“The answer to growing a congregation is simple. If you grab people by their heart strings, their minds will follow. It seldom works the other way around.”
— Al, in this comment.
Yet Another Unitarian Universalist
A postmodern heretic's spiritual journey.
“The answer to growing a congregation is simple. If you grab people by their heart strings, their minds will follow. It seldom works the other way around.”
— Al, in this comment.
I love this quote and the comment this quote was taken from. I spent a few years as a UU before I officially became an Episcopalian this year, and this quote hits on one of the many reasons I left. I often heard fellow members of the UU fellowship declare with such pride that they are of people of reason, and that you have to appeal to their brain first before you get to the heart.
I tried really hard to approach the world that way, but it’s just not how I’m wired. And my inability left me feeling not only unwelcome, but also like there was something wrong with me for not being a brain first person. I finally got tired of feeling inadequate and stopped going the fellowship last year. A couple of months later I started going to an Episcopalian church and never felt so welcomed. In this church I found truly friendly people and a place where both heart and brain first people were embraced, where people of different political beliefs came together to form a beautiful and imperfect community, where there was opportunity to explore the good and evil of humanity (both on an individual and larger community levels). In short, I’ve grown a lot since joining the Episcopal church and leaving UU and have never been happier or more completely fulfilled.