© 1977 Alice Clark
© 1977 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
In the beginning of our study group the more evangelistic members soon found out the perils of talking too much to people not interested in having their religious viewpoints changed. A few unhappy experiences caused us to seek better ways to approach our friends. To this end we began studying the life of Jesus to find out how he did it.
One of the first lessons was that we needed to be very careful about our own reasons; we had to remove ourselves from the focus point. Jesus reached out to people with a positive attitude. Beginning at the level of the person’s understanding he led them gently and lovingly into higher concepts, so that they rejoiced at having been touched and never felt bruised or manipulated.
We found that by using this kind of method we could enter creatively into the church’s activities. We took to heart such lessons as “The Positive Nature of Jesus’ Religion,” and “The Future.” (UB 159:5.1, UB 195:10.1) Inspiration from The URANTIA Book has enabled us to continue our work in the church. We wanted to keep this relationship, which has always meant so much to us, because of our many friends there and because of our own need for a worship center. Even though there may be some limits to the content of our sharing with our church friends there is no limit to the reality of the love and caring that we feel for each other. Life would be so much narrower without this connection.
Some study group members questioned a continuing of such church participation especially in such sacraments as the Eucharist, explaining that they felt like hypocrites. But as we studied this sacrament and its true meaning, we found that we could enter into the spirit of this ceremony knowing that though others might place a slightly different interpretation on it the end result is the same: a deeper dedication of self to God, a recognition and repudiation of our undesirable weaknesses and failures, and a sincere belief in God’s everlasting love.
A really amazing discovery has been to find how far above the general church congregation is the understanding of our church’s (United Methodist) highly educated clergy. Only since finding the teachings of The URANTIA Book have we realized what a spot the clergy is in in trying to change the outmoded beliefs of their congregation. More and more we realize it cannot be done from the top down.
Even so there is hope. With a few progressive lay members, a rightly oriented clergy could begin to make progress. The spirit is there. Out in the field are many sheep looking for the good shepherd. Dedicated workers are needed at all levels, This is not a job for clever manipulators, but for true believers, dedicated to the kingdom of God and the brotherhood of mankind.
—Alice Clark