First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville

Our first stop was the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville (we have to say, we were intrigued when we saw their acronym for their site is FUUN...must mean good times, right?)

Nathan's View: I had fuun at this church. Upon first entering for the the 8:30 service we were a little concerned due to the number of cars in the parking lot...but quickly realized the majority of the members of this church were members of the "last minute" crew...also know as the "by the skin of my teeth" team. My wife, Ashley, is also a member and seemed to fit in with the depth of breadth of the few of this group. To sum up the Unitarian view it is one of mutual supportiveness (yes I made up a word...welcome to my world!!) as a collective group during your individual walk. I enjoyed the structure...one of the members discussed her walk in Mysticism. This is one where you slow down and take the time to witness the beauty and intense complicated structure of the amazing world around us all. As it turns out...this particular member would lose herself in the awe of the moment and loose all track of space and time...which she admitted was dangerous to do while driving. There was a blind "faith" with no real direction other the belief that it will all be ok. The example that the Mystic speaker gave was she quit her job...bought a house and is trying to sell her old house all during a historic recession. The Mediator, as I call her (she was actually the Reverend and leader of the Unitarian Church) would stand before the group and explain the historical factors and connection to Mysticism which I really appreciated. At the end of the "discussion" I walked away with an interesting point of view. Coming from a Christian foundation, it is easy to look at Mysticism and say it is hocus-pocus devil worshiping hodge-podge. Before we all start judging the Mystics we should remember that other religions...including Christianity, document "Mystic" decisions and encounters. A Christian made a life decision that came from a burning bush...Christians have built boats...taken their only son to the top of the mountain to kill him...and led people through deserts putting other lives at risk of death or starvation, all with direct orders from unverifiable sources called God or inanimate objects which God was hiding in. Furthermore have you ever heard someone say...I really feel God is leading me to do...I prayed about it and really felt God wants me to...I guess there is another lesson I am suppose to be learn from all this. I guess as long as God is the one "telling" you what to do and it is not the awe inspiring power of the world around you it is constituted as faith in God and then we feel all warm and conservative inside. As a shaky Christian and a cynical person myself, I feel that it left this...people are either in left field as Mystics and they have no one to blame but themselves when they fall after they leap or are using God as a reason for their irrational decisions and if it does not go their way either have someone to blame and will end up either confused or angry...I will let you be the judge of which one is healthier. Either way it is irrational...and only is transformed into faith when the "leap of faith" works out in the individuals favor and it ends up with a positive outcome. After all, if it had never rained...would Noah have made the cut in the Bible? I see a good number of similarities in two concepts that I originally considered to be on opposite ends of the gamut. Perhaps when our gut reaction to Mysticism or anything outside our comfort zone for that matter is to label it as a bunch of bull hockey we should stop to consider how similar these concepts are to other...more conservative or socially acceptable beliefs. I have walked away with the realization that first it is important to take the time to stop and listen to the world around you no matter if you do that in a car while in an awe-struck trance or you are deep in prayer. We should take those lessons we get...meditate on them...and take the leap...as an individual. We should get comfort in the hope that no matter what the out come...there is a lesson to learn. Either you knock it out of the park and survive the flood or you are left jobless and homeless wondering what it was all for. At the end of it all...you made the decision...and you learned the lesson.


Ashley's View: I'll try to just add in a few cents off of Nathan's here. I really connected on some levels at this church. We weren't just lost in a crowd and were greeted by almost all of the leaders in the church at various points. Like Nathan said, it really was a place to embrace and support everyone, regardless of their viewpoints. Although I liked the "free love" atmosphere, I wonder how many get overwhelmingly lost in their questions without a definite basis on where they stand. I noticed that one of the classes was "creating your own theology," though, so apparently you can make it concrete in your own head, at least.  This is gray to the ultimate extreme, I'd say. I liked that the church was a small setting, and anticipated a very casual atmosphere. Although everyone was very friendly, there was a level of awkwardness to the service. Maybe it had to do with a lot of people being out of town? Contrary to my assumption, it wasn't full of young hippies--the majority of people there were elderly! That probably had something to do with the lack of outspokenness. I was hoping for a service where members could interject freely...instead, it had awkward silences, and our toddler's chatter didn't exactly put everyone at ease. (Hey, at least I thought it was funny when they asked what praises or prayers people had and Clara loudly exclaimed "there are no more monsters here!" at the perfect timing. No one else commented. Crickets.)
Afterward there was fellowship time, and we told one of the leaders about our quest. She was very intrigued and asked us to come back at the end of it and share our story. I thought that was neat, and was glad to see that she accepted it so warmly. Then again, that seems to be what Unitarians are all about. 

Melissa’s View:
Well, it was FUUN…that’s for sure! We were talking about The Unitarian beliefs in the car that morning and I was under the impression that they all believe the same thing, “that how ever you find your way to God is acceptable”, but it ended up that they all believe something different and this was just simply a location where they all come together. I don’t know if every Sunday is like the one we were there for, but sounds like they pick a different person to speak on their religion each week, so every week you get a snippet of a new religion.
As I was reading the bulletin waiting for the service to start, I noticed the word “God” was mentioned once. Every song (which were very odd), the “sermon”, the stories and there was no mention of God. I really missed God that day!! As the lady was talking about Mysticism, I was like “Where is their hope and direction??” It was just so nonchalant…whatever you feel like doing, do it and Good Luck! I hated that there was no structure to their religions…where do you find answers? If I only got to hear a small portion of a different religion each Sunday, where does more depth, community, and challenging come from? I have to say that I did laughed out loud when the “mystic lady” guided us through a “meditation” by having us close our eyes and find god in everything around us….including the pencil in the pew and the black electrical tape running through the floor!

Overall, I enjoyed visiting and think they really do have big hearts, care for others and want to see good done in the world. Although I didn’t feel comfortable there at all, I found an appreciation for their non-judgmental approach. I liked that we were greeted from start to finish and felt very welcomed…later I said we should have made up some great story about how Ashley was Nate’s 1st wife and they had Clara and I was his 2nd wife and we had Ellie just to see how they received us :)