Thank you for sharing your discoveries about how to involve non-parents in RE; offering a range of ways to get involved depending on time commitment is a good idea.

“Too often we treat volunteer roles as distinct from our spiritual life, I think, and this is probably why so many of us burn out” — SO TRUE!

I like your ideas for lay ministry. I think I have come to see myself as a lay minister. In the beginning I seemed to receive the framework and processing for this role mostly from outside of the congregation (from my spiritual director and my personal practice). But recently, I have felt a sense of shared ministry with a couple others within the cong., who might also identify as lay ministers, and I think it has made all the difference for me in making the congregation feel like home. Too often we treat volunteer roles as distinct from our spiritual life, I think, and this is probably why so many of us burn out (volunteer burn out is very common in my congregation). Nurturing our volunteer work as part of a ministry–with real support–could be useful for all church volunteers, I think, including religious educators.

In terms of supporting lay ministers in religious education, here’s are some ideas that come to mind:

1. Discernment with a member of ministerial staff or experienced religious education leader about whether and why this person is a good fit for religious education leadership. This is an opportunity to help a person identify their sense of calling to the work and be aware of their hopes and fears for their leadership. It’s also an opportunity to help identify any serious problems that may make a particular person a poor fit for religious education leadership.

2. Regular follow-ups from a member of ministerial staff or experienced religious education leader to ask how things are going and offer both practical and spiritual support.

3. Group support such as a covenant group or spiritual practice group for religious education leaders.

4. Meaningful thank-yous from the congregation.

These are just a few ideas that come to mind. Of course they could be implemented whether a congregation refers to religious education leaders as “volunteers” or as “lay ministers.” I think that, at least in some cases, the “lay minister” frame could help bring into clearer focus the purpose of religious education (i.e. ministering to children and youth) and the importance of the spiritual health of religious education leaders.

Thank you for commenting. As you point out, there are many quite valid reasons that some childfree folks do not lead children’s religious education, including:

*they aren’t asked
*it isn’t a good fit for their interests
*Sunday morning isn’t a good time or it conflicts with congregational worship
*they would be interested in working with older youth, and the programs simply aren’t there
*they “have little to offer and are searching themselves” (I think we’ve all been in that place of feeling that we aren’t able to provide spiritual nourishment at a given moment, and need instead to let ourselves be receivers of such nourishment — and that’s ok!)

So I definitely don’t want to malign those who (parents or childfree) who choose not to participate in RE, but rather to encourage members of congregations to reach out to those folks who might be a great fit for religious education leadership, but simply haven’t been approached in a positive way.

I also think that part of it is that UU RE is so disjointed in that there are a multitude of offerings for the under-16 set, but the offerings for the over-16 set is slim. And many don’t want to teach if they feel that they have little to offer and are searching themselves.

As to Terri’s point about why child-free people don’t volunteer in RE, I wonder if part of the issue is that RE programs don’t necessarily reach out to the child-free. When I’ve volunteered in RE programs as a teacher, it’s because I was specifically invited in.