I thought I would chime in on the bus ad campaign by the American Humanist Association. Bill Baar (Pfarrer Streccius) and Steve Caldwell (Liberal Faith Development) have said their piece, but I’ve actually seen one of the ads. Just a few minutes ago, and I’m not impressed. I’ll admit: I’m hard to impress with respect… Continue reading My take on the Humanist bus ad campaign
Category: Church mission and identity
Nagging Carver Model issues
Can you be free to think when you subsume another’s thoughts? When the structures of that thought literally belongs to someone else? When the model excludes all others? That’s my problem with the Carver Model, which has taken the Unitarian Universalist ecosphere by storm. I choke every time I come to one of its registered… Continue reading Nagging Carver Model issues
Google’s double tithe
I was looking up a BBC story about Google’s outreach to its US and UK Gmail users to test new features; that’s new. Lots of us love Google because they’re fresh, innovative and productive. The Gmail story points out one of their cultural norms: As well as being shown the new service ahead of release,… Continue reading Google’s double tithe
A set of cities for new churches
I think we should look at Micropolitan areas — cities of 10,000 to 49,999 souls — as likely areas for encouraging new congregation growth. The United States has 538 such locations and glancing through the list I could easily pick out several that had no Unitarian Universalist congregation — some had none within quite a… Continue reading A set of cities for new churches
Can ministers see the future of the church?
I’m reading two works in tandom: Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations (you might have seen him on The Colbert Report earlier this month) and Yochai Benkler’s “Coase’s Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm” (The Yale Law Journal; full texts available through link). Both concern technology-empowered participation… Continue reading Can ministers see the future of the church?
Theists and humanists in the same house
Stephen Lingwood (Reignite) summed up many of my own feelings about the putative optionality of God one sees in Unitarian Universalism. (His title — “Is humanism theologically tolerant?” — is a bit misleading as it puts the onus of the problem on one half of the theist/humanist divide and misstates the conflicts in terms of… Continue reading Theists and humanists in the same house
The religion of what?
For better or worse, I was thinking theologically in the shower this morning. Ponder, as I did, that once-common Unitarian Christian claim that “we don’t practice the religion about Jesus, but the religion ofJesus.” Well, I don’t believe that. However well we dig down to Jesus’ idea and ideal of religion, it comes mediated through… Continue reading The religion of what?
Distributed work to inspire
Later. Saw “Naked Day”? — it’s been moved to April 9. If someone asked to borrow your computer to conduct malaria research when you weren’t using it, would you? I think most people would, and you know I’m not speaking hypothetically. Indeed, if you say BBC World News tonight, you saw a feature story about… Continue reading Distributed work to inspire
What to do for Easter
Hurray! Hubby and I had our first date seven years ago tonight. He’s at work, and I’m thinking deeply and fondly of him. Last night, he and I were shopping for groceries and, in frozen foods, the conversation turned to our Easter observances. To tell the truth, I was thinking of a lo-cal or vegetarian… Continue reading What to do for Easter
Historic small Universalist church blogs
I almost missed the fact that members of the Pullman Memorial Universalist Church, Albion, New York (21 members) started group-blogging church events, as Chalicefire. While unofficial, I shouldn’t wonder if the blog will become the de facto church site — as Google records — in time and the tone is pleasantly and lightly outwards-reaching. A… Continue reading Historic small Universalist church blogs