Unitarians in Ringwood do it large

"Alain de Botton makes the point that ALL of us struggle with life.  And religion dispels the huge myth that ‘everyone else is coping, I’m the only one who’s not managing to hold my life together’.  This is one of the most wonderful consolations and encouragements that I have gained from being a Christian - realising that we ALL have problems, struggle, make mistakes and suffer.  This is so different from the modern religion of consumerism, which pretends that life is easy, and that if we are struggling there is something wrong with us!  Thanks so much Alain!"
By a Spiritual Atheist, attending the Unitarian Church in Bristol

This rather neatly describes some of what it is that people get from being part of any spiritual or religious community.  Consolation and encouragement.  These are wonderful things, and those of us who find them in our Unitarian communities get
extra joy in spreading similar communities out to others who might need them.
As we explore making a Unitarian community in Ringwood, we start with the expectation that our community should become visible to others who would gain from belonging with us.  We can be sure that we need them, too.  So once we have met up, we need to be ready to join up, work together and reach out to others out there.

All possibilities are open to us at the moment - there are all sorts of ways we could shape our community and choose what it should become and what activities to build into our programme but, to have a community in the first place, we have to bring out into the open the people who would want it.

This will demand persistence, and some effort; also, some regular money.  So it will test our commitment, will help us see how heartfelt we are in this, how serious our intent is.

There's a thing about seed communities.  It has been observed that there is a unique feel to small groups that haven't yet hit the big time.  The small group feel can rapidly freeze into a mind-set that can be difficult to break.  If they stay with the "small" mind-set they tend not to grow, because they look and feel exclusive, pushing newcomers away without even knowing that they are doing it, or how they are shutting people out.  But if they start small while already knowing they want to grow, and live as if they are already big, with many of the things in place that will be needed for a bigger group or organization, then automatically they look like they are ready to accept new people.  They look like they have vacancies, they look outwards, they feel welcoming and inclusive, hence growth becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So what we need to do is start small whilst already imagining ourselves to be larger and growing, and put in place the things that will be needed later on.  Some of them can be done in a "shadow" way, latent, waiting to be activated when needed, but some of them are needed at once.  Right away what is needed - in the first ones to show up - is an openness to doing something towards attracting the next ones to join.  Growth doesn't have to be fast.  It just has to be a clear intent.

Look at this picture from business: success is built on IDEA, ASPIRE, MOTIVATION, EDUCATION, DILIGENCE, PATIENCE, INDUSTRIOUSNESS.  The idea is there, and growth is our aspiration.  What we need now is to harness our motivation, to focus on letting Ringwood know we are here, to be diligent (attending to details), to be patient and committed, and to work at taking the practical steps that will cause us to grow.