Transformation from the Ground Up

This past Saturday Winnie Hogoboom and I had the occasion to be part of a group that met with UCC President-elect Geoffrey Black. We joined with members of other UCC churches and Rev. Black as he began his “listening tour” of UCC Conferences and Churches throughout the United States. It was a good meeting.

The high point for me was a conversation I had with Bennett Guess, our denomination’s Director of Communications. What he said to me was that while in the past the UCC has directed its efforts towards local churches, this emphasis has shifted. Now the National Office of the UCC directs its publicity and communications to individuals. At first, this may seem to be an example of placing the em pha sis on the wrong syl la ble. But, I found it interesting. In many ways, I saw in Bennett’s comment a model for growth in the UCC. We move from personal to communal to societal transformation. The UCC’s identification of the individual as the bedrock of church growth is essential for us to become a vital church in the 21^st Century.

Personal Transformation

When people come to a church nowadays more often than not they are looking for a transformation in their lives. Often people come in personal periods of transition – as they move from youth into adulthood, from single life into marriage, from young adulthood into middle age and from middle age into the elder years. At each period of transition, life changes and common questions arise: How does this make sense? What is my relationship to God and the universe now? Who am I in this new role? What happened to my old life? How am I called into the newness of each moment? Our faith provides us not with answers but with a direction with which we can address these basic questions of human life. The movement towards faith in the midst of transition asks us to live our lives more deeply. People come to church looking to re-orient their lives, for an opportunity to step outside of themselves as they emerge into something unknown, mysterious and new – a something they sense to be in their favor, that feels like relationship and which only serves to deepen their experience of life. In the Christian tradition we come to know this re-orientation as “being in Christ.”

Communal Transformation

The movement of personal transformation naturally moves from “me” to “we.” As we begin to live “in Christ” we find our neighbors and friends present to us, dwelling with us in the larger identity that we each have found. As we are “in Christ” we move into “Christ’s body,” the church. Our personal transformation becomes communal – “me” becomes “we.” Community becomes central to who we are. We are further re-oriented, or transformed as we discover our common life. We are more than a club, we find, we are part of one another.

Societal Transformation or “Changing the World”

Just as personal transformation is not just for us as it grows into communal transformation, our community life is not simply for ourselves together. There is a natural movement as the “body of Christ,” that is, the Church, takes on Christ’s concerns for the worlds. As the body of Christ, we take up Jesus’ way in the world: a way of blessing, compassion, and peace. Taking up Jesus’ Way with humility and grace, we become the ears, eyes, arms, legs and hands of Christ in the world. As a group we find ways of acting compassionately in the world.

Transformation

Jesus’ Way is a way of transformation and light. We move from noisy, uncentered and cluttered lives to lives filled with purpose and new life. This new life settles into our whole lives. It changes how we are as individuals, who we are as a church, and how we manifest our faith in a world in need of healing and transformation. This is no fooling around. Our faith makes all the difference in the world, literally. And it starts with you in your worship, your prayer, your study, your deepening life. As we join together, we make the difference.

Love,

David