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Project Mission: Project 573 will show to our audience who the Nones are, and how they are affecting mid-Missouri at a time when traditional affiliation with religion is declining.
How the churches are responding
Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbia on Shepherd Blvd. has about 280 members, all of whom come from different religious backgrounds – Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, atheist and more. Some still identify with one of these faiths, others don’t. Either way, they are united in affirming the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism:
· The inherent worth and dignity of every person
· Justice, equity and compassion in human relations
· Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregation
· A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
· The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregation
· The goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all
· Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, minister of the UU Church in Columbia, describes Unitarian Universalism as a historically Protestant faith that has moved into a “post-Christian” phase. Her sermons draw from many different religious traditions, as well as from the secular realm – in some services, they sing songs like “Dreaming with a Broken Heart” by John Mayer and “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers.
Housh Gordon has been the minister at the UU Church of Columbia since August. According to Steve Scott, a member of the board of directors of the church, the congregation called her to be their minister after their previous minister retired, because they were trying to bring more energy to the church and attract more young people.
“We have seen some growth since she came, and the great bulk of that is younger people from teenagers, to older teenagers up through their early and older twenties,” he said.
Scott said that many of these young people fall into the category of “spiritual, but not religious.”
“It seems that a large number of those people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious feel a need at some point to seek out an experience that will serve their spiritual needs without the encumbrances that would accompany traditional religion,” he said.
From looking at the analytics for the church’s website, Scott said he knows that many of these new young people are first learning about the church online. He credits Housh Gordon’s efforts at improving the church’s social media presence through Facebook and by maintaining an online presence on her blog, which she updates with her sermons.
But Housh Gordon thinks the most effective way of reaching this new demographic is through excelling as a congregation.
“My belief is that the more that we develop a capacity to help people connect with one another, to help them deepen spiritually and to serve the community, if we do those three things really well, the people who are looking for a community, the spiritual but not religious, will find us, will seek us out,” she said.
by Blake Ursch and Jian Chung, Lee
Video by Lukas Udstuen and James Ayello
Unitarians change Easter into tradition charitable exercise
This Easter, the UU Church of Columbia extended its hand to the community through their annual Easter can hunt. Instead of eggs, the children in the church hunted for food items which were donated to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.
There is currently no concrete plan for how to cater to the recent upswing in the younger spiritual but not religious demographic, but Scott says it is a topic of discussion among church members.
Housh Gordon hopes that those who are looking for a sense of community will find it at the UU Church of Columbia. She says the best way to build a congregation is for people to be so excited about being a member that they invite their friends to come. She hopes this is what happens with the spiritual but not religious.
“I hope we see more of it,” she said.