Thursday, June 25 2026
At the Leadership Roundtable hosted by Urantia Foundation in April, The Urantia Book Fellowship's President Sue Snider Seccombe shared the organization’s strategic approach to outreach and vision for the growth of the Urantia movement.
We have enlisted in a global spiritual movement. It can be overwhelming to think about the size and scale of our mission, so we try to break it down into more manageable parts.
Our strategic plan is our roadmap. It gives us direction, and it also gives us discipline to stay focused. We often describe that discipline in three words: learn, share, live. We deepen our understanding of the teachings as fully as we can. We extend them truthfully and compassionately. And we try to embody them in our daily lives, in our communities, and in the ways we serve.
These three pillars are not separate lanes. They are one living path. And this path is how we enact our mission.
To serve effectively, we strive to match the right approach or tools with each audience. The mission field is vast, but it is also very layered. The graphic below begins to identify the broad segments of the population and the massive opportunity ahead of us.
Although billions of people have never seen or heard the word Urantia or heard of the book at all, there are already millions who may have encountered it in some way—through a download, a website, a conversation, or a passing reference. With roughly two million Urantia Books having been sold or downloaded worldwide, the revelation is quietly spreading. And as it spreads, communities are forming – thousands have engaged more deeply through study groups, conferences, communities, and service. In our communities, leaders and organizers emerge, who continuously bring forth new ideas, energy, and vision.
In the past few years, we have systematically started to inventory our many outreach tools to make sure we had resources to support the wide range of needs and questions that arise during a very human spiritual search. One size does not fit all. How do we reach potentially billions with an appetizer, and also the thousands who have the appetite for a full meal?
When we look more closely, we find there are nuances within those many layers, segments within segments. Our task is to recognize where people are and respond wisely. That means listening first. It means paying attention before we teach. It means understanding or sensing when there is receptivity rather than assuming. It means respecting the person in front of us instead of rushing them toward where we think they ought to be.
We have all seen what happens when we do it the other way. We meet someone who shows genuine interest and we get so excited that we share too much too fast. (Guilty!) We try to summarize the whole book in five minutes that turns into 30 minutes. (Guity again!) This can feel like a firehose to the person who just wanted a glass of water. Enthusiasm without discernment can overwhelm the very person we hope to welcome. Effective sharing requires not just passion but pacing.
Some people look at that colorful triangle and believe we should be spending millions of dollars on ad campaigns. A loud voice is not always the right approach. It can draw attention, but what follows needs to be not just an inspiring message but an inspiring experience. The book is critically important, but so are the people who study it, talk about it, and use the teachings as their true north. New readers want to know that this revelation is something they can rely on. Creating attention is not the same as creating trust. And trust is what sustains a movement.
Trust grows when the message is clear, the teaching is credible, and the people carrying it are living reflections of the teachings. Potential new readers can smell hypocrisy a mile away. But what we want them to smell is the aroma of friendliness that emanates from a love-saturated soul. No preaching required.
The experience a new reader has with us and our community (whether in a study group, social media posts and comments, in a zoom event, at a conference, in a conversation) can become more influential in building a sense of belonging than reading about the brotherhood of mankind.
“Your personalities may be refreshingly diverse and markedly different, while your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love may be so unified that all who behold your lives will of a surety take cognizance of this spirit identity and soul unity; they will recognize that you have been with me and have thereby learned, and acceptably, how to do the will of the Father in heaven.” (141:5.2)
“Fostering an exemplary community,” means radical inclusivity. We simply must strive for solidarity under the banner of Michael, regardless of our politics, preferences, or past mistakes.
Three important things contribute to our credibility:
High-quality translations. We can thank Urantia Foundation and the hundreds of translators who have spent years of their lives on this painstaking and soul-satisfying work. The Urantia Book has been translated into 26 languages, obviously drawing forth incredible devotion and commitment from some of the brightest people in nearly every nation on Earth.
Scholarly work and educational rigor. I used to wonder why so many of the articles, essays, and books written by Urantia Book readers felt a bit too deep and intellectual—way above the head of the average person. And although more beginner-level material is now being created, those decades of study and scrutiny (by some pretty smart people) have helped establish a foundation of credibility. It tells sincere seekers that The Urantia Book is not a casual idea someone made up last week. It is a body of teaching that has been poured over, dissected, questioned, and seriously studied prior to its publication and in the 70+ years since. It has passed through a gauntlet of skepticism, emerging whole and untarnished. The truth never suffers from honest examination. It’s the real deal.
Social “proof.” In plain language, that means we have to live it. Not perfectly, because none of us does that. But sincerely. People need to see that the teachings produce something real in us: patience, humility, forgiveness, steadiness, honesty, warmth. If the Revelation teaches us to love, then our relationships should reflect that. If it teaches us to serve, then service should be visible. If it teaches us spiritual reality, then our lives should bear some evidence of it.
That is how our movement will grow over time.
So, at the Fellowship we keep studying our audiences—we are learning from what people click on, what they read, what they return to, and what they ignore. We are learning from social media, from analytics, from conversation, and from the quiet feedback that comes when somebody keeps coming back—or doesn’t. We are learning that the message matters, but so does the way it is received. And often, what keeps someone engaged is not only the content itself, but the experience they have with us.
As the revelation continues to quietly spread, the world will be looking at our community for social proof: that the followers of and believers in the Urantia teachings think differently, believe confidently, and have been spiritually transformed by The Urantia Book. We are not just aware of the Divine within, but we sincerely seek to know and be guided by His will. If this is not evident, we will blend into the faith soup, indistinguishable from everything else…another crayon in the box.
The path ahead for the Fellowship is becoming clearer. We are here to sow seeds. We are here to cultivate interest. We are here to engage people with whatever wisdom and patience we can muster. We are here to help build community where seekers can find their footing. And we are here to encourage leadership so that those who are nourished can, in time, help nourish others.
That is not a linear process. It is a living cycle.
If we can stay faithful to this cycle of regeneration—learning deeply, sharing wisely, living authentically, trusting patiently, and for goodness’ sake, staying off anti-social media (!!)—we will have built a bit more scaffolding for our children and their angels.
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