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I don’t see the harm in having a way to show you agree with someone. I’m on a bmx forum and most of the time you’ll get a thumbs up instead of a reply. There will most likely be conversations on here that I’ll read and have nothing to add myself, but I’ll see a post that I’m like, ‘Man! That was well said!’ Instead of clogging up the forum topic with that reply, I could just “like” it. It doesn’t need to be a Thumbs Up/Down system, it could be like the old school facebook, just a like.
Never thought about libraries! That’s a solid idea! I’ve been looking into the idea of “Pop-Up” churches and how mainstream churches are now beginning to do this very thing we are discussing: holding church services outside of the church.
People don’t want to GO to church. It’s just not something we do anymore. It’s not in our social DNA any longer. As a society, we have moved on from the set schedule and are now in the “on demand” era. People don’t rush home to catch their favorite show, they either DVR it or watch it when it’s convenient for them on HULU. Hell, even our stores support this. Stores don’t close anymore. Most are 24 hours if you’re in a fairly big city and you can just go out and grab whatever you want/need whenever you please.
You can see the correlation between stores that close and populations that still go to church. I grew up in the country. Our one store would close at 9pm and most of the town would attend one of the FIVE churches we have there. I graduated with 12 other kids from my town. The idea of 5 churches (all sitting around the town’s central park with an old church and the town hall being the other buildings) in that small of a town is crazy to me!
Now, people can’t be bothered with something that happens at a specific time and they have to go to a certain place to do it. That’s where the pop-up church comes into play. Instead of the people going to you, you go to the people. I’m also looking at the possibilities of bars (specifically bars in bowling allies) as a prime location for the pop-up church.
wow…I’m rambling like crazy right now. What was I talking about?I concur on this. At least as a way to exchange personal info such as social media to communicate outside of the forum without everyone knowing your stuff.
(Would like to see a block function also for those non-abiders out there who might use PMs for being assholes)
I’m meeting with a fellow Dudeist this weekend to chat about getting something “official” up and running. I’ll update with what we discuss, but I’m thinking we would start out as a simple ministry, without a formal meeting space. We would likely meet at coffee shops/parks/public gazebos or shelters/etc. If we gain a substantial, 20-30 person, congregation then we will look into making it more formal and consider calling it a “church”.
Depending on the legality of everything, if we go formal and register as a church, I’d love to be able to call it “The Buffalo Church of the Latter-Day Dude” or just “The Church of the Latter-Day Dude” but I’m also keen on the name “The Buffalo Church of Dudeism” or “The Buffalo Ministry of Dudeism”
All things to be discussed and considered. There’s a lot of strands in ol’ Duder’s head, lot of ins, lot of outs, lot of what-have-yous.I’m loving all of the other religions websites right now! The Universal Life Church has a great article on starting your own church. http://www.ulc.orgtraining/starting-a-church
It sounds like the best option would be to start a “ministry”, going full formal church requires a lot of legal stuff and probably isn’t the best way to start. Simple ministry seems like the way to go. Start small with what will basically be a meet-up group, then if the need arises and growth occurs, look into going 501c3 not for profit / incorporating.
It doesn’t make sense to go through with all the legal hassle to have it fizzle out a few months later.
I’m still researching this. I hope to find a small, non-major denomination church to see what it takes to start.If congregations were to be formalized (right now, my group is basically just a laid back bowling meet-up) what would be discussed? What type of format would the services be? Would it be segmented and regular like a “normal mass” or would it be more of an open forum/discussion with a moderator/priest?
I looked up what a typical UUA service is like and the format could work for a dudeist service (with some tweaks of course)Elements of a typical Unitarian Universalist Sunday morning worship service include:
•Words of welcome
•Lighting a flaming chalice, the symbol of our faith
•A multigenerational segment, such as a “story for all ages”
•Music, both instrumental and vocal and in a variety of styles
•A time for lifting up the joys and concerns of the congregation
•A meditation or prayer
•Readings—ancient or contemporary
•A sermon given by a professional minister, a guest speaker, or a member of the congregation
•An offering, collecting financial donations for the congregation or for justice work in the community.
( https://www.uua.org/beliefs/get-involved/sunday )There is also the weekly Taoism.net meetings that usually start with a welcome, then a reading of a chapter of the Tao De Ching and a discussion/sermon about that chapter.
Thoughts?
I’m going to do some digging and see what it takes to have a true congregation in my area.
I’m liking the idea of congregation building at Lebowskifests. It’s the best chance of seeing like minded folk en masse.
If you’re looking for a fun variation (also happens to be dairy free…)
Swap out the milk/cream/half & half for dark chocolate almond milk. I call it the “Muddy Russian”
Sorry to chime in late, been busy doing nothing. I like both directions this conversation has gone. I like the idea of setting up at local Lebowski Fests to try to build a congregation/meetup group. I also like the idea of getting a table at other local festivals where folks might not know what the Church of Latter-Day Dude is. I feel like county fairs might not be the best place, but hey, those Scientologist folks do it! I’m thinking that setting up at local art festivals would be a prime place to start. In Buffalo, we have a couple outdoor/street festivals that have attendees that would be more likely to sign up and grab a flyer.
I love that this conversation is happening early; before these events happen.
I think this is a great idea! Spread the word directly to the most likely to join demographic when they are all gathered together. I’d be interested in pursuing this as an option in Buffalo.
It just took a while to go through. I think my office has restrictions for internet access and this site trips those up. All my issues come from that and appear to magically fix themselves once my phone is out of the office’s wifi range. Thank you for looking into this though!
JoeyHappy Winter Solstice Holidays Russ!
I’m in Buffalo, NY. It started out as just a couple of my friends and I, then, just from posting on the good ol’ facebook that we were having services and to let me know so I can reserve enough lanes we started to grow a little more. We’re up to about 12 people when most can make it. But the winter and summer are much slower (a lot of the group is still in college and leave the area when on break).
My small “congregation” meets at the local bowling alley. It’s not formal, but I wouldn’t mind running a true congregation…
