Three Elements:
Relating to Each Other and the Larger World

 By

Rev. Robert L. Hill, DE, SWUUC/UUA

The forces working for good in today’s world need every ounce of effectiveness that can be mustered in their behalf. When corporations can patent and own life forms, when suicidal zealots can strike seemingly anywhere and anytime, and when we may be tempted to give up our freedoms in the hope of making ourselves feel more safe, we have cause for worry. I don’t despair, though, for several reasons. One is my belief that our redemptive faith is getting itself into a new orientation to the world, one which may allow us to function with greater effect than we have since the long-ago days when we played significant roles in the very foundations of our country’s democratic system, our public schools, and our agencies of social care. I believe we may be entering a Golden Age of Unitarian Universalism and it could be just in time.

Like the Universalist churches of Texas that flourished during the first third of the last century and then died out, leaving no trace, we Unitarian Universalists have focused too much on argument and too little on community, too much on our own egos and too little on service to others. They were more interested in arguing with their orthodox Christian neighbors than they were in building community and serving the needs of the un-churched non-orthodox. We have counted on our superior rationality to draw in those who needed us. It hasn’t worked. Now we are changing.

I see hope in the gradual and steady changes in our General Assemblies over the last several years. At GA plenary sessions, we hear less pontificating now and more respectful reflections on issues with which we are struggling together. I see in Bill Sinkford’s attitudes and changes at headquarters a stronger awareness of the centrality of the Association’s purpose: to serve our 1,050 or so congregations.

But most encouraging of all is the fact that in about six years, the mere blink of an eye in institutional time, so many of our congregations have taken up and begun a new way of organizing themselves into small groups that ask people to practice listening more than speaking, learning more than teaching. The active promotion of Covenant Groups that began with Glenn Turner and Calvin Dame seems to have been a classic case of the right idea arising at the right time.

The extent to which argumentation is giving way to reflection and active listening is becoming a part of the fabric of our churches as a result of Small Group Ministry programs is something we need to study. Not everything is coming up roses, of course. There’s more depth here than some of our early adopters appear to know. I’ve been aghast to learn that there are covenant-free Covenant Groups. But even with the oh-so-human presence of imperfection in our implementations of this new way of focusing our congregations, it is clear that we are making positive gains in our ability to provide opportunities for the spiritually isolated among us to find attentive communities of ten or fewer persons who’ve (usually) adopted a covenant and have a facilitator who is a direct link to the sponsoring church and its ministry.

Small Group Ministry builds community and in so doing, it serves. Small Group Ministry also asks those in Covenant Groups to serve both their church and the larger world every year, functioning as a group. The empty chair at each meeting is a visual reminder of those in need who are not yet being served. As our groups mature and we begin to have more stories to share about the invigoration and reward of serving others in the larger communities of our congregations, we will become better at serving more widely. Community, service, growth. That is what Small Group Ministry offers.

If we succeed in building and offering deeper communities in order to reach more widely the un-churched non-orthodox folk Paul Ray calls “Cultural Creatives,” if we provide for their needs while giving them a way to work effectively for their deepest values in our neighborhoods and beyond, we will grow. We will cease to be statistically insignificant and we will become more important to our nation and our world. Our voice in the public forum will become more powerful and effective. We will be able to lend a greater weight to the side of justice, equity, peace, and humanitarianism in our communities, our states, and our nation. We will give ourselves a shot at saving the world, ten at a time. Community, service, growth. They’re all interrelated.