Opportunity To Participate in Churches Learning Change Process

The Synods of the Mid-Atlantics, Albany, and New York are continuing to partner together to provide our churches the opportunity to participate in the Churches Learning Change process. In the weeks ahead we hope to share testimonials from churches in our synod who have participated in the process. Please read the invitation from Rev. Greg Town below.

Change has Come!

If you haven't noticed, a lot has changed in the last few months. In fact, it seems a lot changes each day for our families, our churches, our communities, our nation, and our world.  The changes seem endless - from pandemic stressors to personal/collective grief in the deaths of many loved ones to ongoing ministries within your community to the protests against police brutality and racial injustices to the factors and conversations in working to reopen to shifts in one's family and personal life to _____ (you fill in the blank).   How are you managing these developments?  How are you managing the anxiety that these changes are bringing you? 

Unfortunately, I have a difficult truth that I'm afraid many church leaders don't want to face - change will continue to come. Change will come whether we're prepared for it or not. Change is unavoidable, and I believe the stories (as well as the overarching Story) of Scripture is that God has created humanity to adapt with creativity, ingenuity, courage, and faith.  

Yet, as congregations and as leaders, who are human, everything in us wants to deny and resist that these changes have come, are coming, and will continue to come.  We want "normal".  We want stability.  And yet, God did not call out the ecclesia to seek normalcy and work for the status quo.  In fact, I think that many of our churches have been in the dire state they are in because they have been unable to adapt to the changes around and within them. And I say this, knowing that this statement brings up all sorts of defensiveness and shame in every congregational leader who hears it.

So the question is not just how are you (and others in your congregation) managing these changes and the anxiety that comes, but also how are you learning to lead missionally when no one (and I mean no one) knows what the future holds?  

How will you lead and live on mission, as an individual and as a congregation, when you (and others) don't know what to do or how to address the needs in your community?  

In the coming months and years, as we look toward a new future of mission, as we look toward being Christ's disciples in ways we've never imagined, and as we seek the Spirit's transformative work within us, these will be some of the questions and challenges we all will face (as I'm sure you already have).  As you face the challenges of change, where will you seek the support and accountability to learn in community what it means to faithfully and courageously adapt and experience the Spirit's transformative work within you?  

With that, I believe that Churches Learning Change is one of the few learning processes out there that helps support congregational leaders in creating the space and developing the values and skillsets to wonder what it means to faithfully discern and adapt, on several levels, as we work for the flourishing of all that God has placed in our care.  So, I'd like to invite you to consider the CLC process as one of the best options you have available to you to help you, your family, and your congregation in the years ahead.  CLC, here in the East, is planning to enter a new module in the fall, and the leadership team would love to connect with you to share more about the process of learning that CLC offers.

See the flyer for more details and contact information.

Rev. Greg Town, Minister of Revitalization and Renewal for the Regional Synod of New York