Social justice work and Unitarian Universalism are intricately connected. Most of us believe that doing our part to make the world a better place is an important part of our spiritual journey. When it comes to the means of engagement however, there is less consensus. Our faith has much to say about the importance of charity and service and advocacy and education. I would offer though, that the tools and grounding values of community organizing reflect our Unitarian Universalist identity more than any other method of justice making. For a number of reasons, community organizing is a more holistic expression of Unitarian Universalism. – Matt Meyer
Matt Meyer is an artist of percussion, knowledgeable and experienced in a variety of styles, including latin-jazz, Brazilian, folk, funk, Hiphop and pop. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and has studied in Cuba, Ghana, and Central America. A love of music and a deep respect for its ability to stir and transform audiences is at the heart of Matt’s continuing devotion to understand more of the world’s cultures through the vocabulary of rhythm. Learn more about Matt including descriptions of the workshops he offers on his website, rhythmrevelations.com.
A Unitarian Universalist from her congregation writes:
This book is a treasure: part memoir, part musings about philosophy, religion, spirituality and spiritual practice, but entirely about love. It ranges from personal reflection and experience to more scholarly and existential explorations. It is a well-written, thoughtful description of how one person moves through her life open to all of its experiences and teachings, in whatever form they appear. Amy brings to life her own varied experiences with different religions and cultures and roles with curiosity, insight and imagination. Her descriptions about being a doula and a chaplain are very moving. Equally compelling, however, were her descriptions of the emotional obstacles she faced in becoming mother, her awakening to the intense love and joy in mothering her son, and, and her descriptions of the sustaining relationship she shares with her husband. This book, written by someone so loving and so open to life with all of its daunting challenges, should not be missed. Plus, there are great quotes throughout, as well as many memorable passages.
Our Connection
Amy Wright Glenn
Amy Wright Glenn and her husband, Clark, lived in Newport, RI and attended Channing Memorial Church where my wife, the Rev. Amy Freedman, previously served as minister. Though Amy & Clark had moved by the time I arrived in Newport, I was able to get to know them through their regular Newport visits. Amazing people!
And now for me to start reading the book. Click. Downloading… 30 seconds later reading on my iPad. Hmmm… Wonder if there’s anything about Unitarian Universalism in this book:
I found Portland’s Unitarian Universalist First Church through my interest in poetry. Marilyn Sewell, the editor of my favorite poetry anthology, which focused on women’s spirituality, lived in Portland. I heard she was the minister at First Church and woke early one Sunday to attend. Alone, I navigated my way downtown on Portland’s public transit bus system. Reverend Sewell led a coming-of-age ceremony for three teenager members of the congregation. The simplicity of the ritual, the absence of patriarchal dogma that would prohibit a woman from offering such a blessing, and her grounded presence touched me deeply.
I was drawn to the way that Unitarian Universalist (UU) ministers attempt to…
Shazam! I knew it. Had to be something related otherwise I wouldn’t be posting it.
My Book Reviews
I share reviews and announcements when friends and colleagues (people I already know) publish books and resources I think my readers will appreciate. Please take time to connect with me (Facebook, Twitter) and our UU media, growth and outreach focused community via social media before you ask me to write a review. If you aren’t using social media, a post on this site isn’t going to do much for you. Interested in learning? Contact me to discuss group trainings and private social media coaching.
Recently I had the honor of collaborating with my friend and colleague, the Rev. Naomi King, on the 2013 Minns Lecture “Ministry in the Age of Collaboration.” We were asked to speak on social media and Unitarian Universalism in the 2st Century.
We are both sharing core messages from our talks via our blogs, and videos of the lectures will be available later this month.
For this first post of mine, before I start in on social media, I think it is helpful to speak to the issue of our congregations being out of synch with time. I’ve discussed with United Church of Christ colleagues the fact that the UCC seems, to me, 10 years ahead of the Unitarian Universalist Association in some regards. They in turn chuckle and say they feel the UCC is 10 years behind where they should be. That puts us, if you do the math, 20 years behind!
Our lagging leads to significant problems with our ministry. Most frequent in my conversations with our leaders:
Why don’t our children grow up to be adult Unitarian Universalists?
Why aren’t families participating the way they use to?
Why aren’t we attracting all those spiritual and not religious people, the nones?
And while we’re at it, why aren’t people drawn to, and participating in the work of good institutions like ours the way they use to?
These are complex issues with no one simple answer or quick fix. But there is a common problem plaguing many of our congregations which is directly contributing to them.
Our congregations? They’ve gotten lost in time…. I know, it sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it?
Ministry Time Bubbles
Many congregations are living in what I call “ministry time bubbles.” You see, for many congregations — maybe yours — the world has changed around you. Not a little. Not a lot. We’re talking massive mighty change impacting every aspect of our human society.
How did some congregations get stuck in time? A content membership, leadership and staff with enough money to care for themselves, coupled with sudden rapid technological innovation in the world at large.
When a congregation has stable membership numbers, enough funds to meet its own needs, it is easy to focus on caring for that immediate community. That’s the congregation as “safe harbor.” And believe me, plenty of people are looking for a safe harbor, including being sheltered from change.
With a reasonable membership and sufficient budget, a congregation can go about its ministry in this way, with attention on its membership and little attention on the rest of the world for years.
To create a significant ministry time bubble, take this set up and crank up the rate of change in the larger world. Presto!
In this illustration you can see a congregation starting in synch with the world – blue, then while they were busy with their internal ministry, the rate of change outside picked up. Uh oh…
Accelerating Change
For a very long time change in our world came at a rate that was challenging, but not too drastic. The difference between “congregational time” and “world time” was reasonable. Leaders were able to slowly soak in the change. Taking time was okay. A decade to get the congregation set up on email? No problem! Five years to debate a new website? Why not!
Things are different today. We’ve recently gone through three major technological revolutions:
Development of the internet
Creation and proliferation of social media
All that tech in your pocket thanks to mobile computing
These technologies are fundamentally changing the culture, norms and expectations of human society. And not just once, they’re impacting human behavior day after day after day.
While many congregations have been going about their business of faithfully changing the world locally (focus on core membership), the very world they’re called to change — it changed. Result? A congregation out of synch with time, technology and culture.
These ministry time bubble, they may be fine for a while. But increasingly the discrepancies are too great to maintain. And what was chalked up to technology becomes a matter of clashing cultures.
New Norms for Humanity
These discrepancies between how our congregations are going about ministry and what is increasingly mainstream culture – big problem. It is easy to discount technology we don’t care for. But we can’t minister effectively if we discount a changing human culture. And that’s the scale of what we’re talking about.
Think about that. Your congregation, if you aren’t actively staying in touch with present day technology and resulting culture — and this is a moving target — will be increasingly out of touch with the culture of those people you are seeking to minister to and with.
What culture am I talking about?
We’ve been globalized, interconnected and sci-fi like devices have been placed in our pockets giving us mind boggling creative, collaborative, and coordinating powers! These powers are rapidly changing how we do everything from work and play, to how we learn and organize ourselves to face the injustices of our time.
Unfortunately, this growing culture clash isn’t readily apparent to many of our leaders. Why? Because our culture being out of whack with what is becoming mainstream present day human culture simply results in humanity wanting nothing to do with us. It is like a silent force gently pushing people away from us, including our young people who want to be active and effective agents for change.
You might say that we raised our very smart children well enough for them to know that our congregations, those stuck in time, are not the best places to invest their time and energy. Great leaders (and aspiring leaders) don’t suffer through mediocre leadership. They find an institution or revolution ready to help them be of service.
The Good News!
The good news is that our mission, our purpose, that change we and our congregations are (hopefully) called to make in the world — there are more people than ever interested in that. We know this because we’re increasingly networked together.
But…. (Drat! You knew there was a but.)
But the people we are trying to minister to and with are different now. You see, we’re all adapting to this new world. We are learning to do amazing things with the creative, collaborative, democratizing, gamified, hierarchy crushing, grassroots coordinating, rapid response, instantaneous, “fail often, fail fast, fail forward” tools and culture of this time.
We need your Unitarian Universalist religious leadership more than ever!
We just need you to be a religious leader differently.
We need you to understand the cultural shifts that are reshaping our human society, reshaping the world, and how to harness them to unleash our shared ministry in a world increasingly characterized by connectivity and openness.
Ready for some cool do it yourself (DIY) projects for kids? Checkout this video of Design Squad Nation co-host, Deysi, and WGBH Design Squad Nation outreach coordinator, Anna, on a recent Make Magazine Google Hangout!
5 Awesome DIY Projects
Demonstrated in this video are the following projects:
For their work advancing Unitarian Universalist media, design and outreach via the UU Media Collaborative Works I hereby publicly present Jessica Ferguson and Tim Atkins with UU Gold Seals of Awesome Appreciation. Thank you for your generosity, time, talent and passion! ~ Peter
You know culture and technology are changing at an accelerating pace. But what does this mean for our Unitarian Universalist ministry?
Join us, the Rev. Naomi King and Peter Bowden, for a series of Tweetchats and Facebook discussion exploring “Ministry in the Age of Collaboration,” the theme of our March 9, 2013 Minns Lectures. During these online conversation we will explore how social media and social networks are empowering people to risk and live faithfully. Because we know working faithfully together creates more positive effects in the world, we want to start the conversation prior to the Minns Lectures in March, as well as continue it once videos of the lectures are released.
Don’t miss these opportunities to ask questions, share ideas, and shape what we hope will be an association-wide conversation. You may share this page using social sharing buttons at the end of the post. Thanks!
Each Friday in the UU Growth Lab, the month leading up to the lectures, we will be posting questions. Join this Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/uugrowthlab and look for our Minns Lecture themed posts on the following dates:
Our hour long live Tweetchat on Feb 12th will share the themes and core questions driving our lectures. We want to here you ideas, stories, and have the opportunity to weave more innovation and real life examples into our talks. The month after the lectures, April 9th, after the lecture videos have been shared, we’ll have a follow up conversation.
How to Participate in Tweetchats
Log in to your Twitter account on date and time of tweetchat
This virtual chat room will bring together tweets sent with hashtag #MinnsLecture. While all tweets are public to everyone following you, using this Tweetchat room makes it easy to focus on our #MinnsLecture themed conversation.
Peter Bowden 