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The Church of Christ Michael

I arrived at Oklahoma City airport on March 16th 1997. The ministry lasted three months until June 20th, when it was decided that the funding for my salary would be discontinued. My experience of this ministerial period may have no relevance to any other reader on earth, ever. Or, it may have a whole lot to offer. Any person's spiritual experience can only benefit others when God works the others toward himself through that experience. Personally I hope immense spiritual benefit will somehow filter out to the global readership. To that end I am putting down these few thoughts. May they bring blessing. To me, the Urantia Book delivers Jesus Christ to me as a personal father, a brother who walked in the flesh every part a mortal on Earth, a universal mind from whom every person might draw spiritual meaning and social normality, a deity friend, a person in whose being my destiny resides.

The Urantia Book teaches about the personal relationship which can be developed between oneself and one's Adjuster, and oneself and one's creator parents Michael and the Mother Spirit. The Oklahoma ministry delivered me to a relationship where I live in Christ Michael and he lives in me so that we might be one will (180:4.5).

The Oklahoma ministry was my doing of the will of Christ Michael. Doing that will had been rehearsed in the course of ministering at Flagstaff five months earlier. The previous two years had been spent practicing discernment of that will and acting upon it in faith with daily life decisions involving increasing complexity and responsibility. Once prior to commencement, and twice during the three months of ministry in Oklahoma, I had received a "word of knowledge" saying "Ten days after Mary leaves, you will be standing on the road with your suitcase in hand, with nothing." Remembering the visit Jesus received by the friendly Pharisees requesting Jesus to flee because Herod wanted to kill him, I trusted Jesus sufficiently to not question this and make preparations for bailing out but rather to continue with the normal course of events.

I had received another word of knowledge stating that shortly after this came about I would receive an anointing of the grace of Christ himself. It is this grace which is now with me and which prompts me to say, and I repeat myself, the Oklahoma ministry delivered me to a relationship where I live in Christ Michael and he lives in me so that we might be one will. The social difficulty of this kind of ministry resides in the inevitable difficulties arising in the minds of people who may have no inclination toward wanting to live in Christ or have him live in them.

Although we share the same father, things familiar to Christians remain elusive to Urantia Book readers.

It appeared to me that people were disbelieving, fearful, suffering from a once bitten twice shy syndrome. Quite understandably some appeared to me to be afraid of being lured into false beliefs…some people seemed to think I was a herald of the channeling movement called the Teaching Mission whom, under their previous leadership, they had previously denounced with some vigor. I was not and never will be a representative of that movement, but their judgement strangled the potentials of our fellowship and it never blossomed. Most people, it seemed to me, feared having to make a financial commitment. For the entire time I was ministering I never once solicited money for my various pastoral services, and I never took up or received any offerings. It seemed to me that people wanted all the benefits of a spiritual community but none of the time or financial commitments.

Tithing is an acceptable form of securing pastoral benefits among Christian, Buddhist, Jewish and other communities. Urantian communities make tithing out of the question. But without regular financial contributions, a spiritual community cannot form and cannot enjoy worship and can of course never fund a dedicated minister. The community of readers suffers and is spiritually impoverished because of a lack of appreciation for the fact that God will set aside a person through whom He will minister to the flock. To date, it seems to me, many of the readers think that they, as "Jacks of all trades", are the best source of spiritual supply to the remaining community. But they are not set aside. They are not called to minister. They are not dedicated and consecrated by the community. They are not regularly prayed over by the community, so that the community can derive spiritual blessing through the works of that Godly person. But they could be. God does call individuals to be ministers. Those who are called experience this. Also, the setting aside of spiritual ministers, and promoting community financial support was ordained and practiced by Jesus, Michael of Nebadon. It is a social pattern in the fellowship of believers, the kingdom, and Urantia communities would be wise to place the setting aside of dedicated ministers, of either gender, uppermost on their agendas.

It became apparent that financial support from believers for ministerial works which were devoted to their own welfare was not and would not be forth coming. In three months, the Church of Christ Michael received two separate donations. A single donation of $5 and a donation of several pots of Christmas Lilies was received, and these from two non-readers…people who saw Jesus being held high and who believed in him enough to give. It seemed to me that other people showed their resentment of what they thought was an affront to their leadership…despite their actual lack of a spiritually productive leadership, and the fact that I was sufficiently transparent to be obviously not seeking leadership's followers but rather siblingship. I had three fairly clearly ear-marked goals with the Oklahoma ministry. All three of them have equal weight and are three aspects of the same desire.

Firstly, I wanted to do Michael's will to his satisfaction…I wanted to provide him with a focussed and dedicated opportunity to personally act for the benefit of the dissemination of the teachings of the Urantia Book and for the benefit of his own children, the readership.

Secondly, I wanted to serve the spread of the Urantia Book as it is the fifth epochal revelation… serving and being at the disposal of those heavenly hosts who are ministering its spread much as ministering hosts were attached to the ministry of Melchizedek and Adam and Eve and the Dalamatia missionaries…by attracting new readers to the book by means of providing a spiritual witness. To that end, four people were attracted to that spiritual witness and each obtained a copy of the book…three in Colorado and one in Oklahoma City.

Thirdly, I wanted to serve the existing Urantia Book readership where I could by introducing spirituality in the form of authentic realization of the fatherhood of Christ Michael…by works in his name which were motivated by contact with his spirituality. And this was successful ministerially. A person claims she was healed of a chronic sleeplessness and medication problem; a marriage was restored by fiat of its spiritual footing created; a woman with cancer claimed she received almost immediate relief; a Christian couple found renewed direction in Jesus and incentive to go back into church life and give more of themselves to others; a couple were married in a Urantia Book ceremony and by a licensed Urantia Book minister; a couple of long term and burned out gifted and diligent ministers of Urantia Book spirituality received healing and rejuvenation; an out of work and homeless truck driver had a new set of glasses paid for so that he again could work. In church, the truth of Jesus' gospel was preached and the fatherhood of God was spiritually presented. The communion of the wine and bread was celebrated among people who loved the Urantia Book and loved Jesus. In church, every effort was made to teach the children according to the word of the Urantia book and Jesus' gospel. These were works inspired by Jesus and we did our best to develop forms for adequate spiritual expression in a seemingly godless world where life is incredibly cheap and expendable.

What is the spirituality of the Urantia Book? To know the Father through knowing Christ Michael is the spirituality of the Urantia Book. To know his heart and the goodness of his character. That, I believe, is the spirituality which the Urantia Book brings afresh to us. And, whilst the next and great gift in the Urantia Book is the interwoven cosmology, history and theology which adds the greatest possible beauty and divinity to Christ, the personal benefit to each individual and that which Jesus himself longed to convey to each individual of his own day, will on Earth ever be the personal transformation which comes by being made into the character likeness of Christ Michael himself. To live his goodness and make it our own. To trust in his gospel. To actually love and not hate. To actually forgive and not seek revenge. To become preoccupied with the desire to give of oneself so that the daily decisions are actually able to be as Christ-like and Father-like as possible. To actually heal the sick, comfort the oppressed and liberate the spiritual captives and to do all this not because you know how to but because your Christ-likeness is so compelling within you that you naturally do it as you pass by.

Can you imagine what a blessing that opportunity was to me? I was given three months to be an apostle for Jesus to actually achieve those three goals, to perfection. And they were achieved. The price was high of course. But, if a person is to seek and find Christ, we all should know that the price is high. I believe that a number of Urantia Book readers have paid high personal prices for the benefit of others. If the Urantia Book is to become more than a sleeping seed to be awakened in the life of a Moses a thousand years from now, just as was Melchizedek's ministry in its day, then more readers will emerge who will want to pay the top end of prices.

The price is not high for most readers. The price is almost non-existent to intellectually speculate upon finding Christ. The study groups I have attended comprise people who don't want to pay much of a personal price at all. They don't even want to get rid of their drugs and tobacco and clean up their ethics. And of course there is no spiritual life present. Judgmental or not, one leaves that kind of study group more hungry for the spirit than when one arrived. Jesus paid the highest price and if anyone wants to experience actual spirituality they sooner or later must pay an all-or-nothing high price and actually give of themselves, and their property, not just their words. Then with a passion they will strive to be clean and abide in him (180:2.1) and more than that, the personal ministry of Christ Michael will bring that cleanness and that abiding within reach. As a result of this apostolic period of ministry, I now read the words of Jesus and the narration of ministerial realities in the Urantia Book with an utterly different understanding and empathy. There is a knowing of Jesus Christ and a being known by him which is just precious. I will leave this world forever grateful to have had the opportunity to minister Christ Michael, on my native planet, in the context of the most up to date epochal revelation, and to have experienced perfection of ministry. It's something that is written in your soul with so much of the heart beat of your own Michael and local universe father that it can not be removed. What a victory! And I am thrilled that it is mine. I gave it everything I could, my life even if I had to, and I won it. What did I win? I won the presence of Christ Michael in me. I won the ability to do the will of Michael my universe father. We sealed our love for each other…my love for my universe creator father and for my universe creator mother, and their love for their mortal son.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20-22, Paul speaks of his relationship with Christ Michael, the author and finisher of his faith and of course his local universe father. He says: "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

With my whole being I can do nothing but agree with Paul as he says "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." These, for me, indicate the consciousness of sonship with our beloved Christ Michael. This is a consciousness of spiritual destiny, for Jesus is the God of Nebadon and the perfect representative of both the Father and the Son. Personal growth is growth of identity, and the life of the person from first birth here on Urantia until completing the Local Universe potentials and graduating at the hand of Michael of Nebadon, is growth in Michael's personal spirituality.

This is a spirituality which can be experienced here on Urantia and ought to be actively sought in the pursuit of spiritual and personal growth. This was the message of my ministry in Oklahoma, received by a few who profited enormously, rejected by most, yet the blessing of outcomes in the father-son relationship are undeniable: "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

The Oklahoma ministry was attacked by people who a lack of familiarity with certain aspects of Christianity, and who lack prayerfulness in spirit and a healthy worship life. The Urantia Book is most attractive when it is spiritually productive. The source of that kind of productivity is prayer and worship. I pray that if you have read this favorably, you will consider taking it upon yourself to nurture a prayerfulness, and out of your prayerfulness to pray diligently and in spirit for the raising up of a minister among you through whom Christ Michael (the hearer and response to our prayers) will minister to you, in exactly the same way you set aside the naturopath, the masseuse, the teacher and the farmer.

The ministry ended abruptly as an Oklahoma City based project on June 20, 1997.

Rob Crickett Melbourne August 1, 1997

Some E-mail exchange regarding Rob's departure

From: J. R.
To: UrantiaL@WWW.Urantia.ORG
Subject: Word from Rob Crickett
Date: Thursday, July 31, 1997 1:35 PM

Hello all,

With Rob Crickett´s permission I am forwarding some of our private correspondence to UrantiaL:

Rob: It is so very nice to catch up with you again and I thank you for your recent post.

J.R.: I have wanted to write you for some time now as I noticed that you left Oklahoma about the time when the copyright ruling in favour of the Foundation came, and therefore I suppose there is a connection there, which is understandable. The situation within the Urantia movement is very regrettable indeed.

Rob: I left Oklahoma because the funding for my salary was withdrawn. The copyright ruling had been publicly disclosed two days prior to the decision about my ministerial funding however copyright ownership played no direct part in my departure. I have found the issues facing a minister of the gospel to be quite distinct from those facing publishers of that same gospel. I received communication from ministers and would-be ministers of the gospel in favour of my efforts for Christ. I personally received nothing from the Foundation to indicate the trustees had a view on my ministry one way or the other.

J.R.: I had high hopes for your retreat type of a church based on the UB revelation and still think that would be the right development for the movement, if anything is going to come out of it. Do you see any possiblities for developing this line of action in some other settings or circumstances, even if the copyright stays with the Foundation? If at all possible I would like to be part of such a development, rather than going back to a purely Christian orientation where the theology now seems so outdated, even if the faith is right.

Rob: I agree with you that it would be the right development. Whilst the philosopher may well be fascinated with the ideas in the Urantia Book, it is inevitable that the believer who is spiritually led will minister Christ Michael our universe Father and establish relevant forms of worship and teaching. Whilst it may be sufficient for the philosopher to believe *in* Jesus Christ and to discuss that and related matters, it is insufficient for the spiritually led believer to do anything less than to believe the person Jesus Christ. Herein lies a distinction for believers to discern. For when once one believes what Jesus says in the Urantia Book, and desires by faith to resolutely act on it, Christ Michael will repeat it personally and with his empowering *Life* in the heart and soul. The result of that faith birth in one's spirit is utterly magnificent.

I have found nothing on earth and nothing in human experience to compare with the thrilling assurance of having faith in Jesus' words in the Urantia Book and the subsequent meeting with Christ Michael the person and then, as if that wasn't enough, engaging a ministerial position in him just as he prescribes in 180:2.1-2 "You must abide in me..." and 180:1.4 "You have not chosen me..." Jesus has an on-going ministry in this world which is evident in Christianity, if not yet in Urantianism. It is inevitable that Urantia Book believers other than me will also experience what it is like to be spiritually led by Christ Michael. It thrills me to consider the joy that awaits a portion of the readership as they one by one come to exhaust Christianity and be led by Christ to manifest the fifth revelation's potentials.

Christ Michael is known by whole hearted worship. If the spirit of worship does not activate the hearts of Urantia Book believers and thereby enable the worshipers to become spirit led and capable of knowing Christ and ministering the spirit and producing the fruit of the spirit, then the Urantia Book will at best only produce a fringe group of philosophers and speculators--Urantians who do not directly know their own universe Father, Christ Michael--whilst Christians will continue to evolve the knowledge of him. I place my hope for the development of spirit led worshippers in the fact of the Urantia Book being a revelation of epochal standing and the destiny of the Bible, and in the spiritual potentials which reside in the person of Christ Michael the father of our spiritual potentials in this universe of Nebadon. Michael does contain the possibilities of our spiritual destiny. If anyone at all will dare to have faith in Christ Michael and believe the words of Jesus in a way that they are "personally from him for me today", then His spiritual life becomes real in oneself and the spirit led Urantia Book believer becomes a spiritual reality on this earth. This is our destiny, whether here on Urantia or on the Mansion Worlds. How wonderful a promise resides in him for us!

J.R.: Hope all is well with you. Your comments and advice on UrantiaL and in our correspondence last year have been a great solace to me, and a heart felt blessing. Is there a hope that you will be back on some list?

Rob: I shall give it some thought, J. Regardless, I love private mail. I have no objection if you post this on the list, J., if you think there might be others who are interested in this little bit of news.

Love to you, Rob Crickett