The following criteria for cyber-sermons
were created for the members of FUUCI
to be used in deciding which proposal
to select as the next Cyber-Sermon-of-the-Month.

    (These criteria should reviewed and revised from time to time
in light of actual experience and feedback from the members
and other reader of cyber-sermons.)

1. Cyber-Sermons are short.

     Because cyber-sermons are read on computer screens,
they must not take longer than 15 minutes to read aloud.
The text of a cyber-sermon is about three pages long,
1500 words, 100 sentences, ten kilobytes (10,000 ones and zeros).

     This very condensed format encourages readers
to forward the cyber-sermons they like
to other people with whom they exchange e-mail.
When the cyber-sermons are only 100 sentences in length,
they are easier to translate in other languages.

     The authors of cyber-sermons have squeezed out
every unnecessary word.
This condensed writing style causes us, the readers,
to slow down, instead of scrolling quickly thru a text,
which we are used to doing with most poorly-written electronic prose.
If this reputation for being concise is maintained,
when we receive a cyber-sermon, we will know
that the text has been carefully edited for length.
Cyber-sermons contain no extra words.

    Thus, FUUCI can be thought of as a sermon digest service.

2.  Cyber-Sermons are creative and original.

     One major complaint against the very concept "sermon"
is that it is old, boring stuff that has been heard many times before.
While there might be a place for 'maintenance sermons'
in ordinary religious organizations,
review and re-statement of time-worn truths
have only a background place in cyber-sermons.

     The members evaluate every proposals
for originality and creativity:
Will people who receive this cyber-sermon discover something
that they would never come across in any other way?

3. Cyber-Sermons benefit the readers.

     Another common criticism of traditional sermons
is that they are more about what's going on in the preacher's head
than anything of interest to those who hear those sermons.
There is a place for personal sharing in sermons.
Personal stories are especially appropriate if they help us
—the readers—to identify some experience within ourselves.
Cyber-sermons are a service for the readers
rather than an expression of the ego of the author.
Because the next cyber-sermon-of-the-month
is selected by the members,
it must genuinely address issues already very
alive in the minds of the people who will read it.

4. Cyber-Sermons are top quality.

     The readers alone are the ultimate judges
of the quality of cyber-sermons.
Readers who find a particular cyber-sermon
lacking in useful insights simply ignore it.

     The vast majority of sermons
created in the history of the human race are low quality.
In your years of listening to sermons,
how many sermons were so good that you wanted to hear them again?
This is a high standard to meet.
And it might not be achievable in the first years of FUUCI
because the number of proposals will be small at first.
But thereafter, FUUCI can ask for the very best sermon
a contributor has ever created during his or her whole career.
And if some contributors receive rave reviews from the members,
we can ask for the best sermon
of the past year from those authors.

     FUUCI can afford to be very selective,
because it is the first (and so far the only) such organization in the world.
Local congregations must be content with
whatever their ministers produce on any given Sunday.
But this cyber-community is freed from the constraints of time and space.
We can ask for the best sermons ever produced anywhere.

     FUUCI will create meaningful ways
of evaluating cyber-sermons after they are released into cyber-space.
How did the members respond?
How many of them found a particular cyber-sermon
good enough to forward to other people they know?
How many of these other people eventually were drawn to FUUCI
by the fact of having received high quality UU thinking by e-mail?
Which cyber-sermons created the most thoughtful discussions?
When the FUUCI cyber-sermon library is established,
which cyber-sermons are read most often?
Which cyber-sermons stimulated Internet and media attention?

    The people sitting at their individual computer screens
are the final judges of the quality of cyber-sermons.
If an offered sermon does not measure up,
readers will press the delete button.
It will not be read; it will not be passed on to any other person.
People receiving cyber-sermons by e-mail
need never sit thru a boring sermon again.

     But, of course, a cyber-sermon should not try to please everyone.
The author should not water-down what he or she has to say
in order to reach the lowest common denominator
among potential readers.

    On the contrary, cyber-sermons can be quite specialized,
since they are not addressed to a pre-defined group of people.
If the sermon has intrinsic high quality,
at least some readers will recognize its depth and significance.
And when they begin to discuss the most meaningful points,
others who dismissed a particular cyber-sermon at first
might be encouraged to find that sermon in the FUUCI library
and to read it carefully.
In FUUCI, there is no way to miss a great sermon,
because cyber-sermons are not limited to a particular time or place.
It will always be waiting there in cyber-space,
ready to be read again.
Cyber-sermons are eternal !