Thursday, July 13, 2006

Faithing Lessons

Turtle Mountain comments that s'he does not think it appropriate for a non-creedal faith community to guide a person's faith development, only to encourage it.

This makes the assumption that our faith is like a flower bud, which will unfold in the fullness of time, if just given the encouragement of a little water.

I say that the development of faith is much more like the ability to swim. I suppose that it is possible to learn to swim (or at least to stay alive in the water) on one's own, but the parent who says to the child, "Just jump in. I don't want to guide you, just encourage you," well...it is unthinkable.

Now it is true that everyone has their own style of swimming, their own comfort level in the water, their own favorite strokes. What makes Unitarian Universalism nearly unique amongst western religions is that we enjoy a pool filled with folks who are swimming in their own sweet way and not insisting that everyone do the back stroke and only the back stroke.

But we still have to teach each other some of the basics of swimming, or we're just not doing our job.

We teach lots of strokes, we help people who have previously been afraid to learn to float. We support those who are learning and sometimes rescue those who are sinking.

One of the most important strokes we teach is "pay attention to your own experience, and make sure your world view and faith honor that experience."

We do best at honoring our own experiences if we have been given words to express them, if we feel safe in speaking of them, and if others are talking about their deep experiences, too. Those things don't happen as often as they should, even in clergy-led congregations and often don't happen at all in lay lead congregations. But faithng lessons is the job of a faith community, even a non-creedal one.

5 comments:

Jess said...

This is brilliant, thank you.

I would add the importance of learning to live in covenantal relationship - how not to drown those around you! One can't be simply encouraged to act in affirmation and love; it takes practice and intentionality.

Lively Tradition said...

Turtle Mountain,
I have read the original post and don't see the heavy hand that you seem to be seeing in it.
Ministerial leadership in a non-creedal free church tradition is not a content-less facilitation or encouragement of each individual's exploration. Ministers should have clear theological views and their own grounded approaches to spiritual development. And they should base their ministerial work on those views. What makes a church *non-creedal* is that the individual is free to accept or reject the views and opinions of the minister, not that the minister is restrained from putting them forward.
Of course, there has to be a mutual respect and courtesy in all interactions.

Lilylou said...

As a minister, I take exception to some of what you say, Turtle Mountain. It's true that many fellowships have no minister and that is because they don't want one, which is fine.

But ministers are like teachers in a congregation where they have been asked to serve. We have studied extensively on the topics of religion, Unitarian Universalism, spirituality, history, preaching, ethics, pastoral care, and theology, and our knowledge is offered freely to the congregation we serve. Call that guidance, if you will. It is not "just another opinion"; it is more like a rocket scientist offering an opinion about rockets when asked.

Of course no one can force a person to accept guidance or another's opinion. Few ministers in our tradition force-feed congregants.

And "primus inter pares" is a phrase I have heard many times to describe UU ministers (and other clergy as well). It means "first among equals" and implies that a person has been democratically selected to lead a group of people who are peers but who do not have the special characteristics or knowledge needed to be a skilled leader. So I disagree with your statement about "being more equal than others"; I think you've got it wrong.

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