Personal Testimonial – Rick Warren

A Shared Mission

By Rick Warren

For the last year and a half I've been helping to create the Discover Jesus app. This project is only one way The Center For Unity endeavors to present Jesus in a new way. My job is writing brief essays on persons, topics, events, locations, and relationships as they are depicted in Part IV of The Urantia Book.

Other CFU outreach projects include the AskJesus Chatbot, The Jesus Experience, a museum on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Cinematic Jesus (a video series), and The Urantia Book Tutor.

I wrote seven Urantia-based novels before joining the Discover Jesus team. There are about ten of us on the CFU creative writing team. Writing essays is a fascinating process, not unlike writing a chapter of a novel. Is it comprehensive? Is it repetitive or verbose? Does it reflect the essay's title and the facts as they are presented in The Urantia Book? These and other questions frame the creation of the essays.

So far I've written about thirty essays and hope to have seventy done before the end of 2024. There are about 700 in all. The team has around 300 already done. It's a years-long project and always a challenge to make the essays both accurate and interesting. I enjoy writing them and get a feeling of satisfaction when one is ready to turn over to Mike Robinson, the editor who reviews them and inserts the hyperlinks.

I'm 77 years old and I found The Urantia Book about 40 years ago. I work on the essays 15-20 hours per week. It's a real joy to be a team member on this massive project that has other major branches making great progress. It could take decades to complete the ever-expanding vision for The Center For Unity, if ever. There are so many facets to Jesus' life and teachings, and so many ways to present them, with essays, a cinematic series, a museum, and the nearly limitless potentials recently opened up by AI.

I will continue to contribute as long as this body-mind holds out, then watch the process from Mansonia as my younger teammates carry on making the story of the greatest human who ever lived available in more and more interesting ways!

From the CFU website:

The CFU is a collective of Urantia Book students, leaders, and volunteers united by a shared mission: to foster personal relationships with God through the teachings of Jesus.

We believe these teachings offer a practical and accessible path to spiritual connection for all individuals, regardless of their background.

In a world where many feel disconnected from institutional religions, CFU projects present the life and teachings of Jesus in a context that resonates with modern truth-seekers.