All Souls Unitarian Church

A crowd isn't belonging. You can sit in the same room for years and still be a stranger. Belonging is being missed, being needed, and giving the room something nobody asked you for. It takes all of us or it doesn't happen at all. In a country loud with platitudes and prejudice, All Souls points to the best in people instead of the worst. It tears down walls, stands against fear, and asks nothing that insults your intelligence or your conscience. Just a place to be fully yourself, with people who are fully there with you. Religion here is for joy, comfort, gratitude, and love. It cares more about human beings than doctrine, and never calls anyone a sinner while knowing how hard everyone is fighting. That's what's waiting for you, and it's yours to help keep. QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: What are you doing with your time, your money, and your energy that makes the world a little better? Knowing your life is limited, how do you want to spend the time in between? Is belonging just a feeling for you, or something you actually show up and do? Are you just passing through, or are you part of this? CHAPTERS: 0:00 Opening Song 1:03 From Kyoto to Tulsa 3:00 Picking Fights With Believers 4:07 Proven Wrong 4:46 A New Way to See God 8:07 God as Energy and Matter 12:49 What Makes Anything Holy? 14:27 Small Acts That Matter 16:33 Why People Join a Church 18:54 Who This Place Is For 20:54 How You Can Help 21:17 We Belong Together 23:47 Closing Song This message, "We Belong Together," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa. SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: /allsoulstulsa Instagram: /allsoulstulsa All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org #AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Belonging #Community

You don't have to be a spiritual person to have a sacred experience. You just have to be the kind of person who feeds the horses even when you don't want to — because the holy stuff doesn't show up for people waiting around for it. It shows up for people doing the unglamorous, thankless work of taking care of something else, on a morning they'd rather have skipped. QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: - What's the unglamorous, thankless thing you keep showing up for anyway? - Have you ever stumbled into something sacred in the middle of an ordinary chore? - Can you hold both the tenderness and the cruelty of nature as equally true? - Who — or what — are you responsible for, whether you feel like it that day or not? CHAPTERS: 0:00 Opening Song 0:53 Growing Up With Animals 1:51 A Morning Fog 2:57 The Horses Are Missing 3:52 A Third Horse Emerges 4:44 Who Blessed Whom 5:19 Animals in Every Culture 6:04 Breath and Spirit 7:25 The Goldfish in the Bowl 8:58 Nature's Tooth and Claw 10:19 Beauty Despite the Cruelty 11:09 Showing Up Every Day 12:57 What Pets Teach Us 13:41 You Don't Need a Pet 14:55 Why We Bless 16:06 Closing Blessing 16:50 Closing Song This message, "Who Blesses Whom?," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa. SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: -Facebook: /allsoulstulsa -Instagram: /allsoulstulsa -All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org #AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #BlessingOfTheAnimals #Animals

What if the real test of a belief has nothing to do with whether it's true and everything to do with what it makes of you? Not whether it's the right religion, the right God, the right set of rules. Whether it makes you more loving or more judgmental. Whether it holds you up on your worst day or only sounds good on your best one. Whether it gives you the courage to be honest, even when honesty costs you something. This message isn't interested in which belief is correct. It's interested in what yours is actually making of you. QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: - Do your beliefs hold you up, or do they only work when things are already going fine? - Do they make you kinder, or more judgmental? - Could you stand by what you believe even if it disappointed someone you love? - Would they get you out of bed on your hardest day? CHAPTERS: 0:00 Opening Song 1:05 Playground Theology 3:04 Kids Explaining All Souls 4:30 One God, All Are Saved 6:45 What Does "Saved" Mean? 8:17 The Cathedral of the World 10:49 Testing What's True 11:31 Throwing Rocks Through Windows 12:52 Strange, But Not My Business 14:37 Love Over Doctrine 15:55 One Source, All Loved 16:59 Beyond What You Believe 19:17 What Your Beliefs Make of You 20:28 Closing Music This message, "Simple Answers to Big Questions," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa. SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarian GIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256 LET'S CONNECT: Facebook: /allsoulstulsa Instagram: /allsoulstulsa All Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org #AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Belief #BigQuestions

The world is dangerous and beautiful at the same time. Most of us only have the bandwidth to notice one — so we either rush past the hard parts, or shrink our whole lives down to avoid them.Writer Annie Dillard warned against exactly that: living an "itsy bitsy" life to dodge how wild and extravagant the world really is. Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk pairs that challenge with the story of Kate Bowler, told at 35 that she had two years to live, and a friend's gentle instruction — don't skip to the end. Kirk connects both ideas to her own experience choosing to live, not wait, through her husband's terminal illness.It's a message about staying present to everything at once: the danger, the beauty, and the people who help you carry both.QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH:- Are you rushing past a hard season, or shrinking yourself to survive it — or both?- Have you ever made an intentional choice about how to live in uncertainty, rather than just enduring it?- Can you hold "this is dangerous" and "this is beautiful" as true at the same time?- What's one place you've been living small to avoid something big?CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Song1:01 A Diagnosis, and a Secret2:48 "Don't Skip to the End"3:00 My Own Threshold4:31 What Is a Threshold?8:02 Coming of Age & New Beginnings9:22 The Fall Equinox11:30 A World on Edge12:33 A Warning Against Shrinking14:55 Turning Cancer Into Art18:02 A Lifeline of Beauty19:53 Present in the Betwixt and Between21:24 You Don't Have to Wait Alone23:22 Measured by Love23:47 Closing SongThis message, "Beauty in a Spot of Danger," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Nicole Kirk at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Grief #Presence

There's a difference between fitting in and belonging — and most of us have spent years mastering the wrong one. Fitting in means changing yourself to be accepted. Belonging means being accepted exactly as you are.This message argues that real community isn't built by people performing that they have it all together. It's built by people willing to show up as their actual, unfiltered selves — and makes the case that doing so isn't a risk to resilience. It's the source of it.QUESTIONS TO SIT WITH: When did you last let someone see you struggling, instead of managing it alone? Is there a difference between the people around you and the people who actually know you? What would change in your life if isolation wasn't the default? Who do you turn to when you can't carry something by yourself? CHAPTERS:0:00 Opening Song1:00 A Man Walks Naked Toward Armed Guards3:24 What This Story Means For Us4:04 David and Goliath6:03 Our Modern-Day Giants8:02 Why Less Armor, Not More9:31 A Funny Recognition Moment11:37 Three Things We Actually Have12:02 What "Covenant" Means13:24 A Ritual of Honesty14:47 Belonging Changes Everything16:32 Fitting In vs. Belonging18:44 The Science of Connection20:44 Why Scars Matter22:44 A Question to Carry With You23:45 Closing SongThis message, "Belonging Changes Everything," was delivered by Rev. Dr. Marlin Lavanhar at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCH OTHER VIDEOS: @allsoulsunitarianGIVE A DONATION TO HELP US SPREAD THIS LOVE BEYOND BELIEF: https://www.allsoulschurch.org/GIVE or text AllSoulsTulsa to 73256LET'S CONNECT:Facebook: /allsoulstulsaInstagram: /allsoulstulsaAll Souls Church Website: https://www.allsoulschurch.org#AllSoulsTulsa #AllSoulsUnitarianChurch #LoveBeyondBelief #Belonging #Vulnerability