© 2003 Larry Watkins
© 2003 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
In the Fall and Winter 2002-2003 issue of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal, an editorial once more brought up the recurring question: “Where are the great Urantia Leaders and Teachers?” It’s a question often voiced among Urantians since, in the beginning days of the movement, the future unfoldment of the revelation was thought to have to come through the establishment of thousands of study groups and through trained Urantia teachers instructing the public in Urantian science, religion, history, and philosophy.
Fifty years after the book’s publication there may possibly be just one thousand study groups globally, but no more than several hundred in the U.S.A. The Urantia schools have come and gone and there is no formal training process in place. No wonder the “Where are the great Urantia Leaders and Teachers” question continues to be voiced.
Yet, it can be suggested that Urantians have simply been looking in the wrong places. Rather than creating leaders and teachers, qualified leaders and teachers already exist.
It is understandable how readers of The Urantia Book can feel the pressing need to get the word out about this magnificent book once they’ve grasped its vision. But beyond the zeal of the personal transformations of our own lives, few of us come readily equipped with the skills necessary to interact on a credible professional level with the established community leadership. To do so would require equally as much investment in time, experience, and education as the leaders have had. We can’t practically do much more than hope that such natural leaders will discover the book.
Grassroots influencers of public opinion are often highly trained in their fields, having devoted their lives and careers to hands-on public activities. Radio and TV announcers and newscasters, newspaper and magazine reporters and editors, talk show hosts, public social workers, doctors, teachers, counselors, politicians, the clergy and lay persons of the churches and temples these and many other professionals are frequently the more influential individuals within a community. These people have been educated through years of work and experience to know how best to interact with the public and have usually acquired their positions of influence because of their training, charisma, and dedication to their craft.
On the community level, then, there are already well-qualified leaders and teachers actively involved in doing the work society expects to have done. For Urantians, then, rather than seeking to add another layer to this structure — a layer emphasizing the ideals, goals, and philosophies of the new revelation — Urantians could seek simply to augment that which is already in place. Instead of attempting to articulate the concept of a new epochal revelation to a non-believing public, dedicated Urantians could work to enhance the social programs already in the hands of the present teachers without promoting the book itself.
Examples of such programs that Urantians could augment are:
Many groups already involved in such work operate on a local level, and some work through national parent organizations. Urantians could be involved with either assisting their own local organizations or working to develop nationally acceptable teaching and training materials for the parent organizations.
The leadership within a community, the people in authority with whom the public is already familiar, would remain intact but the focus of their work could be enhanced through the messages they promote; messages often prepared by other individuals and groups anyway, which could begin to reflect more of the goals and concepts of the revelation from Urantians becoming involved locally.
This concept could be promoted by the Urantia Fellowship, but individual readers needn’t wait for that to occur. A study group or a Urantia Society, for example, could take on a mission to create a workshop on angels to be presented to a church group. Members of the Urantia group might present the material, but it could be tailored to be given by any non-UB reading presenter.
So, rather than lamenting what we don’t have, we could begin right now to work with what we do have. The leaders and teachers already exist, they could just use some help.
Larry Watkins has been a student of The Urantia Book since the mid-1970s. He has been an active Urantian, and has worked at various times for Urantia Foundation, Jesusonian Foundation, for The Fellowship, and as an officer for the Golden Gate Circle Society. Larry does web site (see below), image and publications work, and specialty programming such as having assisted Duane Faw format the text of the new Paramony.
Of the 45,285 sentences in The Urantia Book, 41,324 are unique within the first 4 words — 91.25 % of all the sentences in the book begin uniquely. To remember a specific passage, just memorize the first 4 words of the sentence containing it and then search for those 4 words.
This and other statistical observations about the text of The Urantia Book can be found at:
http://www.ubook.org/lwatkins/UBStats/StatisticsIndex.htm