The UU Church-Rockford, IL

9/8/2013 The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Us

9/1/2013 A God as Big as Lake Superior

08-25-2013 This Is Our Covenant

08-18-2013 Go Team, Go!

07-14-2013 Lo, Though I Walk Through The Valley

In a good story, heroes begin with high hopes, but are laid low - by fate, by the gods, by their own errors, by chance. Then, somehow, they come again to life. How, in our own lives and in the lives of our churches, do we walk through the valley of death and come into stronger life?

07-07-2013 Great Expectations

Lillian Daniel said that the evangelism strategy in mainline churches for the last 50 years has been to say "if we expect as little as possible from them, the unchurched will come to us."  This isn't working.  And it isn't honest, and it doesn't lead to the kind of personal and social transformation that we long for.  What would it mean, instead, to have Great Expectations?  To say, yes, everyone is welcome, but the spiritual path we offer is rigorous, demanding, and requires much of you?

Mental Health Break

Mental Health Break

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson-Doyle

Taking a mental health break is about stopping working for a moment, stepping out of the back and forth, and enjoying something interesting, amusing, amazing, and inspiring.  The internet tradition of posting a “mental health break” video once a day can be a good lesson for living all of our lives.

Don't Feed The Trolls

Don’t Feed The Trolls

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson-Doyle

Second in a series of sermons on how the lessons of internet life and the lessons of spirituality intersect.  Online, and off-line, we encounter trolls.  Harsh critics, troublemakers, nasties and bullies.  How do we resist the gravity of negativity?

That Which Holds All

Reflections on pluralism and divinity.  Do all our words, seeking to describe the ultimate, help us understand what cannot be named?  Or do these words get in the way?  How can we speak of sacred power when some of us believe, some don’t, and many are unsure?

Mother Gods Goddesses

Mother Gods and Goddess

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson-Doyle

Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister, caused a stir 170 years ago, when he referred to “Mother and Father God,” but in polytheistic systems, mother gods and goddesses are always part of the pantheon.  We’ll reflect on some of these deities, their stories, and how the fierce, powerful, and generative aspects of divinity can inform our living today.