Now where will you go?

If you’ve made your way to this page, you are likely part of a congregation in flux. Maybe your congregation:

  • hasn’t found the minister you were hoping for and your lay leaders are going to need some strong support to navigate the next year well.

  • is shifting from full-time to part-time ministry and anxiety is popping up in unexpected ways.

  • is wanting to work with a minister for the first time and you want to do it well.

  • wants to partner with another congregation in new ways.

  • Maybe you just don’t know what the next right step is.

I’m here for that.

How I Can Help

  • (Re)Imagining Church & Ministry

    Whatever you’ve been doing until now wasn’t working or isn’t right for your congregation any more or isn’t available right now. Something needs to change. But what’s the right next step? Which way should you go? Is it time to forge a new path? Together we’ll reimagine your ministry and right-size you structures.

  • Supporting Leadership

    When your congregation is in flux, your leadership carries more: more responsibility, more stress, more time, more anxiety. 1:1 coaching is an opportunity support your lay leaders so they can lead with grace, wisdom, confidence, and sustainability.

  • Designing Alliances

    You are not out there alone. There is probably another UU congregation (or several) within driving distance. Have you considered partnering with another congregation to strengthen your resources?

    Partnerships don’t succeed by accident. They succeed through intention, work, and planning. Designing HOW you will work together is the first step to WHAT you will do together.

  • Guest Preaching

    I talk about change and growth. Personal and communal and relationship change; inner and outer change; mind/body change. I talk about grief and letting go and hope. I talk about desire and non-attachment. I talk about what it is to be human right here and right now and how we can move forward with wisdom and joy.

Yes, I want to talk about how you can help our congregation.

Why work with Jill?

When your congregation works with me, they are getting a partner in discovery and transformation.

You’re at a place where you need to reimagine what church and ministry mean.

I’ve been there, too.

I’m a born and raised UU who found a calling in ministry.

I’ve served congregations from 30 to 230 members. I’ve been the called minister and the interim minister and the experimental quarter-time contract minister. I’ve served congregations that have had professional ministry for over a century and congregations deeply committed to their lay-leadership and self direction.

I left the full-time parish ministry because it wasn’t sustainable for me or my family. I’ve done a lot of different kinds of work since then: chaplaincy, art making, conflict resolution, mentorship matching, coaching.

All of it was ministry, because ministering is how I am in the world.

Letting go of what ministry was “supposed” to look like, and what I had been trained for it to be, and the life I had planned in ministry wasn’t easy. Letting go is rarely easy, but it lead to a life that is liberating and creative and fulfilling.

Are you ready to re-imagine?

OK, that might be a lot to ask.

Are you ready to want to be ready?

Great. Lets talk.

FAQs

  • Your UUA regional staff members are always a great place to start. They can point you to resources, help you connect with others congregations or leaders, and get you started on your next steps. But your regional contacts are supporting MANY congregations at a time. When your congregation needs/wants more than the region can provide, there’s where I come in.

  • I am an ordained minister in Full Fellowship with the UUA. I am a member of the UUMA (UU Ministers Association) and abide by our collegial covenant. I have no other official standing nor do I work for the UUA. My call is to help individuals and congregations unleash their own unique brilliance.

  • Yes, and … I will do no work that undermines the current minister. I will want to have a conversation with that minister before continuing conversations with the lay leadership. With all freely choosing to participate, we will design our alliance for working together.