THIS PRESENTATION IS a two-part series attempting to define teachers and leaders in the context of the fifth epochal revelation. The concept of teachers and leaders is taken from the instructions contained in the publication mandate from our unseen friends to “prepare teachers and leaders.” This first piece is an attempt to define what it means to be a teacher. In the next issue I will continue this discussion and attempt to illuminate my

understanding of how we can define a leader.

What does it mean to be a teacher?

It appears that a teacher, especially in terms of academics, is associated with expertise. But is this the correct definition of a teacher? Is it correct to define a teacher as an expert? I think there is a reservation among some, myself included, to the notion that there are experts in the study of The Urantia Book. There is a concern that, by establishing individual teachers as experts, we are beginning to create an institutional hierarchy. If we establish a formal program of training teachers associated with this revelation, are we not beginning to create some form of an institutionalized religion?

This is a valid concern, but let us take a step back and consider what it means to be a teacher. I have said that teachers quite often appear to us as being experts in their field, and this is true in many areas of academia But is it possible to be an expert of The Urantia Book which studies the fields of God, his Universe and our experiences in that Universe? First let’s ask the question, what does it mean to be an expert?

Most of the definitions I have found indicate that an expert is one who is experienced or

experienced through training. So to be an expert teacher implies that one has been trained and has experienced many teaching opportunities. But how do we get to this point? How

do we teach even though we have not acquired a significant amount of teaching experience?

Certainly if we are to be teachers, we must practice the art of teaching. We must start from the beginning. That is to say that as teachers we begin as inexperienced experts. By this I mean to say that we begin by teaching what we do know, even though we may know only a few things. So to begin teaching is not an egoistic expression of our superior knowledge, but rather an honest desire to share what we do know with our fellows, with the intention that as we share this knowledge we will grow in the experience of not only teaching but also learning.

So in light of this, let us redefine what it means to be a teacher:

A teacher is one who shares knowledge with another.

A teacher is not a position or rank, nor is it a finalized status of one’s knowledge. A teacher, rather, is simply one who is willing to share his knowledge with another. By virtue of this fact everyone is capable of being a teacher at some level because we all have something that we can share with our fellows - our knowledge and experience. I prefer this definition of a teacher because it removes some of the elitism that sometimes can be associated with teaching.

Who can be a teacher? The answer is anyone who has knowledge or experience to

share with his fellows. For certain there are those who have much more expertise to share than others and for this reason they are in a better position to teach. But even

those who know a few things well are also able to teach. In light of the incompleteness of knowledge, let’s remember that a great teacher should be characterized by humility because such a teacher recognizes that there is always more knowledge and experience to acquire. All the while he is sharing what he does know with others.

It is such commonness and balance that will establish a teacher as approachable to all. Great teachers of religion do not belong in ivory towers but rather amongst the men and women of society. They should be available to all who are willing to learn.

If a teacher recognizes the incompleteness of her knowledge, then she also recognizes that she will always be a student. She recognizes that to become a better teacher she will always be a student of The Urantia Book and, more importantly, will always be a student of God and his Universe.

A great teacher is always a student, willing to learn and discover more, despite his or her accumulation of knowledge and experience. Our view of a teacher ought not to be of one

who is associated with a hierarchical institution, but rather one who is a sojourner on the eternal path to discovering the truth, all the while sharing what he has learned with his fellows. With this in mind let’s once again refine the definition of a teacher.

Let us change the word teacher to the phrase student-teacher and more accurately define what a teacher is:

A teacher is a student-teacher who shares knowledge with others.

The question then becomes - how do we become better students and how is it that we can gain this experience of teaching? Let me ask another question first. What is the source of knowledge and experience? Much of our intellectual knowledge of God and the Universe comes from the revelations of God, the thoughts of man, and the knowledge possessed by our culture. But this knowledge would be of little value to us were it not for the spiritual

influences that grace our minds and our souls. The indwelling spirit of God nurtures, develops, and cultivates our spiritual growth and understanding. It is the driving force for our development, intellectually and spiritually.

Our adjuster is perhaps our greatest source of experiential learning. The spirit of God is our teacher within, and this great teacher does not stand alone but works patiently in

conjunction with the Spirit of the Son and the Infinite Spirit. All of these spiritual forces conspire to teach us and raise our experiential levels of understanding, allowing us a unity of mind which enables us to process this knowledge. A student of religion is partnered with his own personal teachers who guide and direct the student’s mind, if he is so willing to be led by the greatest teaching forces in the universe. There is in man a Divine Teacher that has the potential to partner with his mortal student if he is so willing.

As this definition of a teacher evolves, we see that the concept of the student-teacher

actually has two meanings. Not only can we define the teacher as a perpetual student always acquiring greater depths of knowledge and experience, but also can we recognize the student-teacher as a partnership between God and man where the Father in Heaven eternally labors with his child to further his education. Our Father is the teacher within.

It is this partnership with God that is so essential to the teacher and the student. And it is in this partnership of God and man that I would like to mention the concept of doing the Father’s will.

Why is it that we seek God’s will? Is it perhaps because we recognize that there is a divine way of living our lives? Is it because we recognize that when we are confronted with the opportunity to make choices, we can follow the mortal path of choosing or we can follow the divine path. Our minds dwell in the mind arena of choice, and it would be fitting to recognize that the highest consecration of our choice would be to choose those

decisions that most accurately reflect the Father’s will. By this I mean to say that the choice of the Father’s will is always the choice for those thoughts in our mind that have the highest degree of truth, beauty and goodness.

The term thought adjuster is best comprehended in terms of understanding the Father’s will. What is the thought adjuster? We know it is the fragment of God that guides us

towards perfection. How? By adjusting our thoughts. In the realms of mortal existence we are confronted by decisions of spiritual import. It is then that these gifts of God are so

valuable to us, because at these times of great decision, the Father’s will is always available to us.

Nestled within our minds and our own thoughts is a thought planted by our adjuster and that thought is the Father’s will. It is contingent upon our own choosing and discernment to find God’s thoughts among our own thoughts. But if we reflect back on what we know of God’s nature and personality, we know that He is loving, true, beautiful and good. Therefore, it would follow that if we were to look within our minds and sift through our thoughts, that if we were to find the thought that holds the highest degree of love, truth, beauty and goodness, then that must be the Father’s will.

The human Jesus saw God as being holy, just, and great, as well as being true, beautiful, and good. All these attributes of divinity he focused in his mind as the "will of the Father in heaven." [2087:2]

What is the purpose of seeking the Father’s will when teaching?

Knowledge of God’s will completes the partnership between the mortal student and the Divine Teacher. When a mortal has made the supreme decision to seek God’s will, such a soul has also chosen to be God-like. Such a creature in her life experience has recognized the supreme value in the guidance and direction of her Divine Teacher and has chosen to be divinely taught. If she has recognized this relationship, then she has also recognized the inevitable relationship of teaching and serving.

If a mortal has chosen to be God-like, then she has also chosen to be of service to others as God serves His children. Such is the nature of God. As God serves and ministers to us, then so does the God-knowing mortal - in her attempts to become God-like - choose to serve the Father and minister to His children.

One of the greatest acts of serving and ministering would be the act of teaching. If we are to be of service to God and His children, what greater service could we offer than helping our brothers and sisters find God? And it is just such a technique of serving God and seeking His will that helps us to teach our fellows.

It is hard for me to imagine being of service and teaching my brothers and sisters without the help, guidance and assistance of my Father, for it is He who leads me to my fellows in need, and it is He who teaches me what to say. It is He who helps me learn, and it is He who is helping my serve, minister and teach, I would neither have the students nor the capacity to share my understanding of God and His universe.

Truly, teaching is a process of partnering with God, and it is the process of seeking the Father’s will that facilitates this partnership.

If such a student-teacher has embarked on this path of learning teaching, then in reality what has occurred is that such a teacher has embarked on a training program wherein through personal experience you are taught, where you teach and experience more about God. This program is established by our heavenly Father for us, so that we may learn by experience.

Make no mistake - this is a real program. God can and will train us to become students and teachers if we are so willing. There is no other program available to us that so perfectly ministers to our strengths and weaknesses, so poetically challenges us and prepares us for our Universe adventures.

Such a program is available to all who would seek to serve God and his children and to do His Will. With our consent, God and His Son will train us experientially. And as

such a mortal seeks to grow in the knowledge and experience of God, he will equally seek to share his knowledge and experience with others. For it is true that if we have chosen to seek the Father’s perfection and the choices of his perfect mind, then we will find that we have entered upon the path of service and learning.

And such a program of learning and service entails an eternal career in training, learning, serving and teaching. Such a program requires of us not only the discipline and discernment of the student, but also the wisdom and charity of the teacher. Such is the beautiful relationship wherein the individual mortal partners with God, dedicating his mind to serving God and teaching his fellows, and thus generating a positive force for experiential growth.

In light of this partnership I would like to continue to refine my understanding of what a teacher is.

A teacher is a student-teacher who, in partnership with God, shares his knowledge and experience with others. Now while this definition almost satisfies our understanding

of what a teacher is, there is one more question I must ask.

Does a student-teacher teach exclusively about The Urantia Book?

While it appears that for the purposes of the organizations surrounding The Urantia Book,

our main goal should be to disseminate the teaching of the book, I cannot help but believe that we have an even greater role as teachers. While the work of teaching and sharing this great revelation with our fellows will be the focus our work, I am reminded to think that even more important than sharing the book with our fellows is the duty to share and teach about God. Perhaps I am splitting hairs on this point, but it brings light to the fact that

ultimately our goal is to bring others closer to God.

In many ways The Urantia Book is an invaluable asset to this endeavor. But there are often times when teaching our fellows that we never mention The Urantia Book. Sometimes the revelation as a whole is not palatable for those seeking God, and instead we share those grains of truth that we have extracted from the book. My point is that our efforts to teach and share should not always focus on the book but rather focus on how to bring that individual closer to a relationship with the Heavenly Father.

Let us one last time re-define a teacher:

A teacher is a student-teacher of God who, in partnership with God, shares his knowledge and experience with others. I have chosen the phrase teacher of God as opposed to a teacher of The Urantia Book because our ability to serve our fellows does not end with the book. Above all we are teachers of God fi rst and then teachers of The Urantia Book.

To say otherwise would be to admit that we can provide no spiritual assistance to those who are not interested in the book. But this is untrue because of our knowledge of The Urantia Book, we can be of great service even to those who have no interest in this revelation, yet are still interested in God. In the end our goal should always be to bring our fellows to a personal relationship with the Heavenly Father. If we can lead such

truth-seeking individuals to that Divine Teacher within, then we have done all that is required of us.

This opportunity to teach is available to us all, regardless of our abilities and experience. Teaching is the opportunity for us to gain experience and experience experiential growth.

The Urantia Book tells us that, as we serve throughout the universe, we will always be teaching those who are just below our level of attainment, and such an experience begins now in this life.

Morontia mota tells us that knowledge is only possessed by sharing. And it is true that as we are teaching our fellows, we will also be teaching ourselves. It never ceases to amaze me that, when I ask the Father to help me enlighten my fellows, I learn the most. What can surely be said about teaching is that the benefits are reciprocal - as I teach, I am taught.

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Part 2 of 2

This presentation is the second in a two part series attempting to define teachers and leaders in the context of the fifth epochal revelation. The concept of teachers and leaders is taken from the instructions contained in the publication mandate from our unseen friends to “prepare teachers and leaders.”

In the last ARTICLE I discussed the defining characteristics of a teacher. But teachers need individuals and organizations to support and nurture their pursuit of greater service opportunities.

Individuals and organizations are also needed to support those thousands and thousands of study groups which we have been instructed to foster as well. In light of this need for organization we must define what an organization is and how leaders and individuals can function effectively in pursuit of common ideals. Let us then begin to define a leader and the type of organization leaders need to be effective.

How Do Leaders Function In An Organization?

Leaders do not exist outside of an organization or a group. I suppose it could be said that no leader exists unto himself. For one to lead there must be fellow participants or “followers” who share the same ideals. It appears that most leaders function in and with an organization and in most cases these organizations are institutional in nature.

Oft en the structure of these organizations represents a hierarchy. If you would imagine a triangle with the point at the top and the base at the bottom, you can begin to visualize this type of group structure. In such an organization the leaders function in small

numbers at the top or at the peak of the triangle, while the base represents the much larger body of the group’s members.

This type of organization is energized by leadership and growth coming from the top and projecting downwards toward the bottom. That is to say, growth or the impetus for growth comes from the top down. In many ways this type of an organization is a legacy of humanity’s tribal inheritance. Such an organization reflects a military structure where there are generals and soldiers.

The effectiveness of this organization is the result of a command and subordination relationship where the generals issue orders to be executed by their subordinates—soldiers operating not out of free will but because of a subordinated will. The vast majority of participants in this organization are not independent thinkers but blind faith followers functioning under the penalty of fear or punishment.

It is the old way of organizing, which may be effective for conducting wars, but is largely ineffective for disseminating religious truth. This is especially true in a religious organization where free will is of supreme value and that free will is freely subordinated to the will of God.

The Most Efficient Type of Organization

In spiritual matters this is obviously not the most efficient way to run an organization. How effective can such an organization be when the burden of work falls upon those at the top? How genuine is such a movement when its momentum and velocity is not founded on the majority but on a few individuals? Is there a better way that we can organize collectively and function together, where leadership and growth is coming from within rather than from the leadership above?

There is a more effective type of organization. In reality it is a new organization that has begun to appear in the last fifty years of this planet’s history. Such an organization is known as a “grass roots organization.” This type of organization grows not from the top down but, as the name implies, from the bottom up or from within the hearts of every participant. In this type of group, growth, leadership and momentum come from with in the base of followers as well as from the leaders at the peak.

If you can once again imagine a triangle to represent this organization, but this triangle, unlike the one that represents an institutional organization, is a much flatter triangle, where the peak is much closer to the bottom and the base is much broader and flatter. The shape of this fl at triangle represents the broad-based participation of a grass-roots organization. Unlike an institutional organization, this new type of organization experiences growth upwards and from within the base of its “followers.”

The “followers” in this organization are dependent less on the work of a few individual leaders and instead shoulder the weight of the movement. As a result these “followers” are not really followers at all, but rather active participants within the movement who have taken on the responsibility of leading and guiding themselves.

It is in such a manner that spiritual organizations should function. Spiritual organizations as well as the Urantia organizations should have active involvement at all levels. And the individuals within this type of organization bear the burden of moving the organization

forward and upwards as well as taking on more of the leadership roles for themselves.

In such an organization the participants are required to be self-led. They must recognize their roles as leaders unto themselves.

Where Does True Leadership Come From?

But how does such an organization function effectively? How is leadership coordinated?

If all these participants are taking on the responsibility to lead for themselves, then how is it that we can avoid anarchy? To answer this question we must go back and find the source of leadership. Where does true leadership come from? Whose vision do we seek to guide this revelation and protect it for generations to come?

True leadership comes from within – the indwelling spirit of God. For is it not true that the greatest source of leadership for this movement and for the individuals within the movement is God himself? Whose plans do we wish to implement for this organization -  ours or God’s? If individuals are to function effectively in such an organization, wouldn’t they be required to seek God’s leadership from within?

By seeking God’s plans or God’s will in our own lives we can not only begin to find our individual place and purpose within the organization, but we can also begin to recognize God’s plans for the movement as a whole. This is true of God’s leadership but it is also true of Michael’s leadership. It is dependent on us to depend on them for guidance and direction for us to be an effective, service-minded organization.

To be able to discern these plans for our organization, we must once again return to the technique of seeking the Father’s Will. It is this same technique of recognizing in our own minds the highest consciousness of truth, beauty and goodness that we can begin to recognize God’s Will in our individual lives but also as members within an organization.

Sharing Our Understanding of the Father’s Will

It is by sharing our collective understanding of God’s will that we come to understand the Divine Plan for this movement. It is therefore dependent upon these individuals not only to rely on God’s directions to find their place in the organization but also to help each other achieve a higher understanding of God’s plans for the organization. It is this spiritual sharing that must become a part of our Urantia organization’s culture.

If there are to be leaders, then let those who would be great leaders be great teachers. The greatest contribution a leader can make to a spiritual organization is to teach others to lead themselves - that is, to become divinely led and spiritually liberated. The ultimate goal of these leaders then should be to lead others to God’s divine guidance so that every individual within the organization will understand His Purpose and Plans.

Teach others to share in the joy of work and service through dependence on God. It is through such methods that an organization can function organically. Each follower knows his place and purpose because he has experienced this place and purpose in his own life and in his own experience with God. Each individual becomes motivated at the most basic level, and this motivation allows the individuals to carry the weight of the movement collectively.

The second responsibility of leaders should then be to work towards a collective understanding of God’s Will within the organization. A leader should encourage sharing

and open discussion of our collective understanding of God’s Will. It is through this sharing process that we can begin to understand the Father’s Plan for the movement

as a whole. But it is also through this sharing process that we can begin to eliminate the possibility of human error in our understanding of the Divine Plan.

The mortal mind has the potential for error and, because of this, our understanding of the Father’s Will is prone to error. But the potential for this error can begin to be eliminated when we share our understanding with our fellows. One man may be wrong in his understanding, but the possibility diminishes when two people share their understanding of God’s will. This possibility of error continues to diminish as we continue to share our

understanding in greater numbers.

Let minds dedicated to God work together to understand the plans and purposes for our individual lives and our collective purpose. As Urantia Book readers we acknowledge this fact intellectually but have we succeeded in implementing such a program experientially?

Unity of Purpose

It is by just such a process of sharing that we can have strong assurances that we as an organization are heading on the right path. But it is also by such sharing that we can begin to achieve a unity of purpose that has never existed before on this planet. If there is to be a real unity of purpose, then that unity must be based on the mutual willingness of all to seek and do the Father’s Will. Jesus spoke of this spiritual unity in a response to a question from James Zebedee on page 1591:

“In this way you may experience a perfected unity of spirit purpose and spirit understanding growing out of the mutual consciousness of the identity of each of

your indwelling Paradise spirits; and you may enjoy all of this profound spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and social conduct. Your personalities may be refr eshingly

diverse and markedly diff erent, while your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love may be so unifi ed 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. You can achieve the unity of the service of God even while you render such service in accordance with the technique of your own original endowments of mind,

body, and soul.

“Your spirit unity implies two things, which always will be found to harmonize in the lives of individual believers: First, you are possessed with a common motive for life service; you all desire above everything to do the will of the Father in heaven. Second, you all have a common goal of existence; you all purpose to find the Father in heaven, thereby proving to the universe that you have become like him.” [1591:7—1592:01]

If we can achieve this unity of purpose, if we can collectively seek and share our understanding of the Father’s Will, then we will begin to achieve great things in this organization. If God becomes truly at the center of this organization, there are no limits to our effectiveness, and it is this unity of purpose that will be an engine of growth within our organization. I cannot help but notice that so many of us are motivated by our own faith that we desperately want to do something, but have we discovered collectively what that something is?  

In this joint dedication of hearts and minds we will find individually and collectively

not just something to do, but the right thing to do—that is the will of our Father in Heaven. The great challenge to our readership is to reveal to ourselves and to this planet a new form of organization and a new way of organizing. But this new type of

organization requires involvement at all levels, and such involvement requires the energy and enthusiasm of spirit-led mortals.

Let those who would be leaders lead other to this new reality. Let those who would lead be the champion of God’s vision for this planet and for this organization. Let those who would lead be not the ones who would supplant the programs of their own making upon this movement but rather seek to collectively understand that plan for this organization that has been approved by our Paradise Father.

These ideas, to some, may be idealistic, but there is a vein of practicality that runs through all of these plans.

In the formation of the Brotherhood the revelators instructed Forum members not to over-organize such a group. I believe they instructed us not do this because they foresaw the problems created by forming an institutional hierarchy. Such institutions rapidly become behemoths dependent on large finances, bureaucratic leadership and a membership that is increasingly isolated from that leadership and the associated opportunities for service.

Ultimately I believe they desired the broad-based support of readers in this organization. Just as they objected to one large donor financing the initial publication of the book, so too must they oppose any organizational structure that does not depend on the individual and his relationship with the Father to facilitate change and create momentum.

The true test of leadership is determined by how well a leader can solicit the active involvement of his or her fellows and by encouraging them to seek and grow in our collective understanding of the Father’s Will. A true leader is a visionary, but not in the old way.

This visionary seeks to cultivate our understanding of the Father’s vision for this movement by seeking insights of that vision from the organization’s members and then culminating that vision into a group vision.

Teach and Be Taught. Lead and Be Led.

If I could leave you with some final thoughts on teachers and leaders I cannot emphasize enough that the opportunities to teach or lead are not opportunities reserved for special people. Instead, they are opportunities that are available to all.

To thus serve our fellows is a privilege and a right of all who are willing. But the privilege to teach and lead offers great rewards. For those who are so willing to teach will be taught, and for those who so desire to lead will be led. Such attitudes of service provide the rewards of spiritual growth, intellectual achievement, adjuster identity and love’s realization. And these privileges should be available to all who are willing to work for them.

To be sure, some will be greater teachers than others, and for some, they will become leaders of many. We are all endowed with different talents, and some are more able than others. But to all there is the opportunity to teach and lead in some capacity, large or small.

And so I leave you with these two thoughts:

Teach and be taught.

Lead and be led.