Go big, or go home: where do the answers lie?
My earlier post about the state of Unitarian Universalism in 2014 has found an audience I didn't expect, getting shared by UU Planet, I Am UU, and ministers and congregations all over the country. Typically, my blog gets a couple dozen hits a day. It's spiked like never before. The best moment for me was when my congregation shared the story, even though I hadn't told anyone there about it.
The fancy new logo of the Unitarian Universalist Association
The one recurring bit of response: yeah, but what should we do? It's a valid critique, as my piece focuses mostly on the nature and structure of the problem, rather than what solution could be. If I had easy solutions I would have written the Unitarian Universalist Association a letter with them spread out. Instead I cast some thoughts into the void of the Internet and found many people with the same concerns.
While the cliché is that youth will save us, that's not true. Youth are the vessel by which the faith survives in the 21st century. But the people with the lived experience are the grey-haired generation. They have seen UUism go through its previous evolutions, and their perspective will inform the next evolution. Also, the struggles of the faith predate my involvement with it. A dialogue must mix youth voices with those that sat in pews in 2004, 1994, 1984, and 1974. UUism, as a decentralized institution, changes slowly and deliberately. Those that have seen the long arc have much experience that is needed, though they may be too entrenched to fully use it. That's why growth is an exchange between the new, the old, and those in the middle.
One thing I floated, and some congregations may already do this, is the concept of exit interviews. People arriving for the first time fill out information about themselves and how they came to know about the local church. But those that stop going, or go rarely, aren't asked why their habits changed. UUism has low social pressure- members don't try to shame others into attending. That openness should allow us to ask departing members frankly about why the faith wasn't working for them anymore. Only though data can we understand the problem of retention. If you're an active UU member and absolutely love it, it's hard to understand why others don't. There isn't the luxury of perspective.
The options for freethinkers, humanists, and unorthodox believers are growing rapidly. I can't stress how quickly this process is picking up. Sunday Assembly, the new option for 'churchgoing atheists', isn't even a year-and-a-half old. It has three assemblies in the Bay Area where I live. Once upon a time UUism was an oddball, clearly distinct from other gatherings. It was the political and spiritual renegade- endorsing gay equality decades before the issue broached the mainstream. It put scripture, literature, and science on equal footing and used them in conjunction rather than having Sunday service be purely religious.
It's not an oddball anymore. The demographics are shifting. The traditional UU political stances are more mainstream, and humanists and atheists are starting their own alternatives to religious practice. On one hand, the country is moving in a direction where the Seven Principles and Six Sources sounds more reasonable. On the other hand, that movement is spawning other institutions. The political and social sands are shifting, but that doesn't mean thousands of people are falling right into UU congregations.
I don't want to paint Sunday Assembly and its kin as some kind of foe. It looks hella fun, and I hope to get there in the next couple months. But its existence presses Unitarian Universalists to answer key questions: what makes us different? why does UUism need to exist today and in the future? in a 2014 where the church's signature stance on marriage equality is being accepted socially and in the legal system, how do we capitalize when we are on the right side of history? All of these 'competitors' allow for self-reflection. If questions like these can't be answered with conviction and power, then we may be on the path from concern to crisis.
These discussions have electrified me, and many others have been part of this ongoing path towards finding the place of Unitarian Universalism in the second decade of the 21st century. Every congregation is full of incredibly bright and dynamic individuals; in conjunction, they are capable of incredible things.
As I transfer to a campus UU group this fall, and see how young UUs like myself are organizing their action and their thoughts, I hope to gain more of that perspective. Since the church is so diverse, every new UU (or potential UU) can help us answer the key questions: why are you here? why do you stay here?