© 2000 Meredith Sprunger
© 2000 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
The viability of any organization is determined by the effectiveness of its creative leadership. One of the first things creative leaders learn is to multiply their hands and augment their ideas. Not until others are inspired and involved are projects accomplished. All new and advanced ideas and enterprises meet with opposition. Expect trouble. If your vision does not meet with opposition and resistance, you are not working at the growing edge of society, or your undertaking is long overdue. Since solid growth is evolutionary in nature, learn to value and actualize small steps. Incremental development is a necessary operational plan.
A key element in prophetic planning is acquiring pertinent knowledge. There is no substitute for relevant educational experience. And such experience requires hard work and persistence. Initiating advanced social objectives requires years of persistent and intelligent activity. A prophetic objective is always a minority project. It requires finding and organizing the growing one to five percent of society. While these strategies are basic to all innovative growth, they are especially important in initiating a new religious institution.
Starting with a Study Group is ideal training for prophetic leadership. All of the aspects of religious ministry can be initiated in such a small group. In this small fellowship there is an opportunity to make people feel at home and loved. Periodically visiting these people in their homes enables one to get to know them better-especially when there is sickness or traumatic experiences and when they are no longer able to attend the Study Group. A monthly News Letter can keep everybody informed about events in the local and world-wide Urantia movement. Depending on the background and temperament of the group, one can start the meeting with prayer and appropriate forms of worship.
Over the years, I have had many students of The Urantia Book contact me expressing an interest in starting a “Urantia Church” or “Urantia Fellowship.” None of them, to date, has succeeded in actualizing this important step in founding an indigenous religious institution inspired by the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Some day this vision will become a reality — but this is only the beginning!