Creating Our Spiritual Legacy As We Speak

by Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader

“Tell us the stories again.”

Imagine you are enjoying a holiday with your immediate and extended family sometime in the future. This holiday gathering is beyond the time when the Church in North America has transitioned from church-as-we-have-known-it to church-as-it-is-becoming. We are on the other side of this major shift from the Modern to the Postmodern Era, having adapted to our new cultural context. Now, at this holiday gathering, those who are younger than you want to know how you accomplished the transition.

“Tell us the stories again of how you helped the Church move from what it was back in the day to this robust, life-giving faith community we get to experience now. Listening to you describe what church used to be like, it’s clear church radically changed. How did you and your spiritual kin help this to happen? How did you work up the courage to confront your reality and make the necessary changes? How did you manage your grief while pursuing hopeful and creative new experiments? How hard was the journey? How did you keep going when you failed? How did you know you were making progress?”

Then you tell your stories. You describe the progress and setbacks, the forward movement and back-stepping, the joy and the pain. You tell about some who were lost along the way, abandoning their faith. You tell stories of so many others who were drawn into the Christian movement as it became more robust and invigorated. You find yourself tearing up as those memories come rushing to the surface. By now though, they are tears of joy, with the pain having washed away with time. Mostly, describing the journey fills you with a deep gratitude. Though the journey was like the Hebrews in the wilderness or the early Christians during the diaspora, you wouldn’t trade it for the world. You are filled with an abiding joy.

One of them, after listening to the stories again, says, “Thank you. Thank you for being such a courageous agent of change. Thank you for shepherding the Church from what it was to what it is now. Thank you for helping the Church make those tough transitions so that we can now experience this. We are so grateful and blessed by your courageous effort. Thank you.”

And you smile quietly, sharing a deep abiding internal joy with the Lord our God.

Preface, Farming Church: Cultivating Adaptive Change in Congregations, Pinnacle Leadership Press, Columbia, South Carolina, USA, (c) 2017.