By Maureen Wright
Nothing is constant but change. This statement is attributed to Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived around 500 BC. While change may be constant, most of us do not like or look forward to change. Change is difficult. The Presbytery of West Virginia will be asked to approve change at its called meeting of the Presbytery on September 17. As we prepare for the conversation at this meeting, I encourage us to think about change and to add a few tools to our resiliency toolbox.
Most churches and church structures are not known for their adaptive skills or preparedness for change. When I think of the most authoritative text for Christianity, the Bible, and the response of churches and church structures to change, I laugh at the irony. The arc of the biblical narrative returns again and again to change. In my first article as your Transitional General Presbyter, I wrote about the call of Abram in Genesis 12: 1-9 where God asks that Abram go from known to unknown, to step out in faith and by so doing to be blessed and bless others. In subsequent articles, I have reflected on the story of the children of Israel and their wanderings in the wilderness found in Exodus. The biblical narrative is far from static but rather is the story of God calling the people of God into relationship, culminating in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We Jesus people are people of change.
The history of Presbyterians is deeply grounded in the motto of the Reformation, “the church reformed and always reforming.” This reflects our belief that God is constantly being revealed to us in new ways. Thus, as individuals, churches, and the Presbytery, we change in response. The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity section of the Book of Order speaks to both continuity and change as we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit (F-1.0401). “As the Church seeks reform and fresh direction, it looks to Jesus Christ who goes ahead of us and calls us to follow him.” We people, who do not embrace change, are called to fresh directions.
What skills do you have to embrace a transition in your church or the Presbytery’s current transition journey? One of the skills that has helped me in this first year as your Transitional General Presbyter is curiosity – an openness to new ways of thinking, new ways of problem solving. Curiosity through questions; curiosity through engaging with ideas and concepts outside of the church. Meeting the Holy Spirit in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.
One of these unexpected encounters with the Holy Spirit occurred when I was listening to a podcast as I was traveling the roads of West Virginia. I heard a brief interview with Maya Shankar, who hosts a podcast called A Slight Change of Plans. She referred to a recent TED Talk on change. (According to Wikipedia, TED Conferences, LLC is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan “ideas worth spreading.” These are known as TED Talks.) The title of the talk is Why Change Is So Scary – and How to Unlock Its Potential. Dr. Shankar is a cognitive scientist who studies the science of human behavior. She reflects that change is scary because it is filled with uncertainty, which involves loss. Change means parting from an old way of being and entering a new way of being. She says that when an unexpected change happens to us, it can inspire lasting change in us. I had to pull over to take notes! I encourage you to take 15 minutes and listen.
In the TED Talk, Dr. Shankar focuses on unexpected change. I think that the change that we are encountering as a Presbytery is not necessarily unexpected, but her words apply no less just because we have been working toward the change these past 12 months. She offers three questions that we can ask ourselves when confronted with unexpected change. “How might this change… change what you’re capable of? How might this change… change what you value? How might this change… change how you define yourself?”
These questions invite us to reject the trap of thinking that who we are today is who we are. They challenge us to acknowledge that we can become stuck in our search for clear answers, which narrows our thinking and takes us down the “rabbit trail” of fear rather than joy and beauty. We are asked to let go of the loss of who we are and instead look at what “lights us up.”
The lens offered by Dr. Shankar in this TED Talk opened up for me an “a-ha” moment. I believe that the Holy Spirit is tapping us on the shoulder, saying that the Presbytery we are today is not the Presbytery we will be in the future. If we can let go of our need to hold onto the Presbytery we are today, we can let go of our fear and instead be expanded by the joy and beauty of what the Presbytery is becoming. If we find out why we do what we do as a Presbytery, we can discover what energizes us and embrace the change. We need these tools as we consider a new vision forward. I encourage you to join me in meeting the Holy Spirit in this unexpected conversation on our journey of transformation.