What do you think about change? Where in your life do you embrace it? When do you resist it? Why? (These would be great questions to explore through journaling!)

I’m sure you are familiar with quotes about change being the only constant and the saying from Heraclitus that goes like this– “You cannot step in the same river twice, for other waters are continually flowing on.” Indeed, resistance to change is rather futile. Thus, it seems odd to me that there is so much negativity around change. Certainly, there are many ways in which our lives change and it is deeply painful and unpleasant. These are times when surrendering to the reality of what is going on is our only option, when grief is about all we can feel. But, there are also many opportunities in our lives to shape change and make it beautiful and exciting! That doesn’t mean not grieving our losses, but it means realizing the opportunities that change presents to us.

This congregation has seen a lot of change in the past few years. I’ve found that we have created a culture that is more flexible and adaptable than it used to be. We are a community that is starting to open our eyes to the spectrum of possibilities and realize that we have to try new things, to possibly fail, and to learn and grow from there. So here we are in a period of huge change that will reshape the way that we do church. How will we move forward, together?

I had to write about change (a lot!) this week in my classes. Both classes are quite relevantly focused on leading churches in times such as these. I’m going to share a small portion of my thoughts around the question of “What sparks change?”. I hope that you will think about it, too, and that we can have more and more conversations centered around change and imagination and being the community we’ve been dreaming about.

The center of my theology holds the knowing that change was sparked at the beginning of the universe (or perhaps before…) and change is the only reality that will continue into an infinite (by human understanding) future. This is a theology that I began to formulate in college as an anthropology student. The process of evolution- particularly human evolution- was fascinating and mysterious to someone who just stepped out of a white suburban Christian world. Thus, scientific knowledge became my first resource for raising my awareness and thinking about change. In addition, through the study of cultural, physical, and linguistic anthropology, I was presented with the vast array of human possibilities for adapting and responding to change. The seemingly never-ending process of constructing and deconstructing my theology has been wrapped around this core since then. At this moment, my theology of change has been greatly influenced by the words and stories of Octavia Butler in her Parable books.

It does beg the question, so what about change? Why is it worth the trouble of going beyond merely accepting change and being an agent for change? I battled with this for many years through cultured despair and perhaps small existential crises– what difference could I possibly make and why would it matter? The world’s problems are just too big. Nevertheless, I find myself driven to make change, to help people, and to answer this nebulous calling that I have to inspire people. But, I really didn’t know how to focus it until I encountered adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy a couple of years ago. Applying the concepts of biomimicry and fractals to doing justice work immediately started to click and grow my enthusiasm once again for making change. Change became tangible! About the same time, I was introduced to Tema Okun’s “White Supremacy Culture” document and through the explicit naming of characteristics and antidotes, I felt I could start to dismantle white supremacy within the organization that I lead.

How can we uncover that universal spark of change within us that can inspire us to greater thinking? Sometimes it may seem that the ground is too hard to excavate- we are familiar only with what we know and we can’t, don’t want to, or are too afraid to go outside of our knowing. But, that may mean we just need to look smaller and notice what we have changed, to celebrate it, and to keep moving forward. Evolution on some levels isn’t always obviously visible in our lifetime, but we have to keep tilling the ground for those that come after us, and to leave the remains of something to wonder about and build upon.

I leave you we these words excerpted from adrienne maree brown’s poem, “if you can’t see the small”:

if you can’t see the small

you won’t know what the dirt is screaming

one grief at a time

that the whales are singing

warning songs

that there is a shudder in all of life now

a premonition:

change everything

for everything is changing