Ursula like Helen Van-Anderson and others formed a club. Ursula called her club the Exodus charging dues of $25 per year and then created The Exodus, a monthly magazine for the New Thought movement, serving as writer, editor and publisher. a non-sectarian group which had for its purpose the imparting and receiving of instruction in the Science of Being. By 1902, she had over 300 regular members, with more than 800 attending her weekly sermons. The Exodus Club eventually became the the Church of the New Thought.

She trained women to become certified leaders, teachers, traveling proselytizers or pastors and in 1895, she contributed to The Woman's Bible, which summarized the Science of Being principal, yet no member of her church was required to make any profession of faith or to subscribe to anything which his or her reason rejected.

Gestefeld was sometimes accused of vitriole but when we examine her life, we can easily understand why she felt such anger. She is probably best known for her novel, The Woman Who Dares, a protest against marriage. Her work was a cutting edge feminist tract portraying a male dominated society that was designed to keep women sexually submissive.

By the turn of the century, Gestefeld had followed the trend and expanded her teaching to include material wealth. She was a frequent speaker in metaphysical movement congresses, served as member of the Executive Committee of the Metaphysical League, and was present at the formation of the International New Thought Alliance in London in 1914. Ursula died at age 76 of "toxemia" in 1921. She is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.