The Church With Heart

“The Church With Heart has a heart full of love for not only its members, but for the people outside its doors. Because this is what Unitarian Universalism is all about – it’s about having faith that love is infinite, undying, and there’s plenty to go around for all of us, so we need to love one another within the church, and then take that love outside the church because Lazarus is right outside our gate, starving for our crumbs, and even our crumbs are valuable because the Lazaruses outside our gate are starving for acceptance, for nourishing food for their minds and souls, for a listening ear, for relationship, for purpose.”

Read More

Resilience and the Spirituality of Change

A defining characteristic of a church with a mission is that it adopts change as a spiritual practice.  Congregations on a mission, that develop the communitas I discussed in my last post, understand themselves to be on a journey of faith together that by its nature implies risk and uncertainty.  Instead of fearing this risk and uncertainty, missional congregations see it as the natural terrain for serving the needs of the world.  Because missional communities adopt change as a spiritual practice, another benefit of the missional shift is the creation of a community with give, flexibility, and the ability to bounce back. Communitas is resilient.   A spiritual practice is something done with depth, regularity and intentionality.  When we understand that constant change, at least gradual constant change, is the spiritual playing field, we approach the challenges of change – such as dealing with loss and the sense of insecurity as well as new opportunities for growth and learning – as a deep, intentional, regular practice of what life in a faith community is all about.  Developing change as a spiritual practice helps us bounce back when conflict or difficulties arise.  Change as spiritual practice makes us resilient.

Resilience and the Spirituality of Change

Loving the Hell Out of the World GA 2013

Red Pill Brethren Revs. Tony Lorenzen, Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Jake Morrill and Eric Posa explain missionalism and how you can love the hell out of the world at UU General Assembly 2013 in Louisville, KY.

(rough video – we often walk out of the shot, but I think you can hear us throughout.)

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Missional Church: A Unitarian Universalist Case Study

“Mission! It moves. It’s about looking around and seeing where you are in relation to what’s out there around you: seeing where you can connect, help, serve, be in relationship with, learn, and be part of “life more abundant” that gives existence meaning and depth and beautiful intensity.  It’s about paying deep attention to your local context not to convert, but to engage with.”

http://www.peacebang.com/2013/06/20/missional-church-a-case-study/

Is “Growth” the Unitarian Universalist “Saved”?

I wonder if Unitarian Universalism puts so much energy into growth is because we lack a driving mission.  I get the feeling that the mission and purpose of Unitarian Universalism is to make more Unitarian Universalists.  When we have more Unitarian Universalists we will teach them how to make more Unitarian Universalists.  Aren’t there better things for us to be doing?

http://sunflowerchalice.com/2013/06/03/is-growth-the-unitarian-universalist-saved/

Beloved Community: The Now and Not Yet

Beloved Community is not held within our church walls. As soon as you begin to think like that, you have moved into the exact opposite of beloved community, because in creating that definition of community, you have necessarily created otherness. There is the community inside our walls, the people who think like us, act like us, look like us. And there are the people who are not part of that community, the “others.” This is not Beloved Community. Royce distinguished between small “communities of grace” that were loyal to the greater cause of the universal Beloved Community and those who were insular, often “predatory,” in their loyalty to their own. 

Universalism is naturally woven into Beloved Community. Universalism is universal salvation; salvation for everyone, unconditional…

Beloved Community: The Now and Not Yet