Sunday, December 5, 2021

Language makes a difference


There is a Unitarian Universalist church where the minister is called a "speaker." The sermon topic is listed with the prefix being listed as "speaker: ________________________."

"Speaker" not preacher, homilist, teacher, pastor. Simply "speaker."

There are "speakers" every where. Why do we need one delivering a talk from a pulpit during a worship service?

UU sermons have turned into TED talks and motivational speeches. They are full of psychobabble and saccharine, sentimentalized notions about some mundane topic. They rarely are about the nurturing of spiritual development which is the prime mission of the church.

People don't go to churches for worship services to listen to a speaker. People go to church for encouragement in their spiritual development. This is rarely found in a UU church or in any other denomination. No wonder church attendance and membership is dropping. 

People, on survey, increasingly say that they are not religious but they consider themselves spiritual. Where to they find their spiritual nurturance? Not in UU churches where the pulpit is filled with speakers, unfortunately.



2 comments:

  1. It has been brought up before in this blog, and rightly so, that Unitarian Universalism has lost its way pursuing a social justice agenda rather than a vehicle for spiritual development. It's time for revival to get UU back to its roots and mission.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Things have gotten worse with the feminization of the clergy. Females are into maintaining morale while males are into achieving goals and getting things done. Is there a time for a gender balancing in the UUMA?

    ReplyDelete

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