Disruption In the Religious Marketplace

How the Fillmores Grew Unity

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This post is not yet completed. Expected published date is Jan 26, 2025.

January 26, 2025

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15. Disruption In the Religious Marketplace

The previous insight was about how churches can garner enough religious commitment to be effective. The following insight is about how to use that commitment to be efficient. I believe that low efficiency is the primary cause of minister burnout and the gradual decline of any particular church.

Let’s start by considering the enormous size and power of the Roman Catholic Church, the pervasive influence of evangelical churches and Evangelicals in our society, and the vast number of mainline Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran churches. Look at the size of their buildings, the inventory of their books, the reach of their websites, and the skills of their ministers. Why would someone choose your Unity Spiritual Center over their church?

Finally, let’s consider how it was that Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, with no education, no credentials, no building, no staff, no money, and no ministerial training, were able, in less than forty years, to establish a worldwide following of (arguably) millions of people and hundreds of Unity centers throughout North America.

To answer our questions, let’s look at how Southwest Airlines overcame the enormous size and power of other airlines to become what it is today. The answer for you, as it was for Charles and Myrtle Fillmore and as it was for Southwest Airlines, is disruption.

What is disruption of a marketplace?

The late Harvard professor Clayton Christensen wrote a series of business books (The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution) explaining how companies such as Southwest Airlines have overcome the immense advantage of larger competitors. His explanation put forth the theory of disruption. Southwest Airlines did not succeed by direct competition but by disrupting the marketplace. Similarly, online retailers like Amazon have disrupted many marketplaces, most notably booksellers.

The theory of disruption begins with recognizing that a significant number of consumers are not served or are underserved in any given marketplace. Disruption is a way to strip down or simplify an offering so that it becomes affordable or accessible to those who are underserved, even though the offering itself is not as desirable as what is available from the existing providers.

These offerings are typically products that are less expensive, easier to use, or more readily available (requiring less money, education, or time). In other words, they are more efficient in delivering benefits than other providers, even though they may be less effective in satisfaction.

Fortunately, Christensen and his collaborators have applied the theory of disruption to services as well as products. Religious organizations provide services. If we wish to understand how the digital age has changed religion, we can look to the theory of disruption applied to service markets for an explanation.

I have adopted the findings of “The Five Qualities of Catalytic Innovators” in Disruptive Innovation for Social Change¹ by Christiansen and his collaborators. I have applied them to ministries and religious movements. Here are five conditions in which I believe religious movements will emerge, flourish, and change the existing religious marketplace.² They are the unserved flock, the simplified message, the viral ministry, the spiritual drive, and the condemnation by incumbents:

1. The Unserved Flock.

A social group exists with identifiable religious needs that are unserved by incumbent providers (churches and their ministers).

Ministry as administrative consciousness and skills begins with a consciousness of who is not being served. We have many examples from the first three chapters of The Household of Faith by James Dillet Freeman that show how Charles and Myrtle focused on the unserved flock³:

• Persistent illness (Charles): “He sought for a religion that would heal.” The predominant theme of the story of Unity is that established churches did not serve those in need of physical healing. (Myrtle): “In the meantime, Myrtle underwent a spell of severe sickness... now, when the family had its hardest financial struggle, tuberculosis returned more virulently than ever.”
• Uncertain salvation: “They were overcomers through faith.” This implies that the “faith versus works” problem had not been resolved. How does one know if they are saved? Max Weber said that Calvinists believed that the saved would show signs of prospering. This passage indicates that the sign of being saved was overcoming lower states of consciousness.
• Crude culture: “his childhood was ‘romantic but crude and unprofitable.’” This passage indicates that frontier religion was inadequate to satisfy the need of educated people.
• Religious fear: “Her religious training was strict.” Evangelical Methodism swept across the country from 1800-1850. Its message was one of fear, and many people who came to Unity declared they were “escaping Methodism.”
• Economic instability: “A period of depression now set in the affairs of the Fillmores. The failure of the mine was followed shortly by the collapse of the real-estate boom in Kansas City. Charles Fillmore and his family were left with no financial resources at all and were actually in debt."

In formulating our strategy, Unity leaders should always ask the following questions: What is the social group (unserved flock) that may be attracted to the Unity movement? What are their religious needs? Who are the "incumbent providers" (churches and their ministers), and why are they unable to provide for the religious needs of the flock? How does Unity satisfy those needs? What are the alternatives?⁴

2. The Simplified Message.

An opportunity exists to simplify the delivery of religious benefits and thereby make them available to those with limited money, education, or time.

Having identified who is not presently being served, Unity leaders then need to determine how the Unity movement and its teachings can fill the unmet needs of people. Chapters four, five, and six of The Household of Faith show how the Fillmores’ simplified the Christian message:⁵

• Simplicity of Myrtle Fillmore speaking to the life centers in her body: “I went to all the life centers in my body and spoke words of Truth to them — words of strength and power. I asked their forgiveness for the foolish, ignorant course that I had pursued in the past when I had condemned them and called them weak, inefficient, and diseased.”
• Simplicity of Charles Fillmore sitting in the silence every night: “I then commenced sitting in the silence every night at a certain hour and tried to get in touch with God. There was no enthusiasm about it; no soul desire, but a cold calculating business method.”
• Limiting the ministry to publishing: “he decided to publish a magazine.” (refused to become a “sect”).
• Simplicity of ritual: “These columns are open to teachers and healers who advocate and practice Pure Mind Healing only. They were not to found a new religion but were to work within the framework of existing religions and appeal to church members without causing them to divorce themselves from their church.”
• Limiting alternative offerings: “we do have qualms of conscience when we give place to alluring bids for healing patronage that smack loudly of patent medicine methods.”
• Simplicity of the Prayer of Faith: “For years, this prayer-poem has been circulated on cards, in booklets, and in the Unity periodicals. Today millions of people are familiar with its message.”
• Simplicity of silent soul communion: “the only requirement being that members shall sit in a quiet, retired place, if possible, at the hour of 10 o’clock every night, and hold in silent thought, for not less than fifteen minutes, the words that shall be given each month by the editor of this department.”
• Simplicity of absent healing: “suddenly they realized that if it were true that God is everywhere, that His power is everywhere and can be called into activity anywhere, it was not necessary for people to come to them for personal interviews in order to receive help.”
• Simplicity of Class Thoughts and the Red Leaf: “At one time, the ‘Class Thoughts’ were printed on a sheet that could be taken out of the magazine so that the subscriber could carry it with him wherever he went.”
• Simplicity of forming Silent Unity Societies: “In Silent Unity, there would be not two or three gathered together, but thousands. What immeasurable spiritual power must this united prayer release! In their magazine, the Fillmores wrote directions for forming Silent Unity Societies.”

In identifying ways to simplify our message, Unity leaders should ask, what can Unity offer that is not being offered by established churches? How much time, study, and money is required to benefit from what Unity provides? What do the established churches offer that is not offered by Unity? How much time, study, and money is required to benefit from what the established churches provide? What is the cost to start a Silent Unity prayer group? How much education does it require?

3. The Viral Ministry.

Viral organizations emerge that replicate and scale, delivering religious benefits without being immediately noticed or challenged.

The Fillmores were not people who drew attention to themselves. They did not attract much attention to their movement either. Here are some things we find in chapters 7 and 13 in The Household of Faith that show how Unity worked in quiet ways without being noticed in the early years:⁶

• “No Name” Meetings: “Sunday evenings, a course of lectures known as the “No Name Series” was given, the subject being announced ahead of time but the speaker’s name being kept secret. The Fillmores were not working to gain personal acclaim. They did not believe they had sole title to Truth or access to it. They believed that each person had the potentialities of a son of God, and they put their belief into practice by letting various persons who felt that they had something worth saying deliver addresses.”
• Ursula Gestefeld: “There was one teacher whom they especially had tried to get to come to Kansas City. Ursula Gestefeld⁷ of Chicago, whose books on Truth were among the clearest and simplest written in the last century.”
• Correspondence School Course: “By 1911, over two thousand students had been enrolled. Many of them did not have funds to study in Kansas City, but because of the course, they could serve their centers and start new centers.”
• No restrictions on the teaching of Truth: “Charles and Myrtle Fillmore did not believe in applying constraints to the learning of Truth because they knew that Truth is primarily an individual matter: the Spirit of Truth is in every person, and it is only through the awakening of this inner Spirit that anyone can come to know Truth.”

Unity leaders should ask themselves today how the claims of our marketing message might appear to visitors and others who influence visitors. Are the images on our websites genuinely reflective of the demographics one will find when visiting the church? Is the transformation we proclaim in our mission and vision statements supported by our experience visiting the church?

4. The Spiritual Drive.

The movement can provide significant religious benefits without requiring substantial secular costs, organizational control, or social status.

Unity has an excellent prosperity consciousness. That is to say, Unity’s culture promotes the idea that great things can be accomplished without much of what is typically required. Here are some examples from chapters 8, 10, 12, and 14 in The Household of Faith that show how the Fillmores’ accomplishments were achieved without substantial secular costs, organizational control, or social status:⁸

• Led by Principle: “This publication is turned over to and is now under the full and complete control of Principle”
• Freewill Offerings: “In April 1891, when the Society of Silent Unity began, it was decided to make no fixed charge for its services, but to conduct the Society on the freewill offering plan”
• Family work: “Charles Fillmore’s mother was a tremendous asset during these lean years”
• Give, and it shall be given onto you: “The entire Unity work has always been based on ‘the just and equitable law,’ ‘Give, and it shall be given unto you’”
• The Covenant of Charles and Myrtle⁹: “the Fillmores had signed it on December 7, 1892”
• The generous donor for 913 Tracy: “Then one evening, one of the members of the Board arose and announced quietly that he had decided to mortgage everything that he owned to provide Unity with the funds needed to buy the lot and begin the erection of a building.” [I believe this was May Rowland’s father]
• Humility: “I am dignified and definite, yet meek and lowly in all that I say and do.” p. 147: They were “Papa Charley” and “Mama Myrtle.” p. 173: “The Fillmore spirit of tolerance permeates Unity today. When people write to Unity denouncing its beliefs, the Unity letter-writers agree with the correspondent in all possible points, and in regard to points of disagreement merely say that Unity leaves every man free to find Truth for himself and that there is some Truth in all teachings.”
• Self-Effacing: [“Mr. Fillmore said,] I do not mind your looking at your watches,” he told his audience, “but when you look at them, then put them to your ear to see if they are running, that is too much.”
• Compassionate: “To the Fillmores, people were important, all people, whether important in the world’s eye or not. All people were important because they were God’s children.” p. 151: “The Fillmores had faith in people. They had faith in them because they saw them as God’s children; they did not see the defects and shortcomings, they saw the spiritual potentialities, they saw the Christ Spirit.”
• Dedication to work: “For thirty years, except for two brief visits to Chicago and one to New York, Charles Fillmore had stayed at work in Kansas City.”

Delivering spiritual benefits without requiring high secular costs is where commitment becomes an essential quality of a disruptive ministry. Committed people can provide spiritual benefits with less money than can larger denominations. As mentioned above, we are particularly blessed by our prosperity teachings and consciousness, and we also have a unique understanding of the power of praise and gratitude.

However, I am concerned about organizational control and social status. In the 1930s, the field ministries felt their leaders needed more social status and requested ordination. Charles Fillmore obliged them, but he reportedly regretted having done so. Thirty years later, Charles R. Fillmore, grandson of the founders and president of Unity at the time, was frustrated with the challenges of administrative control of the field ministries. So in 1966, he separated Unity from the field ministries, creating what is now known as Unity Worldwide Ministries. These events, plus what I will have to say in the following insight, A Metaphysical Model for Ministry, indicate that Unity has had difficulty with organizational control and issues of social status.¹⁰

5. The Condemnation by Incumbents.

Because the simplified opportunity does not provide social or secular benefits, incumbent providers react with disdain, withdrawal, and even greater complexity, broadening the opportunity for the ministry or movement to grow.

In the previous discussion on The Religious Marketplace, I discussed how Unity had become a sect, an educational organization in tension with the established churches. This point explains why the incumbents — the denominational churches and their ministers — could not adopt the successful activities of New Thought and Unity. To do so would make them look like a sect, and successful sects, as was said, have little secular resources, organizational control, or social status. No clear examples from The Household of Faith illustrate the condemnation by incumbents, but there are several examples listed on TruthUnity. Here are two:

• What if mainline Christianity had been open to spiritual healing? The story of how things might be different today if the mainline Christian churches had not rejected Unity’s theology and practice of physical healing through prayer.¹¹
• What We Are. The story of Charles Fillmore’s unsuccessful effort to foster ecumenism by proposing a Unity Church Universal.¹²

I mentioned above that Unity began ordaining ministers in the early 1930s, mainly because Unity teachers in the field claimed that ordination was necessary for practical reasons. But the real reason may be that they were suffering from a form of self-condemnation.

I am still formulating my conclusions about where religious marketplace disruption will lead. However, I believe that regardless of what may come, it will result from an unserved need, a simplified message, and a dedicated group of viral ministers and ministries that can operate without substantial secular costs, organizational control, or social status.



1. Clayton M Christensen, et all. Disruptive Innovation for Social Change http://hbr.org/2006/12/disruptive-innovation-for-social-change/
2. Disruption and Religious Innovation. http://www.truthunity.net/the-human-side-of-unity/religious-innovation-and-church-sect-theory
3. The Unserved Flock. https://www.truthunity.net/disrupting-unity-the-unserved-flock
4. Who is unserved? In the next insight I will offer two seemingly different answers. The unserved flock is the Divine Idea that is in need of an advocate, and the unserved flock is the online visitor who is searching for a solution to his or her problem. In ministry, we must serve both Spirit and humanity.
5. The Simplified Message. https://www.truthunity.net/disrupting-unity-the-simplified-message
6. The Viral Ministry. https://www.truthunity.net/disrupting-unity-the-viral-ministry
7. Feminist Metaphysics: Why Ursula Gestefeld’s Course Notes Is Important. https://www.truthunity.net/books/gestefeld-course-notes
8. The Spiritual Drive. https://www.truthunity.net/disrupting-unity-the-spiritual-drive
9. What Is Your Dedication and Covenant? https://www.truthunity.net/the-human-side-of-unity/what-is-your-dedication-and-covenant
10. Eric Butterworth quoted in Neal Vahle, The Unity Movement: Its evolution and spiritual teachings, p.355: Charles Fillmore was never completely comfortable with the idea of Unity leaders being ordained. One summer he was particularly disturbed by the performance of ministers at the summer conference, acting for all the world like clergymen en­gaged in denominational hassles. There was a time when I was equally disturbed by a similar conference struggle. I was sharing my feelings with May Rowland ... She said, “Eric, some years ago I was sitting in this very room with ‘Poppa’ Char­lie, when he was expressing regret that he had agreed to ordain Unity ministers, since it seemed to encourage them to think and act like traditional ministers. He expressed the concern that it was a precedent that was moving the whole Unity Field operation into more formal and even ecclesiastical directions.”
11. Agnes Sanford — The Healing Light. https://www.truthunity.net/books/agnes-sanford-the-healing-light
12. The Human Side of Unity: What We Are. https://www.truthunity.net/the-human-side-of-unity/what-we-are

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08. From the Early Church To New Thought A Metaphysical Model for Ministry