from the executive director
Rev. Ron Robinson
The Radical Nature of The Jesus Community
One of the upcoming Revival keynote lecturers, Dr. Brandon Scott, was a professor of mine in seminary. Among the many things I learned, and remember, from him, was a comment he made as we were studying the letters and ministry of the Apostle Paul. He said that in some ways Paul was an even more radical upsetter of the Roman Empire than Jesus because Paul was specifically focused on creating and sustaining communities, and that was especially challenging to the Empire. While getting people to see and experience God in a new way, to reshape their sense of the realm or kingdom of God, as opposed to the Empire's, is dangerous, it is even more subversive to express that in the form of communities.
Communities in and of themselves carry a power to change the lives of those within them, and also to shape the life of the wider community around them. Former UUCF Officer and acclaimed theologian James Luther Adams once wrote of "the power of an organization is the organization of power." And especially, for those communities organized in the spirit of Jesus, it is power for the oppressed, the hurting, the outcast. The goal of the Jesus community is nothing less than letting loose on the world, through the ages, "little Jesuses" to use St. Francis of Assisi's term.
The UUCF has, in its DNA, been mostly an organization that serves individuals, much like the original American Unitarian Association, which also had as part of its founding purpose in 1825 the mission to "promote pure Christianity" and continued to be only a membership of individuals until 1884. UUCF members for much of its existence, especially in the early decades, were leaders in their own Unitarian then UU churches which were also primarily Christian oriented. The UUCF became a way, as it was for me in Oklahoma in 1992, for individuals either without a UU Christian church or without a church period, to become connected to the thought, and sometimes if you could travel to General Assembly, to the people of UU Christianity.
But things have changed drastically, and are continuing to do so, in Christianity, in UUism, in the wider spiritual landscape, and with the UUCF. More denominations, and some independent churches emerging recently, have become connected to the progressive Christianity that was one of our main domains for centuries. More and more UU churches, while not identifying specifically as Christian, provide a space for baptism, communion, sermons on Jesus, recognition of the importance of scripture and the holy days of the Christian year. At the same time in the world around us more and more are dropping out of institutional church all together, in many cases in order to be free to go deeper into their faith; the essence of church is being reimagined and reshaped; and there is the role of the internet in realigning allegiance to faith communities and to making new connections possible "virtually." In the UUCF many of our leadership comes from pluralistic oriented UU churches; we have many, perhaps a majority, who have been non-Christian UUs first who then experience a transformation to a primary, though also sometimes not exclusive, path of following Jesus and the liberal Christian tradition within UUism. And we have those who have little to no connection with UUism, or only did once upon a time, who still find our tradition and our contemporary movement important to them.
I believe that one aspect of the spiritual life that has the potential to cut across all of these new identities and developments within all of the spheres is the growing desire of individuals to be in an organic, spiritually deepening, small community of a people seeking to make the loving and liberating Jesus visible in their world around them, in them, through them. These small communities might be people who walk together while also being in covenant with the same larger church body (both non-Christian UU and also Christian UU who still seek the smaller, deeper, serving way), or they may be of people coming together from different church bodies, both from different UU or otherwise, or they may be of people without a church connection. They may be neighbors; they may be old friends now living far apart but meeting again "virtually"; they may have things in common, perhaps all women, all college students, all seminarians or clergy, all struggling with recovery, or with grief, or another issue. They may not, probably will not, all identify theologically as Christian, maybe not even as followers of Jesus, though they are seeking to see how the Jesus path can inform their own.
What they will have in common is a desire to be a part of this community to bring Jesus into their circle and how it can help them maintain their circle and grow their souls and be a model for others to do the same.
I believe the future and vitality of the UUCF will be in how we meet the needs of this world to form communities like these. It will take some major shifts in how we see ourselves and our resources and priorities. How well can we help churches themselves as resource providers and mentors for their own small groups in the Jesus way? How can we help connect people between churches to form these groups? How can we help those who desire the small community as their primary church experience? How can we help form groups that meet via the internet? How well can we incorporate the community experience into all of our own gatherings, publications, and membership focuses?
One vision of what the UUCF may become is that of a network of varying communities, not a denomination, but as facilitator, mentor, resource provider, inspiration, and networker of all these relationships "where two or more gather" in the spirit of Jesus. We become a "community of communities" that are intentionally small, progressive, serving. In our "one size doesn't fit all world" this vision and incarnation of the UUCF will be but one of many, as we continue meeting the spiritual needs of people wherever and howsoever they may be. But it is a vision that I believe we need to focus on because it has been one of our missing links; we need space created for it; we need leaders who are doing these communities now to step up to be national and global leaders for us; we need investors to believe that this vision is necessary and who know it is costly to nurture. I hope you are one of these. As we move forward this year, let us know if you would like to participate in shaping this vision. Our Board members Kristen Grassel Schmidt and Gil Guerrero are helping the Board and I liaison with these possibilities for membership and communities.
In this vein, I will leave you this month with a simple single resource for those seeking to step into such a world. It comes from the new book by missional church leader Frank Viola, "Finding Organic Church: a comprehensive guide to starting and sustaining authentic Christian communities." He says to invite people, just a few, to gather on a regular basis and to 1. sing together, acappella, great for growing relationships and community because it make all vulnerable as a common starting point; 2. share together, revolving from week to week one or two telling their life stories, then sharing favorite messages, favorite music, bible stories, passages, sermons, reading books together, movie and discuss; 3. always eating together; and 4. have fun together outside the sharing times, including times of serving with others together. To do this know that you have to leave agendas and ambition aside and "become as little children," he says, and as part of that know it is inevitable your feelings will be hurt, that you will need to be patient with the group, that people will leave the group, others will come in, but that you will experience growth and healing. There is much more in this book, as in many other books and resources looking at such communities, some casting off to do where it bends away from inclusion and progressive nature, but it is to our benefit, in this our 65th year, to dream and to do again, with dreamers of all orientations, about where God's dream can lead us.
Blessings,
Ron Robinson
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In The News
UUCF Executive Director,
Rev Ron Robinson featured in Cover Story of UU World. Click here for more on the story.
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