The attached PDF is a paper written by Matt Meyer sharing a “Unitarian Universalist Theology of Community Organizing.”   It begins:

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

Download, read and share the full paper:
A UU Theology of Organizing (PDF)

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.

PS – I’m helping Matt share this resource via social media. Posted with permission

]]> http://uuplanet.org/2013/04/18/uu-theology-of-organizaing-matt-meyer/feed/ 0 Matt Meyer Peter Bowden Matt Meyer http://uuplanet.org/2013/03/24/birth-breath-and-death-book-amy-wright-glenn/ http://uuplanet.org/2013/03/24/birth-breath-and-death-book-amy-wright-glenn/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:09:56 +0000 Peter Bowden http://uuplanet.org/?p=5874 ]]>

I am excited to announce that Amy Wright Glenn, a Unitarian Universalist and dear family friend, has just publish Birth, Breath, and Death— Meditations on Motherhood, Chaplaincy, and Life as a Doula.  You may start reading it in under a minute on Amazon Kindle!

UU Book Review

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…

Keep Reading

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:

1. Development of the internet
2. Creation and proliferation of social media
3. 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.

An Open World

In my next post I want to talk to you about our world’s increasing culture of openess. You can get ready by watching Don Tapscott’s Ted Talk, Four principles for the open world.

I’ll reference his four principles in my next post. They are:

1. Collaboration
2. Transparency
3. Sharing
4. Empowerment

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!

For information on attending the Minns Lectures in person visit http://www.minnslectures.org/

Facebook Discussion

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:

• Friday, Feb 8, 2013
• Friday, Feb 15, 2013
• Friday, Feb 22, 2013
• Friday, March 1, 2013

#MinnsLecture Tweetchats

• Tweetchat #1  – February 12, 2013 at 8pm ET (USA)
  RSVP for this Tweetchat and invite others to attend via Facebook event
• Tweetchat #2 -  April 9th, 2013 at 8pm ET (USA)

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.

Publicity Materials

• Minns Lectures 2013 Flyer (PDF)
• Tweeting about the Minns Lectures? Use hashtag #MinnsLecture.
• Register online here. Event is free, but tickets are required.

The 2013 Minns Lecture Series
March 8 & 9, 2013
Boston, MA

Young for Liberty:  The UU Movement in the 21st Century

In the spirit of William Ellery Channing, who once said, “I was always young for liberty,” the Minns Lectures for 2013 will be structured around three lively interactive presentations on how our free faith tradition speaks to, and in the past reached out to, young people – and how today’s revolution in social media can reshape, enlarge, and invigorate that outreach today.

Join us on March 8 and 9 in Boston, in person or online, for these three important lectures.  [I'll be sharing more about the online details shortly. Peter]

Lecture 1

Friday, March 8, 7-9 pm
No-cost reception included
King’s Chapel, 58 Tremont Street, Boston
King’s Chapel House, 64 Beacon Street, Boston  (Changed Location!)

Sticking with Stories: Unitarianism and the Creation of Children’s Literature
Delivered by the Rev. Andrea Greenwood

Rev. Greenwood has served congregations in Atlanta, GA, and Watertown, MA. A strong advocate for special education both in the church and in the broader community, she is currently writing a biography of the Newbery Medalist, Elizabeth Enright – a Unitarian and the niece of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Lectures 2 and 3

Saturday, March 9, 10 am-2:30 pm
No cost lunch included
First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, Boston (Google Map)

Ministry in the Age of Collaboration: Congregations in a Hyper-Connected Generous World
Delivered by the Rev. Naomi King
Rev. King ministers locally and at large with City of Refuge Ministries, utilizing social media to join global houses of study, prayer, and action, and to grow faith communities in and beyond congregational walls. Via a mix of spiritually minded blogs and faith development programs, her ministry reaches around the world, engaging multifaith partners as well as Unitarian Universalists.

Ministry in the Age of Collaboration: Faithful Practices and Principles
Delivered by Peter Bowden
A television producer and parish consultant, Mr. Bowden runs Leading Congregations, [was the author of the UU Growth Blog, now archived on this site], and UnitarianUniversalism.TV.  He is dedicated to helping religious leaders master changing culture and technology.

The Minns Lectureship Committee of King’s Chapel and First Church in Boston sponsors an annual series of lectures by UU ministers on religious topics of historical importance and contemporary relevance. Last year’s lectures by former UUA president the Rev. John Buehrens explored the renewal of Unitarian Universalism in the 21st century.

Video, audio, and texts for these lectures and for earlier ones, along with additional details on the 2013 lectures and how to register (at no cost), can be found on the Minns website.

The committee welcomes innovative proposals for lectures in 2014 and beyond. Guidelines on proposal submissions and a short history of this unique lecture series are also posted on the website.

Joseph Priestly District 2013 Worship Arts Festival
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Optional Friday evening session February 22, 2013
Hosted by the UU Church in Cherry Hill, NJ

ONLINE REGISTRATION

FULL CONFERENCE DETAILS

Who should attend: Anyone interested in enhancing the worship experience of their congregation from ministerial, musical, and religious education staff to worship presenters and hospitality volunteers. You’ll find amazing resources, inspiration and connections at this event.

Unitarian Universalism made the Colbert Report yesterday, November 1st.  In his Tip/Wag – Constant Documentation & Billy Graham segment, Stephen Colbert discusses Mitt Romney’s outreach to Reverend Billy Graham and Graham’s subsequent disencultification of Mormonism.

In response to Unitarians being listed on Graham’s website, Colbert replies..

“Oh yes, the dangerous cult of Unitarianism. Their rules are so loose, their three sacred texts are the Old Testament, New Testament, and Free to Be You and Me.”

If you haven’t seen it yet, you may watch the segment here. The part about Unitarian Universalism starts 3 min 30 sec into the video.

What Do Unitarian Universalists Believe?

What happens when a previously Christian church gets so liberal you don’t have to be Christian to belong? What happens when over time the country gets increasingly pluralistic with massive numbers of people loving the Dalai Lama, Oprah and doing yoga?  Eventually you get a breed of congregations that bring diverse people together around shared values, not set beliefs. That’s what’s happening in Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregations, great values but many different spiritual and theological perspectives.

That’s my quick explanation.  You can get a more official description here or watch the following video about our congregations.

The Challenge of Unitarian Universalism

Okay, not all Unitarian Universalists love Oprah and the Dalai Lama…  But I do.  And that’s the beauty (and challenge) of Unitarian Universalism.

Because our congregations don’t have a set creed, we end up with people who don’t agree on big religious questions.  And I love that!

What About Love?

Speaking of love…  In recent years love has moved to the forefront as an organizing force in our congregations.  Not a cheesy bad greeting card love, but a we need to take care of each other fight for justice and build a better world together kind of love.  We might not agree on whether there is an afterlife, but we know how we should treat each other.   In fact, we have a campaign dedicated to that, the Standing on the Side of Love campaign.

And this election season, we’re encouraging people to VOTE on the side of love.

Why I Love the Challenge

Me? I want to be part of a community where people have great values, but differing opinions.   It keeps me learning and growing.

For me, Unitarian Universalism serves as a home community and center from which I can continually explore, have friends to share and discuss life with, and an institution through which we can multiply our efforts to address the moral challenges of our time — marriage equality, climate change, immigration justice and beyond.

If that sounds appealing,  find a congregation near you and see what they’re up to.

I should note that I have a big fat UU bias.  I was raised a Unitarian Universalist and came upon pretty much everything great in my life through my UU connections — my wife, my work, my friends, my meditation practice, fellow change agents, hope…

Late September 2012 we started a Facebook group called the UU Media Collaborative to bring together UU creatives who want to work together to share our faith and raise the quality of UU Media.  We created the group, then a page to share content, followed by a site for archiving hi resolution images.

The first week (according to Facebook) over 50,000 people saw the images and 3,000+ were “talking about” the content.  Check it out…

Here’s an alternate version.  Sharing this video with the group for feedback, ultimately it was decided there was no reason not to share both