Sermon: The Emergent Congregation

Unitarian Society of New Haven
Rev. Megan Lloyd Joiner
April 8, 2018

 

Last Saturday, I was here early in the morning to prepare for the memorial service of Hu Woodard, beloved patriarch of this congregation. I pulled in expecting an empty parking lot.

But there was a car next to the building and as I approached the front door, there was Linda Bray digging in the soil in the planter, a flat of pansies beside her.

 

It struck me that she was a living example of the way so much happens here at USNH, quietly and without fanfare, someone giving what they can, when they can, so as to beautify our communal life.

 

It was a perfect day to get your hands in the dirt. The snow had stopped – for a little while, at least. The sun was out and there was a hint of spring warmth in the air.

 

Linda and I chatted for a few minutes, and then I left her to her work and went in to do mine.

Soon Hu’s family arrived and created a verifiable museum and shrine to their father and grandfather, chronicling his life in photos, posters, protest buttons, WWII medical bags, tee-shirts and much more. The service began and, in word and song, we celebrated his life and marked the loss of yet another member of the Greatest Generation.

 

I realized that day that Hu left so much for us to build upon. Not only is he responsible for co-founding the first Social Justice Committee here at USNH, so many of you have told me stories of the times your lives intersected with this special man, times when he welcomed you to here or urged you to return, times he invited you into his home or encouraged you to live your truth.

 

This community is what it is today because of Hu Woodard and so many others, those who laid the foundation for our individual lives and our life together in this beloved community.

 

Without the richness of what came before, there would be nothing to feed the seeds that we plant today. Without all of us to turn the soil, there would be no place to plant the seedlings that will shelter the next generation.

~

“Emerging ministries” is a trend in the liberal religious world that has taken off in the past few years. Our Unitarian Universalist Association defines emerging ministries as “new groups or projects that are grounded in Unitarian Universalism and bring people together with intention.”[i]

That’s rather broad, isn’t it? These are folks starting new covenantal communities where there is not an existing Unitarian Universalist congregation, millennials in urban centers starting up spiritual communities founded on shared food and singing and even co-op housing.
These are often entrepreneurial ministries built around a charismatic leader – someone who is frequently working without pay or other benefits. These are groups and individuals who believe so strongly in the life-giving and life-transforming possibilities of our shared faith that they strike out with something completely new in the hopes of reaching as many people as possible.

 

The Rev. Dr. Jim Sherblom, a retired minister and recent visiting scholar at Yale Divinity School
distinguishes between “emerging” and “emergent” ministries using the work of theologian Phillis Tickle: Emerging ministries are spearheaded by “those who wish to do something new,
unconstrained by denominational traditions.” “Emergent congregations,” are “those which are trying to bring forth emergence within traditional congregational settings.”[ii]

 

This is us.

We do not want to give up our building or our Sunday morning services. We aren’t ready to do away with the sermon (completely) or our connection to our sibling congregations in the Unitarian Universalist Association. We want to keep religious education for our children.

 

We do want to make space for the life-giving spirit that imbues this community; we do want to make space for more seekers and more finders; we do want to be a vessel for the creative emergence that arises when we gather here in the 21st century – gather to worship, to advocate, to protest, to care, to love one another and our world. We are an “emergent congregation.”

 

Emergent congregations live in a world different from that of our spiritual ancestors in the 19th century, or our more immediate predecessors in the 20th. We no longer live in a modern world.
We have transitioned to the post-modern – whether we like it or not.

 

“Modernity,” Jim Sherblom says, “gives preference to reason over experience, relies upon linear cause and effect, assumes an objective reality that could in theory one day be entirely explained by science, and assumes a preference for independence over interdependence (whether discussing free will, the self, the nature of God, or the functions of human societies).”

 

“Post-modernity,” in contrast, “gives preference to experience over reason, often experiences a non-linear probabilistic environment in which we are co-creators of our subjective reality
(for postmodernism entirely rejects the concept of objective reality), and envisions a deep interdependence of all being as a superior description of reality whether talking about free will, the self, the nature of God, or the functioning of human societies, including our congregations.[iii]

 

“This post-modern divide,” Jim says, “has a deep relevance for how we lead our 21st century American congregations (no matter how comfortable we were with modernity).”

 

How will we respond to the call of a post-modern landscape?
What will emerge from our response?

 

According to a report on how millennials engage spiritual community, “in a qualitative study of 100 teenagers in five major cities, Richard Flory and Donald Miller found that millennials
are not ‘the spiritual consumers of their parents’ generation, rather they are seeking both a deep spiritual experience and a community experience, each of which provides them with meaning in their lives, and is meaningless without the other.’ In other words, when they say they are not looking for a faith community, millennials might mean they are not interested in belonging
to an institution with a religious creed as the threshold. However, they are decidedly looking
for spirituality and community in combination, and feel they can’t lead a meaningful life without it.”[iv]

 

This is good news for us!

 

Those of us who are millennials, are decidedly looking for spirituality and community in combination, and feel we can’t lead a meaningful life without it.

 

Does that resonate with you?

 

The key questions for spiritual seekers in the 21st century have become less about the questions
of the modern quest for alternative religious communities:
What don’t you believe? or What are you not? and are instead: What do you believe? Who are you? What do you stand for? What are you creating? and What are you willing to do to transform yourself, to transform the world?

 

How do you answer these questions?

How will we answer them collectively?

 

I believe that today’s seekers—all of us included—are not looking to clear-cut or establish homesteads. We are looking to plant something new in soil made fertile by the nutrients and nurturing of previous generations. We are bringing sprit-filled seeds that will sprout among old-growth trees. We are bringing emergent ideas and ways of being together that will change congregational life for sure, and will enhance our covenantal community by helping us stay grounded in love, while being open to transformation.

 

We can only make space for what will emerge when we turn the soil together. When we plant seeds, and bulbs and springtime pansies, together. When we honor our past and remain open to our future. When we welcome the seeker, the child, the long-hauler with love and gratitude for the gifts and blessings—the casseroles, the daytime and nighttime hours, the financial and emotional and physical support, the laughter and silliness—all that is offered.

 

We make space for what will emerge when we draw the circle wide and then wider still,
when we make the choice and the commitment to engage, to give what we can, when we can,
to give of our full selves, honestly, openly, as people seeking spiritual sustenance and community in combination, understanding that the two together offer us all deep wellsprings of love, of hope, of faith and of joy.

 

May it be so.

 

[i] https://www.uua.org/growth/emerging

[ii] James Sherblom, “Emergent Sustaining Ministry: Effective leadership of 21st century postmodern American congregations.” Andover Newton Theological School. 3.

[iii] Ibid, 6.

[iv] Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile. “How We Gather,” 2017. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a32a872ace8649fe18ae512/t/5a6f3b9bec212de83ac81b77/1517239214228/How_We_Gather_Digital_4.11.17.pdf