Steps to Membership

The path to membership begins with attending worship services with us and getting to know the community. After that, we ask that you get to know the work of our congregation and the values of Unitarian Universalists through either an in-person membership course or this online version. The membership process culminates with you making a commitment to our community and signing our membership book. A few times a year, we welcome our new members to join us on a particular Sunday so that we can acknowledge your commitment and celebrate with you. Our hope is that a membership class will provide you with the information you need to determine if we are a good fit for you and your family.

What happens after I become a member?

We don’t view becoming a member as the final stop. Membership is an ongoing process that requires renewed commitments of us to the congregation and to one another. We are always inviting everyone in the congregation in to a deeper level of connection because the spiritual journey is also ongoing. Below is a model, The Journey, that our ministers have developed for how to approach the ongoing process of membership.

Welcome, newcomers, to the Clearing at UU Asheville. This is the starting point for your Journey with us.

We’re excited that you’re considering membership at the UU Congregation of Asheville. Belonging to UU Asheville – or any UU community – should be understood as a lifelong spiritual journey, rather than a process that ends once you sign the book and become a formal member in a congregation. Here we have created a kind of spiritual “map” for the process, with a few signposts to guide you on that Journey, as a newcomer to someone who has been an engaged member for many years. 

At each stage along the way, you’ll see there are faith, community, and practice elements, designed to deepen your knowledge of Unitarian Universalism and personal spirituality, invite you into higher engagement with the congregation, and encourage you as a leader and participant in the life of our community.

Congratulations! You’ve explored UU Asheville and have decided to join. You’re ready for the next part of your journey. You have signed the book, made your commitments of time, talent & treasure to support our congregational relationship of mutuality and care, and are deepening your experience of Unitarian Universalism at UU Asheville. 

These are people who have been with UU Asheville for five years or more, making their commitment clear. Spiritual formation and community connection is a lifetime journey, and so the work continues.

This level includes those who have attended for 15+ years with high levels of participation and service. 

The Phoenix Circle is encouraged to meet two times a year with the ministers to consider spiritual formation for their religious needs.

The Phoenix Circle is particularly well suited to helping us form and regularly improve upon our practices of welcome and inclusion. We hope that Phoenix Circle members will consider hosting small gatherings for newcomers or to serve as newcomer mentors/coffee pals, and to work actively to positively promote UU Asheville. This might include working with the Legacy Circle or Annual Giving team or making personal appeals to members, encouraging groups, businesses or individuals to consider UU Asheville for rentals or events; lead or encourage legacy giving, or otherwise help prepare us for the next generation. 

As you may have gathered from the “Journey” path above, supporting the life and work of UU Asheville is a vital part of being a member. As a faith community, UU Asheville is committed to being an “all-in” congregation, where our members feel they are collaborative partners in guiding and supporting the work and ministry we do. Our philosophy is that we believe that our members have found something here that they value deeply, and that they will be inspired to share their time, talent, and treasure as generously as possible. Financial giving keeps our doors open, our lights on, and supports our staff and programs – without it, we don’t have a congregation. And we also know that financial circumstances can vary greatly – so we also appreciate however you can contribute: helping us with programs or leadership and fundraising events, or donating a talent or professional skill.  

Our fiscal/”church” year runs from July 1 – June 30th. We rely on information from our members about their giving to develop our budget for the year. Any amount of financial support counts as a gift of record; if pledging a time commitment, we count that as an in-kind gift and use Asheville’s living wage as our metric when considering the contribution.  

If you’d like to make a financial or in-kind pledge, please contact Trevor Johnson (connect@uuasheville.org) or Lauren Kriel (information@uuasheville.org).