Special Friends of CFU – Zshonette Reed

Special Friends of CFU

Zshonette Reed – Teacher and Leader

By Susan Lyon

From time to time, The Center For Unity is pleased to share the ministry efforts of "Special Friends" with our Behind the Scenes readers. My recent chat with Zshonette Reed was such a pleasure. We want to thank Zshonette for taking time away from her practice to be interviewed, and for her dedication to the revelation and to our beloved Master. We know you'll enjoy her interesting story...

About Zshonette Reed

Zshonette is the administrator, primary writer and teacher for The Christ Experiment and its related ministries. Zshonette graduated from law school 2nd in her class at the age of 43, while raising two pre-teen children, Austin and Erin. She is a civil litigation and real estate litigation attorney, having served 25 years as a civil litigation paralegal in other law firms. In 2004 she established her own law firm, Lorden & Reed, in honor of her father, the late William A. Lorden, who was also an attorney. Zshonette currently lives in Palmdale, California and enjoys her 2 children and 4 grandchildren. Both of her children are readers who have a deep respect for The Urantia Book and Zshonette continues to practice law while she conducts her ministries in her remaining time.

You may have heard of The Christ Experiment's School of Ambassadors training courses, or of their annual attempts to bring together those who value The Urantia Book teachings every April 6th – to encourage everyone to celebrate, honor, and remember the Master as he requested – to partake of the Remembrance Supper, and to rendezvous with his Spirit of Truth as one united global faith family.

Rick and I have both participated in The Christ Experiment courses and learned a great deal from new perspectives on sharing the revelation. We received new insights into understanding the needs of those with whom we want to share these truths. Jesus, being the Master Teacher, employed many skills in sharing truth with others. The Christ Experiment courses help refine those skills in all who want to go forth bravely teaching the religion of Jesus. Zshonette and her partners have created some absolutely lovely videos, and they have a unique perspective and expert understanding of the nuances of sharing the revelation, based upon her previous experience of 20 years with the Watchtower organization as a Jehovah's Witness.

Zshonette left the church in 1996 and began her search for greater understanding. When she told me her story of how she discovered The Urantia Book I was stunned how similar her story was to my own experience back in 1978. She explained that as a Jehovah's Witness, she was already a trained minister but she felt there must be something more waiting for her. She experienced a strong urge or "drive" to go to the bookstore to find "the book." Over the course of about 18 months she and her future husband, Jeff Allen, would read and discuss many books found in the Christian, and New Age sections of their bookstore. Zshonette continued to experience the same "drive" to find something different and authentic, the truth she was in search of. She briefly looked at mysticism and perused the occult section, but had a strong sense that was not for her. She knew these "were not the book" she was looking for. Zshonette's fiance had about given up. One day at the bookstore as she was perusing the titles on the spines of all the books in the New Age section again, (having read most of them), she happened upon the big, blue book, and pulled it from the shelf.

Zshonette said she sat down right there on the floor and after reading the first page of the Foreword, she knew immediately that she had found what she had been looking for, so she called her fiance and told him "this is the book!" Zshonette said from that day, the urge to continue the search disappeared. They had the blessing of exploring the entire book together, and were excited to meet the incredible spiritual people who must believe in it. An online search to learn more about the Urantia community revealed the disappointing fact that we all have human failings, but that did not deter Zshonette from taking to heart the teachings of The Urantia Book, or to respond to the revelators' challenge to "rely solely on Jesus" and begin a new ministry. Zshonette and Jeff Allen both agreed to "just do it."

From 2004 until 2018, Zshonette and her husband tried several avenues to spread the revelation, including Anointed JW, The Christ Experiment, and Faith Sons of God which contains over 130 articles written by Zshonette which are based on the Bible, but enhanced with Urantia Book meanings. As a result, the couple has introduced thousands of new readers to The Urantia Book.

Unfortunately, in early 2018, Zshonette's husband passed, but she continues her ministries with the support of her ministry partners Don Clementin, Andy Wilson, and Janet Wilson. Together they started The Christ Experiment's School of Ambassadors in 2020, Ask Seek and Knock which is an introduction to The Urantia Book, and the Uniting Urantia App to help readers connect with each other.

Following, you'll find details of Zshonette's invitation for all of you – to unite with her in love, remembrance, and appreciation of the Master. Choose sundown in your time zone on April 6th, and for 24 hours let the faith-sons of this planet rendezvous with Jesus as he poignantly asked of his followers just hours before he was arrested. His invitation was for all time.

Send details, pictures and whatever time zone you represent to recap your event, and you might be featured in our April '24 edition! Send them to Susan Lyon, editor of Behind the Scenes newsletter.