Nice to Hear

So, the boys and I have been going to a new church the last few weeks, The Universal Unitarian Fellowship. We really like it and I am happy to be going somewhere that I can bring my dad and Tony and they will be welcomed with open arms.
Today we had a new sermon and a borrowed sermon from another fellowship. It was very interesting (both) but we were given a print out of the borrowed sermon and I thought I would share. I know everyone believes differently and what not, but I thought this was interesting.

They Need to Give

How is it with your soul?
How is it with your church?
How is it with your church's soul?

Did you ever run into a local Unitarian Universalist (UU) at the store, or at the beach or at a museum somewhere? You spot that chalice necklace or you recognize them from a conference or a local worship service and you get that sense of delight we all get when recognizing someone from our tribe. And you chat:

How's everything? What are you doing? Ya going to General Assembly? Did you hear about the thing they're having down at the thing? And are you marching? We're sending our church banner.

And so on.

If you're an involved Unitarian Universalist, and most of you are (you didn't stumble in here by accident), you get emails like this:

“We're hosting an event and we'd like your support, and it's going to be here and at this time and we hope you'll come and bring lots of people and lots of money with you, because it's a really good cause."

Or from the District Office:

"There's going to be a training to learn how to be friendly to people on Sunday mornings. Please send a team of at least four people from your Sunday Morning Friendliness Committee. Hope to see you there."

And you dutifully sign up and you go and you have done good work.

But I would like to know, how often during any of these interactions do any of us really turn to each other and say, "How is it with your soul?" "How is it with your faith? You've been toiling in the vineyards of your congregation for so many years now. Is your heart growing, and is your spirit expanding because of it?"

No workshops, no training, no marching. Just spending a moment in spiritual connection with each other, holding the other to the light of hope and strength. Connecting with the ancestor spirits; getting back in touch with the soulful purpose of our religious life. Trusting that whatever the theology of the person you are talking to, you are together in the Unitarian Universalist endeavor.

We are here this morning to do the business of our district and to reflect on the stewardship of the 21st century church. It's a very sexy topic nowadays, and not just for UUs. The 21st century church! What will it look like? What do we need to do to be hot stuff in the 21st century? Are we shrinking, are we growing, what new programs are you offering, how many people ya got in the pews on Sunday mornings, and what percentage of your congregation would that be? Do we need new office software? How about a screen to project the hymns onto!? Should we knock out all those uncomfortable pews and put in Laz-E-Boy recliners? On wheels?

Maybe.

Or maybe we could consider the possibility that what most needs an upgrade in our congregations is our insides, so battered by the horrors of the 20th century and the mounting evidence that our super-optimistic view of humanity could stand some revision. We might consider that what begs our serious engagement today is not so much our technology but our theology, now that we've realized that religious conflict and theological wrangling are hallmarks of this new century, and we'd like to have something thoughtful, informed and nuanced to contribute to the conversation.

Maybe we could consider that no matter what great innovations we may think up, the Church still stands and always will stand for the eternal and the essential things which do not change all that much century to century—how to endure tragedy. How to be a force for the good. How to prepare for the inevitability of death. How to seek truth. How to serve on a committee with really irritating people.

I'm all for snazzy innovations where they're appropriate, and I like change. But I think that as we envision the 21st century church, it is all too easy to become unwittingly complicit with one of the greatest dehumanizing myths that drives our culture today. That myth is that we are, above all, consumers—and that, as consumers, we are best served when we are barraged by a dizzying variety of products, and that our purpose in life is to choose from among those products based on purely individualistic, ego-based preferences, and that we should consume or use or join these "products" only to the extent that they please us and meet our own personal needs.

When we buy into this mythology (pun intended)—and it happens without our realizing it—we begin to regard everything around us as a product to consume—everything becomes a shopping experience! We become consumers not only of material goods, but also of relationships, education, travel experiences, health care choices, and of course...religious communities.

The church of the 21st century must stand against this cultural sickness with all its might—especially, I might add—those churches that are located in the heart of middle-class, suburban America, to whom this mythology has been most relentlessly promoted, with the most spiritually toxic and morally paralyzing results.

So what do 21st century church seekers need from us? To begin with, they need not be treated as consumers of a product, an ideology or a social club, but welcomed as human beings who have their own unique stories and their own destinies. They need to be invited to join forces with a healthy community of people who are happily absorbed in the work of mutual ministry and who are devoutly committed to daily incarnating divine love in the world, everywhere in the world, and...who can abide in a mature and forbearing manner with real difference.

Today's seekers to our congregations need to give. They need not to be examined at the door to assure appropriate theological or political conformity, or greeted with smug assurances that they're smart and sophisticated enough to be "one of us," nor should they be pandered to if they come damaged by the narcissism and entitlement instilled in them by this culture. If they come because they heard that Unitarian Universalism is a hospital for the religiously wounded, we should not expect to find them ten years hence, directing traffic from their stretchers in the parish hall, still ranting about the abuses they suffered from religious traditions long since abandoned. We should provide them opportunities to learn, to understand, to reconcile, to develop a life-giving personal theology for themselves, and finally, to heal. We should not be afraid to tell them that this area of spiritual growth and reconciliation is not only encouraged, but that the church joyfully anticipates such healing for them.

Stewardship of the 21st century church is not about providing services and a superior product to consumers, it is about fostering worshipful hearts and reverent souls who love what the church represents so much that they begin to live their lives in accordance with its ideals.

In this vision of stewardship, churches are not afraid to have expectations of their members, among them:

• That they will practice love and hospitality as their chief spiritual disciplines;
• That they will minister to and let themselves be ministered unto;
• That they will help when asked;
• That they will pledge generously to the church (and that they will fulfill those pledges);
• That they will pray for (or think good thoughts about) those who ask for their prayers;
• That they will make themselves students of the religious and theological heritage of Unitarianism and Universalism;
• That they will make a joyful noise on Sunday mornings even if they can’t carry a tune in a bucket;
• That they will consider no question too stupid to ask in learning how to participate in the democratic process or in leadership;
• That they will consider no congregational meeting too minor to attend; and that they will abide with all their hearts, all their minds, all their soul and all their strength by the covenant of the church.

I grew up and came of age in the Unitarian Universalism of the late 20th century, which was largely defined by negations and a sense of terminal and isolating uniqueness. I hope to walk with you into a 21st century Unitarian Universalism that is defined by affirmations, by a sense of fellowship with all people who seek meaning through religious community, and by a sense of high expectation and limitless possibility.

Amen, and amen.