© 2005 Tom Allen
© 2005 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Thoughts About the Future of our Urantia Community | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Putting the Teachings into Action |
Because I have an avocation of comparing famous quotes with passages from The Urantia Book, it makes sense that I would start out this article with a comparison. I am a Registered Nurse. In the United States, there are approximately 2.7 million nurses. Only 9 percent of these nurses are below the age of 30. There is a very serious nursing shortage right now. This simple statistic portends a severe nursing shortage of even greater and disastrous proportions in the near future because young people are not choosing nursing as a career path.
Even though I have no concrete statistics to back up my intuitions and observations, the Urantia community in the United States is in a comparable crisis. Youth is disappearing from our ranks. In speaking with readers throughout the United States, with few exceptions, all decry the absence of youth in their groups. Last fall, I attended two Urantia conferences. In Kansas City there were two readers under 30 out of nearly one hundred attendees. At the Lone Star Roundup in Texas there was one person under 40 among about thirty attendees. The youngest person on the General Council of The Urantia Book Fellowship is 42. Reasons for the nursing shortage are identifiable and perhaps correctable, but no such rationale or solution for the absence of youth from our midst is certain. In Central and South America, the Urantia communities have a different problem. It is estimated that over 70 percent of the readers there are in their twenties. Do these recent trends portend that The Urantia Book will not flourish in the United States, just as Christianity was not accepted in the land of its origin?
Many are the opinions (ranging from the absurd to the plausible) about why we suffer the drought of youthful participation in our study groups and activities. Have the Angels of the Churches trumped the Angels of Progress and are they promoting more main stream spiritual forms in preparation of the coming mission of the book? Have the internecine battles for power and control within the movement disqualified us from the support of the Most Highs? Has the mission of the Papers been declared in default due to our negligence, malfeasance, and perhaps some celestial missteps? Even though “Caligastia has been comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ.” [UB 53:8.9] has he had enough power to wreak havoc on our revelation? Has the trend of study and personal experience among Urantia Book readers trended toward intellectuality with the relative exclusion of spirituality? Has there been a dearth of leadership that has led to widespread apathy, thus preventing a dynamic and attractive community? Have the youth of our community been consciously or unconsciously excluded from activities to help them promote a loyalty to the book? Have we just flat out failed to come together as community in the mutual support of the greatest contribution any of us can make to the Urantia movement–the nurturance and education of our children? Are we hiding our light under a bushel by failing to recruit new young readers with advertising and active study group promotion? Is the popular assessment correct concerning the present generation of youth known as “twixters” which describes the twenty-somethings as a new breed of young people who won’t or can’t settle down due to decades of American affluence and social liberation? Has the cultural machinery used to turn kids into grownups broken down, preventing young people from having the moral backbone and financial wherewithal to take their rightful places in the adult world? Are adults offering spiritual constipation and moral hypocrisy to our youth who then develop an aversion to our activities and to the book itself? Are we not yielding the fruits of the spirit?
In what Bill Sadler described as a “painful paragraph,” the seventy readers who dedicated themselves to the early study of the book before it was published were severely admonished by celestial overseers about their lack of recognition, enthusiasm, and commitment to the profound gift and importance of the Urantia Papers. Perhaps we still suffer from such a lack of appreciation of what we have and warrant a similar tongue lashing. We still languish in the aftermath of a huge battle that has raged unabated since publication for control over the book and for positions of power and control. It is the children and youth who lose the most in our failures to provide unity and dedicated service to their needs.
Another comparison concerning divorce is telling. A commonly cited statistic about divorce in the United States estimates that about one-half of all children will experience the divorce of their parents. About one-half of these children will experience a second divorce. There are no divorce statistics available in the Urantia community, but from observing family patterns and anecdotal evidence among Urantia Book readers here in Oklahoma and among many readers throughout the United States over the last 32 years, we have equaled or exceeded this statistic. Is there any wonder that so many of the children of readers have fallen away and have no interest in the book or our activities? Even among families who have remained intact, an inexplicable number of children have chosen to forsake active participation in the Urantia community.
I don’t mean to be a Jeremiah in my apocalyptic depictions of the state of affairs due to the paucity of youth. There are no panaceas to overcome these obstacles. Somehow because of circumstances beyond our control or because of our negligence, we are operating an epochal revelation with a huge generational gap at the present time. Of course we should not be discouraged; “human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.” [UB 196:3.33] We also know that “If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master’s program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure.” [UB 195:10.10] If the Christian church fails to espouse the Master’s program, then we must fill the spiritual gap. Are we up to it? Here is what we can do.
First we must realize that the Kingdom of Heaven begins at home. As Urantia Book readers with children our spiritual lives must be exemplary. We have been taught that “Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult associates; precept or even example is not lastingly influential. Loyal persons are growing persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring reality.” [UB 100:1.4] This teaching must become a central quest for those with children at home. We must “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and in finding these, all other things essential to eternal survival shall be secured therewith.” [UB 140:1.5] Fathers and mothers must love each other and make any sacrifice to stay loyal together.
Be fearless in espousing your spiritual beliefs as well as your Urantia Book knowledge with your children. Enjoy at least one common meal with the entire family daily and take some time to remember Jesus. In our family we sometimes merely say a quick “Thank you Jesus,” and other times we do what Jesus asked us to do during his Last Supper—we remember him. We all tell stories that we remember about Jesus. Children are like sponges; they soak up these teachings and remember them, especially when we teach them with conviction and joy.
Tell stories from The Urantia Book to your children. Story telling is a magical thing to children. They truly love it. They beg for more. Story telling takes some work and preparation on our part. We must do our homework. Refresh your knowledge and sequence of stories like Andon and Fonta, Adam and Eve, and Melchizedek. Review Jesus’ parables. Bring the language down to the level of the children with whom you are sharing. Make it exciting and adventurous. Be filled with the passion you feel about these marvelous teachings. We studied the Jesus papers at our Sunday night study group recently, which refreshed my memory about these wonderful stories about Jesus; I then imparted these stories to my kids all week at bedtime and talked about the remarkable feats of courage and faith the Master performed.They know a lot about Jesus and they know the difference between what we believe and what some of their fundamentalist friends are taught. They know not to try to convince their teachers or friends that Fandors could fly two average-sized humans for 500 miles, or that Jesus did not die for our sins.
Pray with your children and guide them with language that is filled with thanksgiving and petitions for spiritual fruit. My kids are following a popular trend and are wearing power bracelets, which have words on them like harmony, peace, hope and love. We go through them and pray that Jesus will empower us with these values. Practice silence at times and encourage them to listen to their inner voice. We pray for others who are in need. Frequently say, “I love you.” My parents always told me they loved me and I believe in the restatement of parental life in the lives of off-spring and to pass down the good values as “artistic triumphs of truth.” [UB 48:6.22]
Provide a faith community for your children. Ideally, this would be a group of Urantia teaching centered families, who could come together once or twice a week to learn, play, and pray together. Group associations strengthen and validate the veracity of what they are learning. If no such Urantia community is near, join a church and the children will thrive on what they learn. Unlearning error may be needed, so choose your community wisely. In Oklahoma we have a monthly meeting designed to nurture our children together. In our kids’ class, we meet on Sunday mornings in various people’s homes. The lesson responsibilities are rotated and the creativity is ennobling. The children perform skits, do arts and crafts, and receive teachings from The Urantia Book in language they can understand We have a pot luck brunch and the kids all share their lessons with us. I wish we could meet weekly, but our numbers are too small to make weekly meetings successful. Our numbers are dwindling.
Family meetings based on the model used by Jesus are a must for any God-centered home. Children understand that justice is a group decision and that they are empowered to help determine their own roles as well as the roles of siblings. Literature abounds about family meetings. Check out Bob Slagle’s book or any number of resources in your local library.
Impress upon your children the need to identify and minister to a cause that is greater than themselves. This can be something as small as sharing toys with others, to working in soup kitchens for the homeless. Children are naturally selfish and need to begin to realize the value of altruism and Jesusonian love. We constantly remind our children to think of others.
You may have noticed that all these suggestions involve what parents as individuals can do for children. How will this help increase youthful readership in the adult world of Urantia Book appreciation and promulgation? Hopefully children raised with the certain principles of spirituality and_ Urantia Book_ knowledge will maintain their faith and their beliefs as they mature into adulthood. The survival of Christianity is primarily due, not to conversion, but to the inculcation of Christian dogma and learning to the young. We, too, can take the benefits of group relationship and solidify the teachings and values we all commonly hold dear.
It is critical that our community put forth efforts to enrich the experiences of our youth and to provide them with the tools of practical spirituality and acceptance so that they will naturally and enthusiastically take our places as disciples of Jesus and The Urantia Book.
Other suggestions to increase readership among the young is to be filled with zeal, enthusiasm, and courage in the promotion of the book in your community and in your daily life. We need leaders who “engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.” [UB 100:6.5] But so few of our communities are blessed with this type of intelligent and attractive leadership. Pray for it and foster it.
Efforts to increase our youth numbers through organizational means have been largely ineffective. But that does not mean that such labors will fail in the future. Promising organizational work by such groups as Innerlife International and the ongoing Family Life programs by The Urantia Book Fellowship must be given every opportunity to bear fruit.
The day will come when we overcome our sluggish presentation of the most beautiful teachings ever given to man. Youth will flock to our revelation. Will that be in our generation, or must we await another age when the encumbrances of error and inexperience give way to the mature Jesus-centered confidence of certainty and action? We must do what we can now and encourage one another to do God’s will as we pray for the extension of the Kingdom as so breathtakingly portrayed in The Urantia Book.
Tom Allen is a long time reader of The Urantia Book and member of The Urantia Book Society of Oklahoma. He lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Karen and their four children, Brendan, Jeremy, Nicholas, and Tristan.
| Thoughts About the Future of our Urantia Community | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Putting the Teachings into Action |