our custom services
and their faith leaders
services for faith communities
and their faith leaders
The most common mistake by faith leaders pastoring congregations is that they quickly dismiss our services as “interesting but not for them.”
The Faith Leader Directory is a searchable database of faith leaders and faith communities. It is separate from the Be Kind Humans private, online universe.
On today’s spiritual journeys, people filter online for the people they need. This is due to multiple overlapping factors: expanding technology and access to it, increasing awareness of diverse identities, increasing religious options, and distrust (even fear) of religious leaders and of institutional religion. If faith leaders intend to serve the public then all faith leaders need to meet the public, humbly, halfway.
And does halfway sound very compassionate or particularly loving? The public experience of faith leaders needs to be as if we are leaving our turf, crossing the distance between us, and greeting them kindly in spaces where they are comfortable. Are brave enough, secure enough to sit gently with a bit of our own discomfort where they feel empowered to risk (re)connecting with a new faith leader?
Everyone needs a faith/spiritual leader sometime.
People should be able to go to one website, search for faith leaders and faith communities within a specified radius and see all those who exist in that distance. In theory, those who do not appear in the results do not exist. We want everyone around you to find you and your community.
If you are the only one found, that is good for you (and bad for others). If you are found alongside others, that is also good for you because you are experienced as secure enough to be alongside other faiths, committed to serving in the public sphere and embodying the interconnectedness of all people.
Your community needs its own website, but it is not enough. We built ours to bridge the gap between what the public wants and what you offer.
While people might search online for a faith community in their parent's subset of their tradition when they move, they are more likely to search with less loyalty, more proximity, and based more upon the individual faith leader's inclusivity and connectedness to social realities. People searching the internet wonder, "Does the faith leader set off any red flags for me?" "Do I trust the faith leader?" "Are they real?" That is, are they authentic or is there something hidden that they are selling? Are they phony? Are they thoughtful? Will I be able to be myself or will they try to cast me into a pre-cast mold?
How do we design for that? For starters, people can search by: distance, language, faith/tradition/spirituality, services being offered, or tags/phrases (ie. pastoral counseling, prayer, chaplain, etc.). Claiming your listings gives you control over the descriptions you provide and what contact information is provided publicly.
Beyond the Faith Leader Directory, you can upgrade to Be Kind Humans so that your ministries can be experienced in an interactive, relational online universe (in addition to or mirroring, if you choose, your in-person ministries).
Half of the world is searching for a community, so you should list your community with every other community in the Faith Leader Directory.
The other half of the world is searching for an individual faith leader, so you should list your pastoral staff's smiling faces, apart from all religious buildings. Include every faith leader individually that is willing, just don't have everyone rotate through the same background, especially if it's on your turf. Then, when new inquires contact you talk, meet at a public coffeeshop or similar, their turf - not your office, church, mosque, synagogue unless they request it there. If everyone on your staff (even if it is just you) is too busy to meet new people then a) how can you expect to grow and b) at least add two listings to the Faith Leader Directory: (1) one staff person and (2) the faith community, providing links to your church website and events (including worship) which are already open to the public.
services for faith communities
and their faith leaders
Purchasing a ministry space for a faith community includes one membership (aka “access”) for a faith leader of that community.
While many people in the public have wounds and reluctance associated with faith communities and their leaders there are also advantages to pastors of congregations. The advantages are not so great, however, that you can disregard all the alarms we are sharing. The currents are too much for any one tradition, no matter how large, even if you are a Roman Catholic Priest, to serve (or save) the world.
Your neighborhood and our world need you and your colleagues to come collaborate with every other faith leader and tradition for the sake of peace and love.
Nearly everyone uses the internet to experience a community before they set foot in the community. And, to repeat, although you need to have a website for your community, your webstie alone is not enough.
Our design serves your current community and brings your ministries alive so that others can see and interact with your community, depending how open you want your doors to be.
You can use a ministry space to launch a new ministry, mirror or project your current ministries (congregational or otherwise), or any kind of hybrid endeavors. You know what you are called to be, locally or globally. You can be all online, all digital, all pre-recorded, or you can be just live, just in your physical building, office or home, or any combination.
To get started, purchase a Faith Community Space Plan, login, then message UU Jay McNeal inside Be Kind Humans to set up your personal ministry space.
services for faith communities
and their faith leaders
Here at Be Kind Humans, to be clear, we believe that in-person, three-dimensional relationships are very important for human health and relationships. We do NOT believe that human life should move to two-dimensional screens. We do NOT believe that you can get everything you need, for relationships and community, through screens.
We are here to support real-life, in-person community and relationships.
Sometimes pastors have a fear response to the ministries we describe … because it is different, because it is new, because it is not currently (already) part of their normal structure, system or institution. Pastors are brought up through their system and familiar with “how church works” … and what we describe here … isn’t it, not on the surface.
We sound strange; we get it.
If any religious systems, institutions were successfully meeting the spiritual needs of the public then we'd just have copied what's working. It's not. As always, the world is changing; it can't be stopped. Technology is, like money, neither good nor evil, but can be used for good or evil. Help us, together, use it for good.
Regardless of the size of your faith community, this is for you. Tiny congregations, before closing your doors, join and talk with UU Jay McNeal about possible paths. Large congregations, you already have content and resources, just plug what you're doing into Be Kind Humans. Your current people and new people will be able to go to your community either in-person or online. The online experience will be open 24/7, no matter how icy the roads, how your condition has flared up, or if you're vaccinated against the latest mutation. No masks required.
As far as pledges and donations, you maintain lots options. You can charge access or not, universally, to your ministry space(s). You can collect one time payments, subscriptions or "pass the plate" by providing a link in various events, gatherings, posts, services, etc.. Let us know what you want to do and we will make recommendations for your desired outcomes.
If you only want an access membership for you as the faith leader of a faith community, without a space for ministry inside Be Kind Humans, then just purchase a Faith Community Access Plan. You can upgrade later if you want a ministry space. With access only faith leader can be added to the below pictured space to make it even easier for public users to identify you. You will also have access to the "Faith Leaders Only" neighborhood seen in the left column underneath ""Find Faith Communities" (where faith community ministry spaces live).
services for faith communities
and their faith leaders
If you have been a faith leader for any length of time then we do not need to persuade you of the value collegial support and relationships. We do not need to tell you the value of continued education and spiritual growth. We do not need to tell you that self care and having a sounding board are critical to longevity.
Some of you are new faith leaders. Some of you are veteran faith leaders. Most are in the middle. Each of you have a sense of what you can offer and of what you need.
Although which faith leaders join us is beyond our control, we aim for diversity in all the ways people identify. Ironically, we cannot create an open-minded universe of learning and inclusion without a degree of excluding dangerous, hurtful theologies and behaviors. If you are unable to be experienced as a safe, kind and inclusive person then we must uphold a healthy boundary and recommend professional counseling services outside of Be Kind Humans.
(As a plug for every person's well being, regular professional counseling is good for ever person and very important for anyone in any kind of leadership, including parenting.)
As a service provided, collegiality is not a separate product, it is just a feature of any faith leader's access plan. So, if you have not joined already, join and we recommend creating an on-demand class about your specific faith. Chat with UU Jay inside about what you could teach. You can teach exclusively to faith leaders or in the general "courses" area. You can promote it internally or externally of Be Kind Humans Universe.
It's up to you, what you participate in and how. Obviously, you can be a teacher. You can also be a student. But you can't do anything from outside Be Kind Humans.
For faith and non-faith communities.
These plans are to add listings for faith or non-faith groups or organizations that support spiritual health.
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