Thursday, March 7, 2019

At Church on Sunday, 02/24/19 - The future of Universalism as a denomination and our local congregation

The question #2 on 02/24/19 regarding the future of Univeralism in the next 20 years is:
What do you think, Lane, as far as the future of this church, of our church, and of the
Unitarian Universalism as a denomination?

Here is Rev. Lane Campbell's response:

I think certainly the future is, we're making it right now, right here, and I think that in the future, I mean the church has to look different than it has. We have to think about what is our faith going to look like in the future.  The church that I grew up in was informed a lot by sort of this 1950s structure of everybody had Sunday free. Everybody's life was focused around having Sunday's with the day off. Sundays were the day you go to church.
Now, from the last five years of working with families, Sundays aren't always free for church. Many of the families that I worked with we were battling against hockey practice for a few years, you know, or even just like time to be with your family.
So I think, you know, when it comes to the future of church, we have to think about how we're going to be relevant, and why why people come to church, like what is our unique contribution, and what do we need to do outside of Sunday mornings? I will say Sunday mornings are, of course, very important to me and I'm sure you all because you’re  here, right? (Laughter)
But I wonder what it was going to look like to be sort of a faith community of focusing on Sundays, and focusing sort of, throughout the week? How do we make opportunities for people to plug in? 
I certainly have a fear, or a concern, that for the future of Universalism I don't want our Universalist history, in our roots, to get lost. I don't want us to get too far away from the traditions and the roots that we are built upon because they are so beautiful and so important to us.

Rev. Lane's response runs from 04:30 - 06:19

1 comment:

  1. Lane has a good point that "church" is no longer just a gathering on Sunday morning, but a catalytic, facilitative covenant that animates our lives every day of the week, every week of the month, every month of the year.

    The way this can be done is by skill buidling activites focused on the application and implementation of the principles in a mindful way in our daily lives. We gather for workship to affirm and validate and inspire these activities, right?

    ReplyDelete

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