I did not feel I had the gift of evangelizing The Urantia Book, or the inclination, but it was a skill I gradually learned. An image I carried in my head, the fire-breathing religionist in his pulpit converting people to the gospel by emotional force and an appeal to fear, made me uncomfortable. When we worked with The Family of God Foundation (FOG) in the 1970’s and 80’s we followed the dictum, “spread the teachings, not the book,” also commended approvingly in the Foundation Trustees Report of 1990 as The Principle of Slow Growth: “Slow growth means the slow, deliberate, person-to-person spread of the teachings of The Urantia Book, without undue fanfare or public attention to The Urantia Book as a book.” http://urantia-book.org/archive/history/doc214.htm. As our friend Paula Thompson pointed out, “Slow growth takes full effort!”

As FOG members, we had followed the slow growth principle for years. We usually didn’t try to enlist new readers of The UB, not publicly, though we promoted the Vern Grimsley radio broadcasts paraphrasing ideas from the book http://truthbook.com/urantia/audio/vern-bennom-grimsley-speeches-and-broadcasts. For a long time since the FOG days, I’ve made it my goal to help others discover their own authentic religious experience. We all tried other methods of ministering without making direct reference to The UB. At times it appeared as wise advice to recommend praying to Jesus for help, but we encountered resistance to such an appeal because it evoked the “old” Christianity, which it certainly resembled. I was more drawn to the description of the Master’s ministry in “As Jesus Passed By (171:7, pg. 1874).”  

“Most of the really important things which Jesus said or did seemed to happen casually, "as he passed by." There was so little of the professional, the well-planned, or the premeditated in the Master's earthly ministry. He dispensed health and scattered happiness naturally and gracefully as he journeyed through life. It was literally true, ‘He went about doing good.’” (171:7.9, pg. 1875)

The UB passage ends with this call, “And it behooves the Master's followers in all ages to learn to minister as "they pass by"—to do unselfish good as they go about their daily duties.” Naturally the learning curve is steep. We may not always succeed, but it is a righteous and noble method of ministry to aspire to!

There is opportunity in every profession to do the work of the kingdom. If a person feels they are incapable of being an on-fire evangelist and preacher for the Urantia Book (The UB), Jesus said "Never forget that, when you are a faith son of God, all upright work of the realm is sacred. Nothing which a son of God does can be common. Do your work, therefore, from this time on, as for God. And when you are through on this world, I have other and better worlds where you shall likewise work for me. And in all of this work, on this world and on other worlds, I will work with you, and my spirit shall dwell within you."  (192:2.13, pg. 2049)

Professor Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) discovered her unique lifework with the National Council of Women of Kenya. "We are called to assist the earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own -- indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty, and wonder." For her work with the Green Belt Movement, planting over 51 million trees in Kenya, http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/, she won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

“But cultural society is no great and beneficent club of inherited privilege into which all men are born with free membership and entire equality. Rather is it an exalted and ever-advancing guild of earth workers, admitting to its ranks only the nobility of those toilers who strive to make the world a better place in which their children and their children's children may live and advance in subsequent ages.” (81:5.3, pg. 906)

Jesus taught a group of his apostles and disciples to “Never forget there is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling than the attempt to discover the will of the living God, and that is the supreme experience of honestly trying to do that divine will. And fail not to remember that the will of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and restrained by fairness—justice.” (155:6.11, pg. 1732)

“No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Using our gifts of story-telling, poetry, and music came naturally to us, my music partner Chappell and I. We saw the use of these gifts as a way of “doing God’s will,” and we embraced this “consecration of our will.” (111:5.5, pg. 1221) Attempts to use story-telling seemed to work best the less the stories referred to an obvious, established spiritual direction, instead giving permission to the listener to follow their own personal religious path. We saw this approach confirmed in the apostles’ discussion about the Parable of the Sower (151:1, pg. 1688). It’s not easy work and we are still on the path, “honestly trying” to achieve excellence, but it is fulfilling and purposeful. And because we seek the spirit’s leadings above and before anything else, it is a sacred path.