WELCOME

TO

UNITY CHURCH OF LAWRENCE!

Unity Church of Lawrence has been the home of positive, practical spirituality serving Lawrence and surrounding communities since 1972. Our Sunday services, weekly classes, workshops, and prayer and study groups are life-enriching, informational, warm, and inspirational. Because we are continuing to grow in membership, our programs and services available to you continue to expand. We invite you to come grow with us. Experience the joy, peace, and supportive atmosphere at Unity!

Founded in 1889, Unity is a worldwide educational and religious organization founded in Kansas City, Missouri. Unity offers a practical philosophy for living and an extremely positive approach to life. Unity seeks to accept the good in people and all of life--unabashedly focusing on and celebrating the "original blessing." Unity has no strict creed or dogma but offers a comprehensive teaching to all who are seeking a deeper understanding of their spiritual nature.

Unity teaches that God is good and God's will for us is good--happiness, health, harmony, and abundance. As children of God, our purpose in life is to express our divine potential. God is seen as having many attributes, the most important of which is that God is Love. Unity stresses that God is Spirit, every where equally present, the one and only Spirit and Power behind, in, and through all things, visible and invisible.

Unity denies the existence of any power or presence opposed to God. It sees that evil behavior and suffering are in the world, but ascribes these to humankind's ignorance and erroneous use of God's laws of life. Humankind, as co-creator of life, is responsible for the misery in the world.

Millions of people have been introduced to Unity through its periodicals, particularly the Daily Word, published at Unity World Headquarters in Missouri. Millions of others are familiar with Unity through its prayer ministry, known as Silent Unity, which has maintained a round-the-clock vigil of prayer for more than 100 years. Thousands of people around the world call the silent prayer ministry each day and receive comfort and prayer support (800-669-7729).

Unity's teachings are founded upon the universal principles of Truth as taught and lived by Jesus Christ. This Truth is continually unfolding and revealing itself and is ultimately understood within the heart of each person. Unity proclaims the divinity of Jesus but goes further and assures that you, too, are a child of God and, therefore, you are divine in nature. Jesus expressed His divine potential and sought to show us how to express ours as well. Salvation is, then, the expanding understanding of one's innate divinity and perfectibility through living the life demonstrated by Jesus.

Unity regards Jesus not as a religious leader but as a master of life--a cosmic figure. At their essence, His teachings are spiritual. They transcend all "religions." Eloquent, yet exquisitely simple, they are profound teachings, highly relevant to our everyday lives. Science is only now beginning to verify the truth of what Jesus said. Jesus’ concepts of the limitless power of the mind, the capacity of love and joy to heal inner (as well as outer) conditions, these and other breakthroughs are now measurable in research laboratories.

Unity explains the mind as your connecting link with God or Divine Mind and shows how the action of your mind affects your body and circumstances. Much emphasis is placed on the effective power that every thought, feeling, word, and act has upon your life.

Unity breaks from tradition in that it has no creed, dogma, or ecclesiastical garb. Unity chooses to believe that there is good in every religion. Different religions are like spokes on a wheel with the hub being God. They may be set apart by a variance of beliefs and approaches, but they are all seeking one God as the hub of all life. Consequently, Unity does not

deny anyone the right to his or her own beliefs.

Unity sees worship as serving God by uplifting and glorifying God's Spirit in humankind in positive, joyous ways. Unity welcomes people of all races, colors, sexual orientations, religions, social backgrounds, and economic levels in dignity and love.

In summation, Unity emphasizes the divine potential within every child of God and teaches that through a practical understanding and application of what Jesus and other master teachers taught every person can realize and express his or her divine potential for a happier, fuller, and more successful life. Unity Church of Lawrence is a joyous, peaceful, and supportive community. When you come to Unity, you will feel right at home. Our spirited congregation is more like a family than a membership. Our Sunday morning Worship and Celebration Service at 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. provide an atmosphere of worship and celebration with soul-touching meditations, uplifting music, and purposeful, inspiring lessons--a great way to start your week!

We have an active Youth and Family Ministry with Children’s Church and Uniteens (ages 11-13) and Youth of Unity (ages 14-18) meeting at 11:00 a.m.

Unity offers classes and prayer and study groups that are informational and life-enriching. We explore such topics as the metaphysics of Christianity, bridging the gaps between science, medicine, religion, and practical methods of prayer and meditation. Come grow with us! Unity will help you come to understand your own uniqueness and your oneness with all of life, so you may realize and express your divine potential for a happier, fuller, and more successful life.

MAY WE PRAY WITH YOU?

Chaplains...hold spiritual space...listen with love...pray with you.

A Chaplain is available to pray with you immediately following the service at the front of the Sanctuary.

Also your written prayer request may be placed in our Prayer Box.

Statement of Diversity

We believe that all people are created with sacred worth. Therefore, we recognize the importance of serving all people within the Unity family in spiritually and emotionally caring ways. We strive for our ministries, publications, and programs to reach out to all who seek Unity support and spiritual growth. It is imperative that our ministries and outreaches be free of discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age, creed religion, national origin, ethnicity, physical disability, or sexual orientation. Our sincere desire is to create spiritually aware community that is nondiscriminatory and supports diversity.

Unity is a way of life…

…founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore more than a century ago. Unity teaches us to love. It means choosing to love in all situations at all times. It means choosing to truly love thy neighbor as thyself. In Unity, we behold God’s Spirit in all people regardless of race, religion, culture or sexual orientation. Unity sees the good in all people and blesses the Divinity in everyone. We give thanks that you are with us and hope you feel you are among friends. We love you, we bless you, we appreciate you, and we honor the Divinity within you!

Unity Church of Lawrence is affiliated with Unity School of Christianity, Lee's Summit, MO, publishers of the Daily Word. We are also a member of the Association of Unity Churches, Lee’s Summit.

History and Philosophy of Unity

Unity was founded in 1889 by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, a couple who lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Both of them had physical challenges. Myrtle had a tubercular condition and had been given only a short time to live, and Charles was in constant pain with a withered leg caused by a childhood accident and inadequate medical treatment. After a great deal of prayer, spiritual research, and study of the religions of the world, they formulated a philosophy based upon spiritual principles as taught by Jesus Christ. They practiced these principles and found that they worked; their lives were changed both physically and spiritually. Others inquired about these principles, applied them to their lives, and they, too, were helped. From a small prayer group meeting in the Fillmore's home during the late 1880s, a movement began that has encircled the globe.

The Fillmore’s believed Jesus taught the presence of God in every person and that God's will for mankind is good. They believed that, as children of God, we are heirs to all that God is and that through prayer and meditation each of us can find God in our own way, at our own pace.

Through the practical application of the spiritual principles as taught by Jesus Christ and as interpreted in the light of modern-day experience, Unity has helped people around the world to live happier, healthier, and more productive lives. Unity is a way of life with no strict dogma or creed.

Unity is non-denominational and welcomes all people. It emphasizes the divine potential within every child of God and seeks to help each person realize and express his or her divine potential for a more fulfilling and successful life.

Unity teaches that your life can be totally transformed as you apply the principles of Truth as taught by Jesus Christ and affirmed by Paul's words, "Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Unity teaches you how to renew your mind and how to get in touch with the indwelling Christ. Unity teaches you how to interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ in the light of modern-day experience and how to apply the principles in a practical way. Unity helps you come to understand your own uniqueness and your oneness with all of life, so you may realize and express your divine potential for a happier, fuller and more successful life.--Rev. Alan Rowbotham

Unity's Distinctive Characteristics

Unity people are invited to study according to their own needs and desires and to participate as they wish in the many services, classes, workshops, and activities at Unity Church of Lawrence.

Our church is conducted on a freewill offering plan. No pledges are required. There is a freedom in Unity that allows the individual to advance spiritually according to his or her own level of understanding. Respect for and faith in the spirit of God in every person makes it unnecessary to have fixed creeds or to impose limiting beliefs. Each individual is encouraged to follow Unity teachings in determining personal responses to social, political, medical, and economic issues and concerns.

Unity sees worship as serving God by uplifting and glorifying God's Spirit (the Christ) in humankind in positive, joyous ways. Unity welcomes people of all races, colors, sexual orientation, religious, social background, and economic levels in dignity and love.

What Unity Teaches about Jesus

A STAR TO FOLLOW

Unity focuses on the teachings of Jesus, on the life-transforming discoveries He made. Why? Because when we study Jesus' life (instead of worshiping Jesus the man), we see a perfect example for us to follow. After all, was there ever anyone more spiritually centered? Was there ever anyone whose words and actions so exuded love? Was there ever anyone more at peace with Himself and with His life than Jesus? That is why His life and teachings are the examples we can learn from in the quest for the transformation of our own lives.

Business students study the lives of great entrepreneurs so they can emulate their successful careers. Actors study other great actors to find more creative techniques. Writers read other great writers to improve their own writing skills. It is only natural that many on a spiritual quest turn to the study of Jesus' life and teachings. Many of these people call themselves Christians, but the word Christian is not important. The object is to reconnect with the divinity within--to find God. The divine relationship between us and God is the only thing that counts.

JESUS THE MAN

So much attention has been paid to Jesus' divinity that we have overlooked His humanity. He was born fully human, just like the rest of us. He was fully a man. He was tested in the same ways that all of us are tested, but He transcended His humanness and opened the way to self-mastery by recognizing His oneness with God.

Evidence seems to suggest that this self-mastery was a progressive unfoldment, always growing, always expanding. One can see it in His reluctance to begin His ministry at the marriage feast at Cana (Jn.2:4), in His working through His anger in the temple (Mt.21:12), and in His initial snub of the Canaanite woman who asked help for her daughter (Mt. 15:22-28). It is apparent that Jesus was always working to identify and experience His own spirituality. His teachings and healings are ample testimony to the continual expansion of His consciousness.

WE CAN DO IT, TOO

Jesus audaciously insisted that whatever He did each of us could do. "He who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do" (Jn.14:12).

That's a crucial statement, absolutely central to your transformation because it tells you that you can experience the same spiritual insights that Jesus had. He is promising you conscious communion with God if you will search the spiritual depths within yourself as He did.

JESUS THE "CHRIST"

Jesus is saying to follow His way and discover the secrets of your inner-Self--the Christ in you--as He discovered the Christ in Himself. Christ is not Jesus' last name. The word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, meaning "the anointed." Christ is a title reserved for anyone who becomes aware of and fully realizes the depths of his or her divine possibilities as Jesus did. Even more importantly, Christ is God individualized in each of us. It is the name of the divinity within us. It is our pattern for perfection. Christ is not the name of someone born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. (That was Jesus.) The Christ is an aspect of God. It has existed since the beginning of time. It is the identification of our highest degree of spiritual potential.

The "real" you is your Christ self--your spirit. Jesus was so aware of this presence of God in Him that He became one with It: "I and the Father are one" (Jn. 10:30), and so we call Him Jesus the Christ or Jesus Christ. He was not God made man. He was man becoming more Godlike.

When we talk about Jesus, we are talking about a soul so highly evolved that He became the perfect example of the God potential in each of us. That is what Jesus was, and is, all about: finding unity with God and thereby discovering the Christ power within. That's what you are all about, too. That is what our journey of spiritual rediscovery is all about.

--From The Quest: A Journey of Spiritual Rediscovery

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MORE ON UNITY TEACHINGS AND BELIEFS

The Place of the Bible in Unity

The Bible is Unity's basic textbook. It is accepted as a body of history, a moral and ethical teaching, and a great literary work. Beyond this, Unity finds deep significance in the Bible through its metaphysical interpretation, wherein names of places and people and their experiences symbolize the unfoldment of human consciousness. Through the study of Unity, the Bible is made more meaningful to individuals as a helpful guide in their lives. We believe that the Bible reveals the spirit of Truth and the word of God. Our final authority is the Holy Spirit working through us.

· Metaphysical lessons lie camouflaged in the characters, events, and symbols of the Bible.

· Beneath the obvious lesson there is always the hidden meaning for you, personally.

· The Bible is the story of your own spiritual unfoldment and growth.

Unity Teachings about Sin and Salvation, Heaven and Hell

Sin is our separation from God in consciousness, caused by our belief in the "devil" or a power other than God, the good. This belief leads to our unwise use of our God-given powers and abilities. Salvation is now--not something that occurs after death but whenever we turn our thoughts (repent) from fear, anxiety, worry, and doubt to thoughts of love, harmony, joy, and peace. The "fall of man" takes place in consciousness whenever we fall into negative habits of thinking.

Heaven and hell are states of consciousness, not geographical locations. We make our own heaven or hell here and now by our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Sin (self imposed nonsense) is error thought caused by our separation from God in consciousness.

· Heaven and hell are states of mind.

· The kingdom of heaven is within you.

· You create your own heaven or hell.

· The anguish of a personal hell can serve to strengthen you if you will let it.

Does Unity believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ?

Yes. Unity teaches that the spirit of God dwelt in Jesus, just as it does within every person and that every person has the potential to express the perfection of Christ, as Jesus did, by being more Christ-like in everyday life.

Does Unity look for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?

Unity understands the Second Coming as the individual expression of the Christ consciousness. This is not an event to be anticipated in the future, but it is happening here and now through prayer, meditation, study, and the application of Truth in our lives.

Does Unity practice Baptism and Communion?

Yes, symbolically. Whereas baptism by water represents the cleansing of the consciousness, spiritual baptism signifies the inflow of the Holy Spirit. No person can truly baptize another; a mental and spiritual process takes place within the individual consciousness. Spiritual communion takes place through prayer, and Unity practices communion by appropriating, or partaking of the spoken word. In Unity services, ritual is de-emphasized, as a general rule, so that full attention may be devoted to the teachings and their practical application.

What is the significance of the Crucifixion?

Unity teaches that the cross symbolizes the crossing out of all false beliefs. Here again, the emphasis is on life and living through resurrection by claiming our oneness with God. Jesus died and resurrected to demonstrate the triumph of spirit over body.

Does Unity accept the virgin birth?

Unity accepts the virgin birth as an experience in the unfoldment of the individual consciousness and finds in it a deep metaphysical significance. The virgin birth is interpreted spiritually as the birth of the Christ consciousness (the awakening of the awareness of God's Spirit within) in the purified soul.

How does Unity regard the Trinity?

Unity interprets the religious terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit metaphysically as three aspects of mind action: mind, idea, and expression--the process through which all manifestation takes place.