We recently had a congregational meeting where we discussed the growth or lack of growth of our congregation. One of the exercises we did was to examine the congregation’s history. It was hard to believe that the Universalist Church of Akron once had 800 members and played a major role in Akron’s history. So what has caused our decline and the stagnant or declining growth of other more liberal denominations while more fundamentalist Christian churches, especially the mega churches seem to be attracting more and more people?
After thinking about this, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is one major difference between these growing and stagnant churches; the growing congregations promote the life changing nature of religion. I’ve heard a lot of Christians over the years talk about how God changed their lives, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Unitarian Universalist talk about how their religious belief has changed their life. I do believe that following my own spiritual journey and the support I’ve gotten from my congregation has been life changing for me, but it isn’t something that UU’s talk about to others even within the congregation let alone to potential members. So here is my question to my fellow UU’s: Has your religion changed your life? Would you be living the same way if you were not a member of your congregation? I'd like to pose that question to people of other religious denominations and faiths as well.
3 comments:
As a famous British comedy character would say, Yes, but No, But Yes, But No.
What may attract many new folks to UU congregations is, indeed, if they are transformation agencies, offering us ways to transform ourselves, and work to transform the world.
What many UU congregations tend to be and encourage, however, is a refuge for those who absolutely, definitely, do not want ever to change, much less transform, in any way, and want somewhere that will leave them alone, never challenge them, and let them work out their oddities all over everyone else without ever asking that anyone change.
This is a really interesting way to look at this. My experience is that people come to our UU church to affirm the life they already have--which I think is a good thing, but I also think the religious experience does demand more. Thank you for asking this question. I'll see if I can blog my answer.
juffie and uumomma,
Thanks for your responses. I do look at my congregation as a force that helps me transform myself to become a more spiritual person and a vehicle for working with like minded people to transform the world, but as much as I have heard people talk about a spiritual journey, it sometimes seems they quit traveling when they join a UU congregation or they simply do not talk much about the transformation that is taking place in their lives through their spiritual practice.
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