Congregation Unitarian Universalist of Puerto Rico

Why Join a Congregation?

En Español

What am I searching for in joining this congregation?

Prelude and Opening Words:

"A congregation exists," said Rev. A. Powell Davies to "grow souls." It takes a lifetime, often with lots of bumpy places and misdirection. To create a cradle of safety and solace, congregations need to nurture growth and not indulge immaturity. Given the diverse life experiences people bring to our congregations, leaders especially need to name values and rules for the congregational road we seek to travel.

Lighting the Chalice: by David Usher (founding President, ICUU), British General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
We light this chalice as a symbol of our faith.
By its light, may our vision be illumined
By its warmth, may our fellowship be encouraged
And by its flame, may our yearnings for peace, justice, and the life of the spirit be enkindled.

Prayer: ( followed by a moment of silent meditation)

In the quietness of this place and in the Spirit of this Community in which we share and find strength let us pray. Prayer cannot bring water to parched land, not stop a roaring flood, nor mend a broken bridge, nor rebuild a ruined city, but prayer can water an arid soul, change the tide toward, righteousness mend a broken heart and rebuild a weaken will. Let us pray.

Joys and Concerns: : (We throw a small stone into this bowl filled with water, to symbolize our thoughts, which move in circular rings eternally, like concentric waves.)

We invite you to share your joys and concerns since our last meeting

Story for All Ages:  (the children go to Religious Education at the end of the story and the adults sing "Spitit of Life" )

Hymn::    # 123  (STLT)   "Spirit of Life"   by Carolyn McDade (adapted)

Spirit of Life, come unto us,
Sing in our hearts all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
Move in our hands, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold us close; wings set us ,;
Spirit of Life, come to us, come to me.

Sermon:

Why Join a Congregation?*

One of the constant challenges faced by Unitarian Universalist is that very few people know who we are. And unfortunately, although almost no one has heard of Unitarian Universalism, almost everyone has heard of religion. When we introduce ourselves as religious people, people's ears perk up. "Religious" means something. Unfortunately it usually doesn't mean what we want it to mean.

Most of the people who I would want to invite to a newly forming congregation have a moderate to negative outlook on religion. When I invite them to my church I find myself having to distance myself from the religious right, reassure them that I'm not going to try to convert them to anything, that I'm not going to make them put down the drink they're holding, that they can still swear in front of me, and basically I have to apologize for religion in general.

It's a very awkward thing to be a liberal religious person. In fact, it's even hard for many of us to think of ourselves as religious people. Given our own ambivalent feelings toward religion what I wonder is why do we UUs join congregations when so many of our liberal political and spiritual friends do not? Why do we feel a need to organize a congregation on top of everything else we're involved in? Why do our friends march for worker's rights, meditate daily, and leave work early to get to their Yoga class once a week, but wouldn't be caught dead in a church? Whether we call ourselves religious, or find some other less inflected word, we should be aware that our friends and neighbors watch us organizing a congregation and call us religious. And they're wondering why we are.

Eleven years ago in January of 1990, I first walked in to a Unitarian Universalist Church. For the fifteen years prior to that I hadn't walked into a church of any kind, with any real spiritual expectations, since I left the Methodist church I had been raised in. During the interval when I was unchurched I considered myself a spiritual person. I read Alan Watts and Krishnamurti. I talked with friends about spiritual ideas. Sunday nights I listened to "Religion on the line" with Dennis Prager on the radio. Spirituality was important in my life and I felt no need to join a congregation.

This is the place I find so many of my friends in right now. Perhaps you know people like that. "Why bother?" they ask. "What is your congregation going to give me that I can't get with my yoga class, and tai chi, and reading 'Tuesdays with Morrie' and 'Conversations with God' from the spiritual best sellers list?" "What will your congregation give me that I can't get with my home altar and my morning mediation?" My friends tell me "I get my spirituality going to the gym, or going to the symphony, or taking a hike in the forest or camping in the desert."

The reason that my friends don't join a congregation is not because they aren't interested in spirituality and religion and ethics and metaphysical questions and social justice work and potlucks and parties and all the other things we get with congregations. The reason people don't join a congregation is because they get all those things in other parts of their life. A congregation would be one more obligation to add to a list of obligations already too long. Belonging to a congregation requires commitment and sacrifice, and they don't see it adds any benefits. To the spiritually minded unchurched, like I was for fifteen years, a congregation is all struggle, and no power.

The biggest detriment to Unitarian Universalist congregational growth is not that spiritual seekers haven't found us, it's that they aren't looking. Spiritual seekers are seeking in the bookstores, and the yoga workshops, and the meditation classes, not our congregations. Yes, they'd be at home here. Yes, a Unitarian Universalist congregation is exactly the kind of place that spiritual seekers would enjoy and benefit from. Yes, they need to know we're here, but first of all they need to feel a need to be here. We need to tell them that there are benefits to joining a congregation that just aren't available outside a congregation.

I can identify six specific benefits a congregation alone offer. And as I look over my list they all boil down to one general benefit. I'll give you the six specific benefits first and then the general benefit.

Why join a congregation? Because a congregation gathers religious individuals in a religious community. In community we find strength in numbers. We find extra hands and varied talents to assist in the mission of the congregation. For the causes that we would rally behind on our own, in congregation we discover the deep resources of sympathetic people, their skills, and time, and ideas, and money.

On days when we don't feel like we can hold ourselves up, let alone lift up the work of the community, a congregation means that there will be others who will hold us up, and lift up the work of the congregation. "Life has its battles, sorrows, and regret: but in the shadows, let us not forget: we who now gather know each other's pain; kindness can heal us: as we give, we gain." In a congregation we recognize the basic need of all people to live with others. In community we are energized and encouraged. Community makes us responsible to others and therefore responsible to ourselves. Congregations support us in our focus on the essentials of the spirit. Congregations remind us by example of one of the goals of religion: the hope that all humanity could dwell in peace and justice as we can here.

"Nurturing community," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

Why join a congregation? Because a congregation involves us in the lives of diverse people. "We of all ages, women, children, men, infants and sages, sharing what we can." The church is almost unique in its ability to bring together people of all ages, family situations, and ethnic backgrounds. The Unitarian Universalist principles and purposes specifically recognize the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Our congregations intentionally welcome people of differing sexual orientations, and differing spiritual paths. The diversity in our congregations is an incredible resource.

Most other activities in our lives are spent around people very like us. We tend to naturally segregate ourselves by age, by marital status, by whether we have children or not, by race, by education, by political views. A diverse congregation allows our knowledge of what it means to be human to expand beyond our individual experience and those of people like us, to include more and more of the true depth of human experience. One of the goals of religion is to understand as fully as possible the reality of human existence. Surrounding ourselves with the broadest possible examples of human existence seems an absolutely vital first step.

"Broad diversity," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

Why join a congregation? Because a congregation provides a regular connection with the transcendent. The congregation as an organization beyond ourselves, holds a space for us where we have permission to lay aside our private cares and responsibilities and open ourselves to wonder. Whether we seek a god outside ourselves, or within, or marvel at the abilities and possibilities of human minds and hearts, the congregation invites us to connect with that power, to name it, to revel in it, to live it for at least the length of the congregational meeting.

Of course that feeling of transcendence is always available to us, whether we're in congregation or not. But it's difficult to make time and space available for this feeling in the rest of our lives. It doesn't come easily. Without the sacred space and time of a congregation that feeling can be quickly buried beneath all the other necessities of living. The congregational meeting is a time we have set aside to nurture and support our connection with the transcendent. In its rituals and regularity our congregation can provide the discipline and practice we need to regularly access the transcendent in our lives.

"Regular contact with the transcendent," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

Why join a congregation? Because a congregation links us to a tradition of like-minded people who have gone before us on our spiritual path. Our Unitarian Universalist tradition assures us that we don't have to go it alone. We don't have to have all the answers ourselves. Our private spiritual journeys can progress that much farther because our ancestors have already carried us so far along the way. An individual can learn about Unitarian Universalism without joining a congregation, but because our tradition is a congregational tradition you can't join the tradition without joining a congregation.

The value we give our tradition honors those who came before us. Joining a congregation shows our gratitude to the men and women without whom we would not exist. In tradition, our ancestors are remembered and given immortality. Creating congregations that honor our ancestors also assures us that future congregations will similarly honor our contributions. Tradition acknowledges our humanity in the fact that our present accomplishments always rest on the past accomplishments of others, and that our spiritual existence as well as our physical existence depends on the fact that other human beings preceded us.

"Supportive tradition," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

Why join a congregation? Because a congregation challenges us to continued spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is hard work. It is easy to become complacent. Too often we arrive at a comfortable religious conception and let ourselves stall there, without the self-motivation to push us further. A congregation can be a laboratory filled with new ideas and filled with a sense of excitement at the continued search. The lessons of the congregation, whether from sermons, or rituals, or religious education programs, or in conversation over coffee, can lead us into places we would never think to explore on our own. When we come with questions, the congregation provides answers. Perhaps more importantly, when we come with answers, the congregation provides new questions.

"Challenge to continued spiritual growth," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

Why join a congregation? Because congregations provide us with a deep basis for social justice work. Social justice work is easy to do outside of a congregation. There are hundreds of political movements and causes out there eager for us to join that wouldn't think of mixing religion with the good work they do. But what religion can provide that these other groups often do not is the deep justifying principles by which people should get involved and stay involved.

The answer to the question, "Why do good in the world?" is a religious answer. Whatever personal reason we have for our firm commitment to the goal of justice, freedom, and peace for all, that reason we give ourselves is our religion. For many of us the reason we do good springs from a conviction powerfully felt, but not easily articulated. But without an expressed philosophy justifying our feeling of wanting to do good, our feeling can become confused, or lost in favor of some more easily grasped conviction.

A congregation can help us find the words that name and explain our deep feelings. Here we can add reason and theology to an already felt emotional draw to justice work. We can struggle here together with ideas about God, or the essence of humanity, or the nature of reality, then transform these ideas into the wells we draw from when we face the difficulties of life, either in helping others or in helping ourselves. The language we speak here can help abstract our feelings around the need for justice, into broad principles that encourage our work throughout our lives.

"A justification for our social justice work," is an answer to the question, "Why join a congregation?"

These six reasons for joining a congregation boil down to one general reason. Nurturing community, broad diversity, supportive tradition, connection with the transcendent, challenge to spiritual growth, and justification for social justice work, all spring from the single encompassing benefit of a congregation. Remember this one benefit and tell it to your friends and neighbors. This is the one benefit of a congregation you can't get meditating alone in front of your home altar.

In congregation you get exposed to people who aren't you. You get challenged by ideas you couldn't think up on your own. You get challenged by ideas that wouldn't appear in the books you would choose for yourself at the bookstore. You're forced to mingle with people who aren't your age, or sex, or race, or family situation. People who aren't you ask you tough questions about your beliefs and force you to look more deeply into your beliefs in order to explain them. You get a congregation with a history and a tradition older than you that both grounds you as well as gives you the advantage of building on the best ideas and insights of previous generations. You find comrades outside yourself sharing your commitment to the social justice causes that inspire you. You have a sacred space where people who aren't you will listen with sympathetic ears to your stories of success and failure, joys and sorrows, your unseemly pride, and your embarrassing disappointments. You have in the congregation, through the very act of covenant and membership, a reason outside yourself to keep going in your spiritual life, to show up again week after week, to not lose yourself in mild complacency, or in the arrogance of thinking you've got it all figured out. This congregation because it isn't just you, keeps you honest, keeps you focused, keeps you working, keeps you challenged and comforted; it questions our private revelations, and it shares it's revelations with us when our own spirit becomes uninspired.

Or at least a congregation can provide those things. As Emerson complained of the institutional Unitarian church in his own time, these benefits of a congregation do not come automatically. If we don't find a nurturing community, or broad diversity, we must ask ourselves what can we do to make this congregation more diverse and nurturing? If we don't experience regular contacting with the transcendent, then what kind of worship can we create that would make that happen? What programs can we offer that will help us learn more of our tradition and more deeply respect the contributions of our religious ancestors? What can we do to make our congregation a more effective laboratory for continued spiritual growth? What are the broad principles this congregation can affirm that will sustain and expand our social justice work?

These ideas of the importance of joining a congregation can help us imagine the congregation we want to be, sustain our own involvement in the forming congregation, and provide incitements to encourage our friends and neighbors to join us.

As we move now into our lives these are the questions that I would like you to take with you:

What is the benefit of joining this congregation that I can't get elsewhere in my life?

What can we do now as we're organizing this congregation to make sure that benefit gets built in to the structural foundations of the congregation?

And what valuable benefit of this congregation can I tell my friends and neighbors about that will encourage them to join us?

Here's the three questions put another way:

What am I searching for in joining this congregation?

How can I help this congregation give me what I'm searching for?

What do I think my friends and neighbors are searching for that this congregation can provide?

Discussion Theme: Why Join Copyright Congregation Unitarian Universalist of Puerto Rico Domestic Non-Profit Corporation #6268

What am I searching for in joining this congregation?

How can I help this congregation give me what I'm searching for?

What are my family, friends and neighbors searching for that this congregation can provide?

Benediction:

If, here, you have found freedom, take it with you into the world. If you have found comfort, go and share it with others. If you have dreamed dreams, help one another, that they may come true! If you have known love, give some back to a bruised and hurting world. Go in peace.

*Closing circle of hands: (Holding hands or link arms as you read the closing words together)

May the truth that sets us free,
And the hope that never dies,
And the love that casts out fear
Be with us now
Until the dayspring breaks,
And the shadows flee away.

Extinguish Chalice:

And now we extinguish our chalice but not:
The warmth of community,
The spirit of gratitude,
Or
The fire of commitment and shared compassion of this community.
The light of hope, hope for change that brings new blessings into our lives and the lives of those around us continues to burn brightly, we carry hope in our hearts until we are together again.

*Hymn:    Go now in Peace     

Go now in Peace, Go now in Peace,
May the Love of God surround you
Everywhere, everywhere, You may go
*

©2001 By Rev. Ricky Hoyt


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