[printprofilepic]I recently came across an interesting article in the Fall 2009 UU World. The article was entitled “The Gospel of Inclusion,” by Kimberley French. It described the changes in a particular Unitarian Church that occurred when they held a new service led by a Pentecostal minister, Rev. Carlton Pearson. A typical new service begins with a half hour of singing with lyrics such as “Come on everybody, it’s time to start/Praise the Lord your God with all your heart.”
In the article, the church’s Unitarian minister acknowledged “a portion of the congregation, mostly long-term members who are uncomfortable with the overtly theistic language of the music [and the ideas], may never embrace the new service. About seven people have told the board they are reducing or withdrawing their pledges because of the changes. Some people have stopped coming.” Sound familiar? We have seen some of that in our church over the last several years.
Those who know me well know that I consider myself an agnostic and a Humanist. Although the foundation of my “spiritual” beliefs was established before I joined this church in 1974, my beliefs were formalized and further defined during my membership here since then. Like some others I have had growing pains over the last few years because the services were moving away from my Humanist roots. Although I still cringe sometimes during the services, for the most part, I have reconciled the structure and content of the new services with my belief system. My main criterion is that after each service I feel better about my world and myself, so I keep coming.
The article goes on to say “[A]t the same time, about 125 new members have joined since last September, mostly young people intrigued by the second service, and about one-quarter are people of color.” So what church is this article talking about? It’s the Tulsa All Souls Unitarian Church, the largest UU church in the nation. They, becoming more inclusive, have increased their membership by almost 10% in a short period of time, and have increased their parking space by two lots to accommodate visitors. It should be noted that many of these new members came from Pearson’s earlier congregation who moved with him; thus, it’s a bit of a special case.
I have heard the fear stated that, if we continue down our current path with our new service format, visitors will be turned off, never to return. My suspicion is the opposite: more younger visitors will find a comforting and welcoming congregation and service than will be turned off.
So for those of you who are unhappy enough to stop attending or even leave the congregation, I’m sorry. I know exactly where you are coming from, but our church is not going to reverse its direction. I hope you can find some part of our ongoing programs to take part in (Forum, Buddhism Group, Humanist Group, Philosophy Group) and that you will feel as I do that the most important part of our church is still our community and our fellowship.
Dean Carstens
2010-2011 Church President
