© 2017 Dr. Bruce Jackson
© 2017 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Urantia Spring | Volume 17, Number 1, 2017 (Summer) — Index | The Temple Of Spiritual Brotherhood and the Greater Meaning Of Study Groups |
What would happen if I were to stand before a covocation of Urantia Book readers and claim that I could lead us out of obscurity and turn our revelation into a new worldwide religion? I am certain that they would politely but quickly show me to the door. Some 200 years ago we would have become Mormons. What has happened?
Since the Twentieth Century the desirability of a “strong leader” has been seriously questioned. In business the top-down management style has been challenged by a flat “customer service” model. This well demonstrated management method respects and values all employees, encourages leadership to rise out of the group, and rewards team effort. Yet even though business schools have long taught the desirability of this approach in MBA classes, there are few academic institutions that actually practice what they preach as the hierarchal top-down micromanagement model remains firmly entrenched in higher education.
The flat management approach appears to better represent the universal model shared in The Urantia Book. “The entire universe is organized and administered on the representative plan. Representative government is the divine ideal of self-government among non-perfect beings.” [UB 45:7.3]
The Heavenly Father envisions our future, then steps aside to enable his sons and daughters living at every level to take responsibility for enacting His will. Though humans may choose to go it alone, the spiritual kingdom facilitates our dedication to do God’s will through the assistance of our Thought Adjusters, our many Unseen Helpers, and the Spirit of Truth.
All human management models fall short of what is revealed in The Urantia Book. In understanding a more spiritual model of leadership and group dynamics, I believe that the music profession provides a useful teaching metaphor. It involves understanding the relationships between conductors, performers, and audiences in an experience of the transformative potential of music.
Because of the visible nature of the symphony conductor it is easy for non-musicians to view conductors as authoritarian controllers of the orchestra. While there are plenty of examples of that, there is a higher model that has the potential to reach greater artistic heights. This spiritual experience of music is the very reason why there is a music profession (as opposed to mere craftsmen entertainers).
There are conductors who eschew the tyranny of top- down control. To understand this we need to back up to the beginning. All musicians, including conductors, require long years of training. Through this time school conductors serve as educators who assume a strong leadership role that enables young pupils to hone their technical skills, develop their cooperative listening abilities, and cultivate their experience of increasingly higher levels of musical expression. Even though conservatory conductor/educators must take charge, it becomes increasingly important for them to release that power as advanced music students develop into soloists, and performers fine tune their musical comprehension.
All musicians must continue to learn and grow. While conductors continue to educate the ensemble, their role significantly changes when working with professionals. Because of long training professional musicians generally understand the experience of music as a transformative force. They know that to reach musical heights there must be a relationship of trust, shared responsibility, and collaborative cooperation if the ensemble is to experience the process necessary to attain high art.
In the professional setting conductors are initially given permission to set the agenda and lead the process of rehearsal. If conductors are herding cats, the art suffers. Therefore, in consultation with the musicians the score is interpreted, changed, and developed into a unique interpretation. Throughout this process the conductor gradually relinquishes power as soloists are given leadership responsibility. As the musical interpretation becomes understood and settled by the players, their different skill sets are empowered to express their best effort for the whole. As the performance nears, the conductor increasingly allows the players to lead together. In the performance itself the master conductor steps aside and is little more than a ballet dancer.
While the conductor and performers have an evolving relationship throughout the practice cycle, performance is a vastly different experience because of the physical presence of the listening audience. If all are spiritually united in the performance, the music may be transformed into worship through the engagement of the Spirit, our Unseen Helpers, and all the Thought Adjusters. This is why high art is such a compelling experience.
There is a vast difference between performance of music as worship and entertainment. In our age this is little understood by many audiences. Many have become ear-dead as they listen incessantly to studio produced music without the encumbrance of a human presence. This has resulted in the audience expectation of familiarity without requiring listening effort.
Music as entertainment is inherently selfish as minds yack endlessly on thereby creating noise that drowns out the spiritual essence. While there is a place for entertainment, musicians have long been troubled by the increasing lack of audience cooperation willing to seek new and unique spiritual experiences. By insisting on hearing only the familiar, audiences resist the challenge of listening at a level that empowers the spiritual transformation of music into worship.
This transformation of music into worship is the responsibility of all the participants. When the conductor becomes a tyrant, he/she places the focus on oneself. When the players become obsessed with mistakes rather than spirit, mistakes multiply and dominate. When an audience demands only to be entertained, the deeper transformative experience is lost in the noise of the human mind. Indeed, what makes music significantly different from sports is that it is a total win-win situation when all endeavor to reach music’s highest experiential potential—the worship of God.
The Urantia movement needs conductors, leaders who are just as willing to step back and relinquish authority as they are willing to assume leadership. Many tyrants have been the “reluctant” leader, but few despots are willing to step aside and allow others to emerge from the ensemble into positions of leadership. We do hope that our movement leaders reject egocentrism, power, and control. We pray that our leaders are centered on the Heavenly Father, live in the presence of the Spirit, willingly cooperate with our Unseen Helpers, and are fully under the guidance of their Thought Adjusters in seeking the Will of God.
While the Urantia movement will always need conductor/educators to train our young and “conservatory” students, and while some may claim that this world is still on spiritual training wheels, we must never limit ourselves into a perpetual cycle of training schools that will only reach a “professional” level deep into some distant future. How will our “students” learn if they are unable to listen to professionals who are able to transform our “music” into worship? Our movement must have its own professional “symphony” that models spirit-led experiences. That ensemble is us.
The Urantia readers need to understand the importance of the orchestral player as well. While we may all be players taking home a paycheck (the benefits of spiritual living), our players must be united in a spiritual goal of achieving music that transforms into worship. To do that we have to coordinate a very wide variety of skill sets without looking down our noses at brothers and sisters who may express their talents in vastly different ways from our own. Indeed, we live in the Age of Diversity.
Each of us needs to understand the process of tuning our commitment into spiritual unity dedicated to the process of cooperative collaboration. As our ensemble strives to achieve a transformative level of music, our Urantia movement must understand the spiritual dynamic of what we are doing. We must all be wholeheartedly committed to doing the will of God as a group. Our unified prayer must ever be “not mine, but Thy will be done.”
In that commitment we must first be centered on the Heavenly Father, thereby actively engaging our Thought Adjusters in our spiritual mission of cooperation and collaboration. As a spiritually united group blessed with a vast array of differing skills and gifts we should request that all our Thought Adjusters share in our work for the world; thus extending our spiritual experience far beyond ourselves. Equally important, we require the presence of the Spirit as that is the glue that binds us. In all our endeavors we should seek the assistance of our Unseen Helpers. Their work will be immeasurably important in the transformation of this world, demonstrating the full engagement of these spiritual forces is vitally important in this modern renaissance age.
Did you notice that I stated that the score will be changed? Though changing the Bible may horrify many Christians, it was the notion that an individual could read the Bible and have a personal understanding and relationship with the “Word of God” that was at the heart of the protestant reformation in the European Renaissance.
The Urantia Book is our score. While any suggestion of changing our precious book might trouble some of us, it is inevitable that our revelation will be interpreted differently by individuals, groups, and organizations. In describing the Fifth Epochal Revelation our authors remind us that “no revelation short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete.” [UB 92:4.9] Even more importantly, after extended practice Jesus sent out the evangelists as follows:
Each of the apostolic teachers taught his own view of the gospel of the kingdom. They made no effort to teach just alike; there was no standardized or dogmatic formulation of theologic doctrines. Though they all taught the same truth, each apostle presented his own personal interpretation of the Master’s teaching. [UB 148:1.2]
Musicians are always changing, modifying, and adapting the scores of the masters to suit the ensemble, audience, and situation. Even so, rest assured that the scores composed by the masters remain true to their spiritual message. The symphony must interpret the score, but they do not compose it.
It is inevitable that differences of expression will happen, and sincere Urantia Book readers must not fear that process we should embrace it. The Melchizedek Director, his midwayer staff, and a vast host of Unseen Helpers will ensure that our revelation will be alive and well long after we are dead and gone.
We must consider the audience attending our performances. Many of us despair that so many modern religious audiences are seeking little more than spiritual entertainment. It is as if musicians are perpetually required to play bad pop tunes in the mall rather than seeking the transformative experience of music. Even so, readers of the revelation need to resist disillusionment by thinking that our performance will only attain the level of entertainment. If we envision our service from the peaks of the mountain, the echoes of that effort will reverberate throughout society.
Finally, Urantia Book readers must always be mindful that the work of the symphony has never been about a single performance. It is about rehearsal then performance, rehearsal then performance, rehearsal then performance, and on and on. It is the repetition of this process that enables conductors, performers, and the audience to learn how to be attuned to the transformation of music into worship.
Even though this musical metaphor suggests how the Urantia movement may transform itself through its focus on the will of God thus inviting the world’s audience to join us in worship, we must ever keep this in mind the truth of this profound revelation:
With the limited range of mortal hearing, you can hardly conceive of morontia melodies. There is even a material range of beautiful sound unrecognized by the human sense of hearing, not to mention the inconceivable scope of morontia and spirit harmony. Spirit melodies are not material sound waves but spirit pulsations received by the spirits of celestial personalities. There is a vastness of range and a soul of expression, as well as a grandeur of execution, associated with the melody of the spheres, that are wholly beyond human comprehension. [UB 44:1.1]
Dr. Bruce Jackson, a reader since 1979, taught college music and humanities for 17 years, and served as a college administrator for 12. He worked with The Spiritual Fellowship Journal for 10 years. A working musician since 1969, he is now retired and focusing on Urantia Book projects and church music.
| Urantia Spring | Volume 17, Number 1, 2017 (Summer) — Index | The Temple Of Spiritual Brotherhood and the Greater Meaning Of Study Groups |