UUMKE Sunday Service Podcast

Can an ancient sacred story about the infilling of the Holy Spirit be useful to Unitarian Universalists? Without too much discomfort and suspension of disbelief? Without it being too much of a stretch? What if a retelling through a new lens makes all the difference? What if the message of Pentecost really has been applicable all along?

The world and our work in it can sometimes feel hopeless. With music and poetry and inspirational leaders from the past as our guides, let’s explore how to seek child-like joy in present moments; how to embrace joy even in dark hours; and how to be compelled by joy to revolutionize ourselves and the world.

Our consumer choices impact people, earth and other beings in ways we may never know. But we do know that we live in a global village and everything is interconnected. Gandhi recognized those interconnections and the finite resources on earth. He suggested and chose to “live simply so that others may simply live.” For those who are free to choose a simple life, what does it look like and how does...

There is nothing simple about simplicity. It takes practice to resist the wider culture’s values of materialism, status and over-commitment. It takes community to support our endeavors to simplify life, whether that involves letting go of possessions, activities, relationships or lifestyles that obscure what is most important. What is most important? And how do we practice living from that source...

Clearing out the excesses of one’s life can paradoxically create abundance, allowing us to sink in to the deep essentials of human connection, natural beauty, and love. In the closing Sunday of our two-service year, we will gather together to celebrate the simple beauty of life in our traditional multigenerational Flower Communion service. Remember to bring a flower with you to share during the ri...

How would you finish the sentence, Expectations Are…? Are expectations good? Are they bad? Does it depend? (And does any of it matter?) The Rev. Tony Larsen recently retired as minister at Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church in Racine. He has written a book entitled Trust Yourself! You Have the Power (Impact Publishers, 1979), authored a Unitarian Universalist Association curriculum called...

We can use our curiosity as a guiding light in the dark, letting it point us where we need to go in our relationships, our own minds, and out in the world. Children use curiosity to steer them in their daily lives—what can we learn from that wisdom? How might curiosity be a tool for learning, healing, and even conflict management? Join us for this Mother’s Day and Child Dedication Sunday in which...

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice, “now I’m opening out like the largest telescope that ever was!” Our faith is founded on curiosity, and wonder is one of our congregation’s four undergirding values. We use curiosity and wonder as faithful companions in the search for truth and meaning, opening us up like telescopes to new ideas, greater understanding, and more connection with our fellow huma...

We are interconnected to all beings through air and sun, water and earth. We’ve known this for most of the generations of human experience. Urban life and its typical disconnection from nature is fairly recent. This Earth Day Sunday, we’ll explore the benefits of finding wholeness in nature and our responsibility to preserve and maintain access to green spaces, both for our health and the wholenes...

Sometimes our brains work in zeros and ones: I am whole, or I am not whole; this experience is good, or this experience is bad; I am male or I am female. But the truth is sometimes more complicated than that, and involves a journey through unknown territory. Join us on this Easter Sunday where we complicate binaries along with the most complicated binary story in our culture: I was dead, and now I...

Each of us has broken pieces—places in our life where hurt or loss has made a knot in our wood. Sometimes the bark has grown back around these knots, and sometimes they are still tender where the branch has been lost, and we are exposed. Knowing that life will create these broken places, how do learn to feel whole again? Join this service to explore the difference between whole and not whole in li...

Someone once said that being a minister is like being a dog at a whistlers’ convention. I think life is like that for many of us. How do we find a path to wholeness, when so many different demands are calling for attention? We live in a fragmented, distracted and broken world, yet we yearn for wholeness. Paradoxically, acceptance of not being whole can be a path to wholeness.

Not all of our journeys through life are voluntary. Sometimes you get to pick your journey, other times you get to pick your team. When you find yourself on a journey not of your own choosing, who do you surround yourself with? Join us for this service that explores unexpected and uninvited journeys, and how the people who journey with you can help carry you through.

In every hero’s journey, there is tension between the plan and reality, risk and reward. At the outset of a great journey, you know there will be mountains and valleys, mentors and monsters, trials and triumphs. But when we are reading a book or watching a movie, we get to witness the excitement of danger from the safety of our couches. In real life, we might prefer our journeys to be finite and n...

What if the obstacles in front of us aren’t in the way of our lives, but instead are our lives? Speed bumps have their reasons. Getting a flat tire on a road trip becomes part of the trip and a story to tell. Being stuck is not necessarily bad – it’s where the inner journey is most active. If we’re lucky, unexpected waystations appear just in time to shelter us before we move on.

It is common in Scandinavian churches to have a church ship hanging from the ceiling of the sanctuary as a visual representation that the congregation is all in this boat together. Journeying together might take more time and group coordination than going solo, but we can go further with more support. Together, we can pull our oars with greater strength, spell each other when we get tired, and sin...

This year’s youth service is an exploration into the individual identities of the youth group, how they have come to be, and what we are choosing to do with them in our future. This youth service will include the different aspects of who we are, the importance of pronouns and our sexualities, and the journeys we have been on in order to get us where we are at the moment and where we want to go.

As the people of the church today, we are trusted with the future of our faith tomorrow. This future is being created right now through the faith development of our children. We play that role as parents and caregivers; as volunteers and teachers; and we play that role with or without any official connection to the Religious Education program or particular children of this congregation. In faith c...

Stewardship Testimonial: Rollie Hansen, 2019/02/24 by First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee

All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us. Through needing one another, caring for one another, and sharing experiences, we build trust in community. Relationships of trust, particularly communal ones, increase our individual confidence and courage. Join us for this Pledge Drive Kick-off service in which we explore how practice, experience, good housekeeping, and covenant develops...

Stewardship Testimonial: Nick Hayes, 2019-02-17 by First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee

Trust takes a long time to build, and can crumble in an instant. What happens when trust is broken? How and when do we repair relationships, if ever? How do we repair our own hearts? Join us for this service where we explore broken trust and its repair. Let’s explore the connections between trusting self and trusting others.

Is trust earned or is trust given? Or both? If trust is earned, how do we earn it? If trust is given, what conditions must be met to give and receive that gift? Brene Brown says, “When we trust, we are braving connections with others.” But it’s difficult to be brave and trust others, if you don’t trust yourself. Let’s explore the connections between trusting self and trusting others.

Even if that old cliche is true, and “when one door closes another one opens,” it can be hell in the hallways. Leaving an old way behind when the new way has not yet arrived can be painful, lonely, and anxiety-inducing. Join us for this worship service where we explore spiritual practices for surviving hell in the hallways when one possibility is closed down and there is no new one on the horizon.

Possibility shows up when we open ourselves to new ideas, relationships, and experiences. Instead of framing new possibility in terms of fear, we can ask ourselves: what is the best that could happen by trying this? Join us for this Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday where we explore how trying new things could open us up to the best possibilities of connecting across difference.