive study of philosophy, and excellent training in facilitating and participating in dialog (as opposed to debate).

Dawn has served as Director of Religious Education (DRE) at Davies since 1998. Under her leadership, our Religious Education enrollment has grown from 15 students to 58. She is active in the larger Association. During her time here she has served as staff at both the continental young adult leadership conference and the Young Adult Caucus at General Assembly. She served as Treasurer for GWAREC (the local religious education cluster). She is a trained Renaissance Module leader and a graduate of the Leadership School for Religious Educators. Currently, Dawn serves on the JPD Board of Trustees.

John Crestwell (a native Washingtonian) is an African-American, an entrepreneur, and a published author. His background includes twelve years in advertising and marketing. He has worked as Sales Manager for firms such as Time Warner Cable, MetroVision Systems and Trader Publishing. John has worked with large denominations across the country as a Church Consultant with UMR Communications, a national, not-for-profit, multi-million-dollar faith-based publishing company in Dallas, Texas, where he also served on the UMR Board for two years. John earned his B.A. degree in Mass Media from Hampton University. He also earned a Master’s degree, with an emphasis on Preaching and African-American culture, from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

John serves on the JPD Journey Toward Wholeness team and the Baltimore Washington Growth Planning Committee. Prior to joining the staff, he served on the Davies Finance Committee and Board of Trustees. He started his internship at Davies in Jan. 2004. John went before the UUA’s Ministerial Fellowship Committee and was accepted into fellowship in December 2004, eligible to become a UU parish minister in June 2005.

Dixon Redditt has a Bachelor of Music Education from Florida State University. His Master’s degree is in Applied Music (clarinet) from the University of Maryland. He came to Washington, DC in 1959 to play in the Navy Band. Since 1963 he has taught both vocal and instrumental music in Prince George's County public schools. He was Music Director at the Paint Branch Unitarian Church in Adelphi, MD starting in the early 60's. Subsequently he moved to Clinton in Southern Maryland and has been active in the musical life of the Davies Memorial Church. He was appointed Music Director September, 1996. For his outstanding work in this congregation that has a high appreciation for music, he was installed as our honorary Minister of Music in November 2004.

Our support staff also includes a dedicated administrator and a superb pianist. Jill Jones has run our church office, put out our newsletters and press releases, and provided a host of support functions for both the membership and growth of the church for over a decade. Nancy Dalzell is a professionally trained pianist, who has provided music for our congregation since about 1990 on most Sundays, working closely with our Minister of Music.

These well qualified, committed, and talented professionals are working with the Board, Committees, and interested individual leaders within the church to implement this plan. We are all aware that staff alone cannot make a vision of this magnitude become reality. To do so will require participation of every member and friend of the congregation in some way. Some will put more hard work, passion, and energy towards this plan than others, but everyone can offer a warm welcome to newcomers as they arrive.

Our Plan to Achieve Our Goal

T.O.P. means “Top of the Mind” advertising. This is our goal but it will take an aggressive effort by the leaders and staff to accomplish this!

The goal is to raise community awareness of Unitarian Universalism by spreading the news about our faith, which will continue, with proper financial suppport, to increase membership. We will utilize a “media mix” with varying advertising mediums, creating the perception that we are everywhere. Also, we want to create energy and excitement in all of our ads to show that we are an organism that is alive, progressive and on the cutting edge. We must emphatically and enthusiastically say to Southern Prince George’s County, “We are the religion of the 21st Century” for many, and not be shy about our convictions. We have to promote a sort of humble arrogance to show we are a serious, viable religious option.

Using various advertising medias gives the impression that we are successful. Add to this an internal marketing effort (see below) and we have a balanced formula for success.

External

From an advertising standpoint, we have come up with several slogans we will utilize for the ad campaign:

1. Different people. Different beliefs. One faith. (from the UUA)
2. We have a dream. Come share your vision. (member contribution)
3. Home of the freed spirit—come home! (member contribution)
4. Many paths. One destination. Come home! (member contribution)

Research on new members tells us that most people check out our website before visiting;therefore we will attempt in our ads to push seekers to our website, www.dmuuc.org, first. The hope is that this will “qualify” them. In other words, when they visit the church, they will already know that they’re coming to a different kind of religious experience. This should increase our rate of success in making visitors into members.

The Director of Outreach has chosen a new sign, cable TV, direct mail, community television, a custom church newspaper, local newspaper print ads and grassroots marketing efforts as the media of choice to achieve the growth goal listed in this plan.

Church sign— The goal here is to give our location, on busy Temple Hill Road, more visibility. The new sign will do this effectively. [Completed - photos here.]

Cable TV— This medium is localized (no wasted audience) and niche—we can choose the networks that fit our church’s demographics. John has secured a contract with Comcast cable. We will run 396 spots on many networks including A & E, Discovery, CNN, Headline News, and History channels.

Direct Mail— The hits more than doubled for one week on the church website on our test run, which was an indication of interest from the community. Therefore, we will contract a few more runs with Clipper Magazine, a four-color, glossy, coupon-based, direct mail publication that reaches 50,000 households in Prince George’s County, MD. The ad size is 1/4 to 1/3 page.

Community TV— Our past experience finds that a few people watch CTV. For us it’s a win-win because it’s free TV! Their reach is potentially 500,000. Their Program Director said there is an average of about 5,000 per hour that actually tune in. But it is free, after production costs, so we will run a 30-minute infomercial about our church on CTV in PG and Charles counties.

Freedom Xpress newspaper— Lynn Fox has been the lay editor for the first issue of this custom, in-house newspaper that showcases the many talents of the Davies membership. We will print 2,000 copies per issue and depend on membership and a few helpers to pass newspapers out around town. It will be distributed in local restaurants, libraries, and businesses. The idea behind this is to guide readers to our website casually. This paper is an outward expression of our faith but also a soft sell to bring new members to us. Upcoming issues will have a new lay editor, yet to be determined, under John’s supervision.

Local Newspaper ads— We will run a small inexpensive newspaper campaign around one of our slogans listed above. Also, in coordination with a (possible) Bill Sinkford visit, we will run ads supporting his coming.

Google ads— Since searchers are using the Internet to find our web site and the web site is bringing in many of our visitors, we plan to have ads on the #1 search engine. Google has a very flexible advertising plan, which allows us to spend only what we can afford, using a targeted geographic area and keywords.

Grassroots Marketing— Similar to the distribution for Freedom Xpress, we will ask congregants and a small group of folks to pass out postcards around the county in small businesses. We will print 5,000 copies of a 5x4, four-color postcard that promotes our church. This grassroots marketing is similar to passing out flyers around town. Again, the hope is that people will pick up our very professional postcard, go to the website, then, if interested, visit and eventually join our church.

Free PR Articles— As we have already done in the past, we will continue to seek opportunities to be in local newspapers to let the community know who we are. Additionally, we will promote events at the church through local newspapers. We have planned four articles that we will write ourselves and submit to a local newspaper that agrees to carry it as a series.

Direct Mail to New Homeowners— We continue to send a general brochure about Davies, followed two to three weeks later by a postcard listing specific services and events, to new homeowners in zip codes 20607, 20735, 20744, and 20748. Brochures were purchased two years ago; postcards are created in-house.

Internal

If there is an external or outside Marketing and Advertising campaign there must be an internal one as well. Throughout the year, staff will actively engage members to be more vocal about their faith. Through use of staff meetings, workshops, worship services and personal contact, the leadership will continuously teach other members how to effectively share the UU message with enthusiasm.

We will have ongoing “Bring-A-Friend” Sundays that will include succinct specific guidance to congregants on how to “bring a friend” to Davies.

The one-hour orientation with visitors will be reinstated, once per month after the service. It will be hosted by ministers, board chair or vice-chair, and finance chair or treasurer. Emphasis will be on UU identity, path to membership and opportunities/responsibilities.

The greeters on Sunday morning will be expanded in number. The Membership Committee will need to recruit and train new greeters. The Committee has also been asked to take notice when guests, members, and friends do not return, and send them a “missing you” card. Prior to Labor Day 2004, we sent a letter to people who had been guests within the past year, and to those we haven’t seen for a while, reminding them of Ingathering and some of our programs.

A buddy system of guides for visitors is being developed. Ministers will recruit and train guides. Once operational, it will be lay led. The process of implementing this will be started by the end of February 2005.

Constant rotation of a Building Your Own Theology (BYOT) class for visitors will be instituted. For visitors who have completed BYOT and for new members, there will be an ongoing class The Power of Myth (with video), or Africans in America (video series), or some other adult education class. Folks can drop in and out as needed. Ministers will lead classes. In addition, a series of Family Life classes will be developed and offered by the DRE. This will include sessions on UU Parenting, UU Rites of Passage, and UU Life Issues, offered once per quarter.

Ministers will develop a small group ministry within the congregation. This program places the emphasis on personal ministry and gives members opportunities for significant sharing and caring, thus enhancing new member bonding with the congregation. The new birthday groups will offer a way for newcomers to get involved immediately if they wish – thanks to Julilia Tolson for this suggestion. ADORE (A Dialogue On Race & Ethnicity) is a form of small group ministry that began in August. John will consult with Rev. Mike McGee at Arlington (VA) Church on creating other groups according to the model used most commonly in the UUA. This is the largest and last project that will be completed.

In conclusion, growing both from internal and external efforts will ensure balanced growth and stability. But one other major key is congregational enthusiasm. The more excited we are about the project the better our chances to succeed. Bill Sinkford said at the 2003 General Assembly, “Churches that want to grow—grow.” If we want the external to occur we must be internally hopeful, positive and supportive. All else is “chasing after the wind.”

Financials

We received grant funding from the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Joseph Preistley District which was front-loaded, giving us enough to meet our needs for the first year that ended in December 2004. Grant funding is significantly reduced from that point. We expect that supplemental grants will be awarded, and based on the evaluation in January 2005, we also expect that there will be some increased funding to the Advertising line item in our next fiscal year, with further increases the following year.

The $40,000 first year grant was expended in calendar year 2004. The entire $20,000 second year grant will be expended in calendar year 2005. We anticipate no cash-flow problem with the Advertising fund, though the more funds we’re able to accrue, the more we can do. Funding for fiscal year ’05-’06 to cover our ongoing staffing to make this program work may be covered by a capital fund drive, in addition to other fundraising efforts. A proposal will go to the congregation in late February 2005. There will be an ongoing effort by our leaders to raise money to continue the effort in 2005.

Our leadership is in contact with JPD and UUA to find out about other sources of funding that can be utilized for the ongoing campaign. Chalice Lighters will send any additional money they receive in April 2005, and a private investor has generously committed $5200 for 2005.

Each January, the program will be evaluated on the key success factors. Our Growth & Public Relations Committee will provide a budget request based on the analysis. This, along with the evaluation, will be used by the Finance Committee to produce the FY 05-06, 06-07, and 07-08 budgets. All advertising and other funding pertaining to the Growth Plan from Davies is subject to the same budgetary consideration as other line items.

We are ready to reach out and share our Unitarian Universalist message, continuing the legacy of our namesake, A Powell Davies. We are enthusiastic about making our vision a reality! We proudly present our plan for growth and deepening commitment to the community in which our church lives.

If you share our vision, we need your support

We are asking for monetary donations. We have received a total of $65,200 (from the UUA/JPD) to cover a three-year plan. We originally asked for $324,000 to finance an aggressive advertising/marketing and staffing plan. We have scaled back our effort to match what we have. Even with that, we still will not be able to pay the salary of John in later ’05 into ’06 when he becomes a fellowshipped UU Minister. We are looking at many options to fund his position. The church understands how fortunate our congregation is in having a young, vibrant, African American minister; and we would hate to lose him and his family, and forfeit an opportunity to make history. Our present success tells us we are on the right track! We also know how important this task is for the legacy of Unitarian Universalism. We sincerely need your financial support.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GIVE TO THIS VERY WORTHWHILE CAUSE FOR RACIAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMITMENT. “ONE ROCK CREATES MANY RIPPLES” INDEED!