Michael Durall

For a while, I tried being a Unitarian. Like so many religions, I found that the basic theology that created the religion had long since faded into the distant past and no longer reflected the practices of the current church.
I liked the original theology as expressed so well in this book, but my experience of the actual church did not match up. Currently, I found the church to not hold the "God as one being" idea at all; most members, at least, don't seem to see that and were, instead, show more atheist. What I found was an organization with no clear theology or dogma, which I liked and probably was searching for, but also with no direction or unifying vision. It obsessed over LGBT issues, becoming one more institution that made LGBT a kind of "other" and total focus of living, rather than seeing it as part of a whole or as simply a part of a person, not their whole being. In other words, LGBT people are also workers, managers, entrepreneurs, surfers, hobbyists, democrats, chefs, and everything else. The theology expressed in this book made a point of stressing that but the actual religious practice lost sight of that idea. show less

This book is 92 pages long and divided into 13 chapters, written by as many individuals. The chapters have such thought provoking titles as: The Satisfaction Business, Why Couldn't I Have Been a Lutheran? Tithing as a Spiritual Practice and Ministry Unleashed! Nine of the authors are active UU ministers. The editor, Michael Durall, authored Creating Congregations of Generous People, Beyond the Collection Plate and The Almost Church. This short book has a lot of punch and is a recommended show more read for clergy as well as lay people. show less

Quoting from the Introduction: "This book contains scores of ideas that will help UU congregations become more influential in their communities and more effective in achieving their hopes and dreams."

Kenneth B. Smith, a noted authority in the area of stewardship, says of this work, that it contains, ". . .practical suggestions, balanced with real-life congregational cases, (which) make (it) compelling." The last chapter presents a practical twelve month process for a stewardship campaign.