What the Urantia Community Fears the Most

I belong to almost all of the Urantia organizations but today I represent none of them—only my own personal opinions, formed over nearly fifty years with this revelation.

I write in response to a recent article by Sheila Keene-Lund Is There a Urantia Movement? and especially this sentence from Sheila: “If such people begin creating communities, educational programs, ministries, scholarship, art, service projects, and institutions, perhaps the movement we have been searching for will begin to appear naturally.”

That is true. We have the people. We have the talents and we have the passion. What is missing is the means to do these things. I believe this is what the Urantia community fears most: asking for money to support the people who can do—and are willing to do—the very work Sheila wisely suggests needs done. At the same time, let me acknowledge and salute all the good work that is currently being done for this revelation by people of all ages around the world. 

What does the Urantia community fear the most? From my experience, we are most afraid of asking for the financial means to convert ideas into action. Retired people can often serve without income. Young people raising families cannot. If we truly want the next generation to step up and participate in this revelation, the older generation has to get serious about paying the younger workers an income so they can both serve and survive.

Stewardship, not scarcity

“There is a great difference between wealth which leads to covetousness and selfishness and that which is held and dispensed in the spirit of stewardship by those who have an abundance of this world’s goods, and who so bountifully contribute to the support of those who devote all their energies to the work of the kingdom.”165:4.5

The Foundation has done exceptionally well because a few wealthy benefactors have carried much of their financial load. That pattern will not last forever. None of the other Urantia organizations have that wealthy benefactor to sustain them. 

We all want the communities, ministries, scholarship, art, and institutions Sheila describes. How many of us donate or tithe regularly to our favorite Urantia organization or project so that energetic, young people can do them? How many of us have named a Urantia organization in our estate planning to provide for the future of this revelation?

A spiritual mission still needs material means

Through the years, I have said this many times: We are a spiritual mission but we still need material things to pursue the tasks Christ Michael has entrusted to us. Jesus sent the apostles to fish when they needed funds. They needed money for families, food, and materials for their work. There were seasons when they could travel with no purse because the community was generous. Then came the time he told them to take a purse if they had one.

Here is a simple formula:

Idea + (time + energy + leadership) × money = results.

A great idea needs people with the time, energy, and talent to do it. Funding multiplies what these people can do. No funding equals no result, even for a spiritual mission like ours. A little money generates little results. A lot of money generates big results. Unfortunately, money is the fuel of the public ministry for this revelation and all other projects that serve above the level of individual ministry.

There are three levels of ministry: Private, Personal, and Public. Private ministry is within us, our own personal growth. Personal ministry is from us to others as individuals to individuals. Public ministry is from individuals or groups to other groups. It is our community's public ministry that I am asking all of you to help fund today. 

At the recent Leadership Roundtable, I felt that the elephant in the room was how to fund the work that the many young leaders were sharing. Only a couple of them pointed out that "the emperor has no clothes." They pointed out that they have no money to do what they want to do and are willing to do. They said they could do more if we gave them the money to work with and live on. I could feel the room cringe at the thought of actually asking for money in order to do something valuable. That attitude must change if we want a better and more productive future for this revelation.

No organization survives long-term on an all-volunteer workforce. We have a habit of burning out leaders and volunteers, then wondering why no one steps up for the next project. If we want to take this revelation to the next level, we cannot rely solely on unpaid volunteers. There is a precedent for this in that the Foundation pays translators to do professional translations in a timely manner. We should follow their example if we want to do great things where great things are waiting to be done.

Donations and earned revenue

Most nonprofits spend more time and money raising money than delivering the service they set out to provide. If donations alone cannot support the level of activity we say we want, we have to create other more reliable sources of financial support. 

This reminds me of a fundraising story I once heard. A person walking across a field stumbled upon a gold bar. He looked around and there were gold bars sticking up everywhere. He ran to his family and friends and asked them for the money to buy a shovel to dig the gold bars out of the ground. But nobody wanted to help him. So the treasure lay buried because he couldn't raise the money to buy a shovel.

Early in the life of The Center for Unity, I told our team that donations alone are too volatile and unpredictable. We would eventually need a sustainable revenue stream to supplement donations—a service or product we could offer so our leaders would not spend their time begging friends to fund our public ministry for the fifth epochal revelation. Nobody, no organization, should have to beg support for the greatest treasure any of us has ever known. We at CFU are creating an income generating resource called Spiritual Translations. Our plan is to fund our own work and, if we succeed, we will help fund the efforts of many of you too. 

The Foundation and the Fellowship sell The Urantia Book at a loss, and sometimes even give it away. Free samples and low prices can launch a business but they cannot sustain it or grow it. I have read marketing materials that say that the outside perception of this policy could be that: "If the price is low, the value must be low too." There is a reason why McDonald's prices are less than Outback Steakhouse, for example. A modest cost for a download of the book—say $4.99—would not prevent this revelation from reaching real truth-seekers. This could put real money toward translations and printing. This was a wise and good strategy 71 years ago but maybe it is time to reconsider this approach. This is not a criticism, just a suggestion.

Where the young people are

For nearly fifty years I have heard the same cry: “Why are the young people not involved in this revelation?" or "Where are the young people?” I finally realized the obvious answer: They are out there making a living for their young families. Again, the Leadership Roundtable revealed that there are many young people willing to serve and doing what they can on limited funds left over from family budgets. If we would pay them as full-time workers for this revelation, just imagine all those young leaders who would step forward. And imagine them as parents serving this revelation and how that demonstration of loyalty would impress their children as future leaders. Kind of like a buy-one-get-two-free deal.

My fundraising training is blunt about this. Older generations have the disposable income, and most are facing end-of-life decisions. They may want to leave a legacy with the accumulated wealth that they cannot take with them. If you want funding, ask the elders. If you want to do something, ask the young people. The trick is to connect the two: generate the support from those people of means who can give so that those who have the energy and talent can build and maintain Sheila's list of desirable projects while feeding their family. 

A few practical next steps

Never bring a problem without a solution. My solutions are simple, and they apply to all of us.

Members of the Fellowship: give more to the Fellowship. Members of Urantia Association International: give more to UAI. But these organizations, in turn, must allow and empower young people to let their creative juices flow without the tar baby of committees and administrative approvals. Then pay them reasonably for their time and talents. The Center for Unity does not have members; we have project leaders who we support. We have both the ideas and the talent to get things done. Our approval process is: "Here is what I want to do. What do you all think?" So, we move fast but we also need funds to support younger leaders who can commit time and energy to serving the spiritually hungry people of this world. 

The way a membership organization is supposed to work is that the membership decides what they want to do. They set a budget and the budget is divided by the number of paid members to set the annual membership dues to fund the group’s activities. But when you have no paid members then there is no money to do anything. When I was executive director of UAI, I made this proposal and was told that I was trying to start a riot. Why do our membership organizations not charge dues in order to fund their activities? In my opinion it is because we confuse the kingdom of Heaven with a service organization. In the kingdom of Heaven, all are welcome but in a service organization we need only those willing and able to serve with time, talent, or treasure.

Out of Mo Siegel’s wonderful Leadership Roundtable a few months ago came FER Studios, offering paid services by skilled Urantians. This past month, I needed a video for one of my Urantia songs. I sent the idea to FER. For a reasonable price, and quickly, I had it. This FER group is a gateway for work that is real, useful, and created to help those with many diverse talents to get paid for their valuable work.

The questions that matter

We are all ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom and this revelation. Our personal ministry is to live the teachings that reveal the love of God to others. But educational projects and Sheila's list are a much higher level of service to God and the people of this world. For too long this community has treated fundraising as if it were a contagious disease or some kind of sin against God. Nobody wants to do it and nobody wants to hear it. We need to be done with that. No funding equals no growth but more importantly, no funding equals no service to others. If we do not financially support this revelation, then it will languish until someone else does.

"Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shallnotfail." 196:3.33

This statement by the midwayers was intended to be an encouragement for our efforts, to give hope for our success. It was not intended to be an excuse to put off until tomorrow what we are responsible for doing today.

Let me ask:

What do you want for this revelation?

How do you suggest that we encourage young people to dedicate their time to this revelation?

Then ask the only question that turns dreams and wishes into results:

What can I do to help fund and support the people who want to do the work?

As we are told,"You are hardly worthy of the kingdom when your service consists so largely in an attitude of regretting the past, whining over the present, and vainly hoping for the future" 155:1.3. Let us join together to stop vainly hoping for the future and begin creating it.

Rick Lyon is a longtime student of The Urantia Book. He is a member of the Orvonton Society, GLMUA, and works with The Center for Unity. However, the views expressed here are strictly his own.