Between Us – Lessons from the Coffee House
By Rev. Clyde Grubbs, April 28, 2023
Saturday night, April 22, First Parish hosted its 16th annual coffee house, albeit the first coffee house after a three-year hiatus. It was successful, both from the point of view of the artists and from the point of view of the audience. It was excellent!
I won’t attempt to review the artistic content. I will talk about the coffee house as outreach. To build the membership of First Parish, the congregation must find ways to do outreach. So what are the lessons about outreach that we can learn from the Coffee House event?
Members reached out to the community to let people know about the event, and people responded.
Lesson #1: Build an event well, and they will come.
The performers helped by bringing their supporters.
Lesson #2: A good community outreach event is based on shared interest.
The performers had a need, and First Parish was helping meet that need, so they became partners in building the event.
Can we apply these lessons to other outreach events, events that will open our doors so that people will be able to find us, and even become members in time?
I have witnessed UU congregations sponsor community art shows. The congregation invites artists to exhibit their works and publicizes the showing. The congregation prepares a program book about each artist and their work. The program books are sold. Local businesses buy ad space in the program book. If an artist sells their art, the congregation gets a share of the sale.
The surprise buyers of local art are local professionals who buy the art to display on their office walls. Buying the art is a business expense.
The proven audience builder is inviting art teachers in the local grade schools to display children’s art from their art classes. The relatives of that child come to see the nephews’ and granddaughters’ sculptures or paintings on a wall, get to know about First Parish, and take home a program book.
The art show illustrates the lessons of the coffee house: build a good program and, not only will people come, but the participants will help build it. We should have a brainstorming session to share ideas about outreach. I am sure we can plan some good programs that we will enjoy doing and help First Parish be better known.
Rev. Clyde