The sermon was high energy. The congregation followed the preacher closely. They laughed at humorous stories, applauded emphatically when she made poignant points, and shouted “Amen!” more frequently than most congregations in my predominantly white denomination. The preacher was a woman considered to be one of the most inspiring in my denomination. She spoke about the need people have to experience personal transformation. She was insistent: people don’t want dogma, rules, or answers to questions they’ve never asked. Instead, people long for transformation.
I couldn’t agree more with what she was saying. In fact, that’s the main point of my book, Contemporary Churches: The Spiritual Transformation of Congregations. But as I listened, I realized that she never explained what transformation was, what it looked like, or how it happened. As I thought further, I recalled hearing many speakers as well as reading many writers make the same claim about personal transformation without providing any clues about the experience. How is it, then, that people can experience transformation when the experience appears to elude the experts?
Transformation is an English word with Latin roots. In Latin, the roots simply mean to change form. Transformation conveys the sense of changing form, but also changing substance, character, appearance, or a process.
Transformation is all about change: giving up what has been in order to become something new and different. That may sound positive, but the truth is that change is one of the most difficult things in life. Many people resist change. They are afraid of change. They’d rather stick with what is known rather than risk the possibility of an unknown future. People prefer what they know, what’s familiar to them, and, above all, what makes them feel comfortable. Change…and transformation…is not familiar and it’s often uncomfortable.
People resist the change that comes with transformation because they feel as though they are losing control. Of course, control is rarely something we actually have in life, but yet we like to think we’re in control. Transformation breaks that illusion and causes us to wonder whether we’re up for whatever lies ahead of us. Is it what we really want? Do we have the skills or ability? Can we do it? And what if we embarrass ourselves, fail, and can’t make it? For most people, that’s worse than sticking to something we really don’t like to begin with.
When it comes to transformation, we can’t be sure what the outcome will be. Will I like my new self? Will I actually be a better person? Will a spiritual transformation lead me to become someone like St. Francis of Assisi: giving away all my possessions, running through the streets naked, and hanging out with pigeons and sparrows? Oh, that’s not the life for me, thank you very much, but I’ll pass on that!
How will transformation affect my relationships, my interests, and every other aspect of myself? Will other people who I value today still like me? Or even love me?
Transformation is a risky business. It’s a topic which sounds great in a sermon or motivation speech. But transformation doesn’t happen easily for most people. I think that’s because transformation involves change and risk. We simply don’t embrace change and risk easily.
One of the best examples of how people make transformations in their lives come from 12-step programs. Having hit bottom and knowing that change is essential but also beyond one’s ability, 12-steps programs empower people to transform. But they do so by using a process of steps to give people a sense of what is to come next. Even then, it’s very difficult for most people. Repeated studies have shown that 12-step programs only work for between 25 and 30% of people who join them.
Is transformation too much for us? Should we just give up and not even try? No…that’s not my conclusion at all. Instead, I think we need to consider what transformation is really about. Otherwise, I think people are set up for failure and the fears of change will cause them to entrench in the patterns they already have in life rather than finding something more than they can imagine.
In my next posting, I’ll present a framework for understanding personal transformation. But for now, consider the risk of change and becoming a better person. Is it something you are willing to embrace? What are you willing to do to become a transformed person?
Photo by Chris Garrison on Foter.com/CC-BY-NC-SA
For me, transformation requires a paradigm shift. I need to see an old problem in a fresh new way. With the right understanding about an issue, transformation may be the most logical, and even easiest, path forward.
Warren: Good to hear from you. Indeed, transformation is a kind of paradigm shift. In the next posting, I’ll consider two models for that shift … and I suspect you’ll be familiar with one from Walter Brueggemann. Lou
Such a timely and on-point post, suggesting some deep exploration required and at the same time answering the nagging sense of lack one feels when one is at the same time so excited and inspired by transformation promises. I am waiting in great anticipation for the follow up!
Glenda: Thanks for the message. In the next posting, I’m presenting two models for understanding transformation. Hope that’s helpful for you. Lou