What Membership Entails
Participation
Minimally 1 Event Per Month
To feel like you belong in a community you actually have to show up! You only get a benefits associated with community when you hand out, have fun, and connect with each other.
Donation
2% of Gross Income Recommended
From infrastructure like the website, Meetup, space rental, food at the assembly, good speakers, and more, nothing is free. The more that you give the more we can return that money back to you as community building goods and services.
Volunteering
As You Are Able
You could greet people as they arrive at an event, help set-up/tear down the assembly, participate in leadership, host a game night, show up to out volunteering events, visit a member in the hospital, help a member move to a new home, etc. Whichever way you choose to give your time, you care helping to grow your community and strengthen bonds with each other.
Learning
Minimally One Class Per Year
We will offer classes about Sunday Assembly and how to run it, Humanism, Storytelling, and ethics throughout the year. These are critical for leadership succession and spreading an understanding of Humanism and science in our community. Take one or all of these classes as they present themselves.
What It Means to Be a Part of a Congregation
Sunday Assembly is a congregation – not just a hangout group. That means that we meet regularly to enjoy a service – what we call an “Assembly” – where we hear a positive and insightful message, sing, dance, eat, and generally celebrate this one beautiful life in various ways.
We also meet outside of these Assemblies to further connect and experience all that life has to offer. These gatherings include book clubs, TED talks or movie watching, trying different Detroit cuisine, volunteering, playing card and board games, going on outings to museums and parks, and many other fun activities.
There are many aspects of life that we all participate in, from work, school, sports/exercise, relationships, hobbies and so on. However, one aspect that secular people often distinctly lack is a religious community – and that’s a huge problem for us! We know from science that the human brain is positively wired for religious community of some form.
Religion taps into the needs of the limbic system – the mammalian brain which needs community, ritual, and feelings of tribalism and bonding. It activates many of our most powerful motivators and response centers. This means that humans, with rare exceptions, need a spirituality / religion. This is what Sunday Assembly offers in conjunction with Humanism.
This is Why Sunday Assembly Exists
We fill the gap of a religious community so that us secular folks can more fully participate in all that life has to offer. The great part of a community is that the more members participate, the more fully we can realize the benefits of being in a community.
It Take Resources
For a community to grow it needs attendees, regular financial contributions, and people willing to run the organization. Living in America, we all know that the staple of our society is a church on every street corner; All of those churches are there because their members show up and give money. If we want to have a similar presence, then we’ll need to do the same!
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