My name is Suzette Southfox, and I am the “Director of Community Life” here at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego. As far as I know, I am the only inreach staff within our denomination.

Inreach is a vibrant, creative and uncharted area which has the potential of integrating and retaining enough members to make us “the most dangerous church in America.” The vision of “Inreach” is to help our church build nourishing spiritual communities. Inreach pays attention to the culture and connections of congregations expressing the importance of shared ministry. The best way to explain what I do is to compare it to outreach, which brings people into church and inreach brings the church into people.

I became a member of this church in 1995. I have served as a committee chair, pledge drive volunteer, and on the board of our liturgical drama group. I have attended a PSWD Leadership Training and have worked with our Leadership Development Committee to write a four-week “correspondence” course on leadership called “Leadership 101 The Un-Class Moving from a Religious Consumer to an Active Participant”

I have also taught adult and youth classes for our RE program, am an active member of our Earth-Centered Spirituality Circle and regularly contribute to worship services through story-telling. I serve as a hub of communication for ministers, committees, board and congregation and serve as an ambassador to visitors and guests, both on Sunday and during the week. Having recently attended Jubilee One, I am now intentionally integrating anti-racism in my daily work.

I was hired for this part-time position in 2002 with a generous gift from two outstanding congregants, Ed and Betty Law. Since this time, we have accomplished much.

In addition to working fulltime, I share my life and co-parent our six-year old son with my partner of 15 years. I volunteer in my son's cooperative charter school weekly, spend time with my youthful, single mother and developmentally disabled sister. My partner, Tree, works full-time as a landscape gardener at Sea-World and is also our part-time church gardener.

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again.


From the essay Outreach–Inreach:
The Value of Social Strategy and Spiritual Design 

I contend that while outreach is imperative in order to grow membership, increase income, and change the world, the heart of outreach is a place of healing . . . and the heart of outreach isn’t outreach at all, but inreach.

I believe that outreach not only serves a social strategy, but within the context of our liberal religion, outreach does three important things: It raises awareness about our church and faith; it helps us serve the larger community; and it brings wholeness to our lives.

To be meaningful, the relationship between individual and church needs to be active. This relationship must exist in addition to weekly worship consumption. There needs to be dialogue and conflict and fun and intimacy and doubts and joy and life outside of committee work. When church is meaningful, the congregation begins to grow and sustain a spiritual community. Outreach is the front door and at the very inner core, inreach.

Our church cannot sustain membership without a healthy inreach program. We can have the most successful outreach program in the county but without the ability to welcome, develop relationship and spiritually feed our people, we will have, as they say, the proverbial revolving door. And we won’t only lose visitors and new members . . . we will lose lifetime UUs in the process.

Inreach serves a spiritual design. It provides opportunities to deepen one’s faith, create genuine relationships, and make church part of one’s life. It is through the act of inreach that we truly connect with others. It is that spark of connection that serves to create the energy of transformation…of healing. That is what I mean when I say “outreach brings people into church, inreach brings church into people.”