Navigating Change: Trusting, Healing, and Growing Together
Beloved church -
Beloved -
We had a recent Skills Lab at church on Change Theory & Growth (thanks Amber and Tanya!), which contained some fantastic space to reflect, sit with, and learn tools for how to navigate the grief, joys, and work that all accompany change. I was reminded that so much has happened in the last five years for so many of us - including personal, congregational, and national change. Making room to feel, grieve, learn from, and release the work it takes to walk through these changes is valuable - it helps us honor our experiences, and then grow the capacity for building and enjoying what is next. In addition to all the personal and congregational changes many are walking through, we’re also living during a time of huge, paradigm-level shifts impacting our nation and globe - notably impacting communication patterns, technology, mental health, and institutional trust. For example, did you know that the average US congregation now has an attendance of 65 people, down from 137 twenty years ago? And religious “nones” - those who claim no faith affiliation - now make up roughly 50% of the US population. We’re experiencing what is being called “The Great De-Churching” by many sociologists and theologians, where over 40 million people have left church since the high point in 1994; more people have now left the church, than all those who joined churches since the time of the Great Awakening in the 20th century! Now 15% of the US identifies as “de-churched” - those who used to attend church at least once a month who now attend fewer than once per year. And you likely can think of grandkids, friends, colleagues, or family members in your own life who fit either the “de-churched” or “none” category. These shifts are personal and significant, they bring grief and work with them, and these changes have forever altered the landscape that American congregations now walk through.
To be honest, I have often not enjoyed navigating change in my own life. I’ve learned a few things that make it easier - like trusting God with the big stuff and trying to let go of the small stuff, having some voice and agency, traveling through change with others, and being able to lean into my identity and gifts during it, but there’s always a measure of risk, work, loss, or energy that change brings. Even good change demands work, have you noticed? It is also helpful to remember while we’re in the midst of the change, it is after we walk through the grief and work that we often see clearly how God brings more than enough on the other side. I’ve seen God profoundly at work through change - when we trust, follow, lean in, and support each other; on the other side of the work comes new blooms, new community and new norms, often even new capacity for things that we maybe didn’t made room to dream about being an option before. After trusting and following God through change, we experience growth. On the other side of the unknown and taking risks, we find rest, and new root systems taking hold.
Our church leadership is focused on walking through the multi-layers of change in our world in healthy ways in this season; we all need to feel some agency, travel through change with others, and lean into our gifts and true identity as individuals and as a congregation. We can also all encourage each other by remembering how God has shown up - and shown out! - at LaSalle in the past - over and over and over again! This expansive church, with generous community, and a long-term investment in justice, has never quite followed the “norms” for church; indeed at various times, LaSalle has helped set a new pace or make a new way when others could not. As we look deeper at the realities of this “dechurched” group in the US, there is an invitation to consider as well. One article said that the “dechurched” contain two groups: the casually dechurched - those who moved or had schedule changes; and church casualties - those who stopped attending after conflict or experiencing harm. I can think of friends and family in both of those camps; maybe you can too. Across five broad categories of those considered dechurched (mainline, mainstream evangelicals, ex-vangelicals, BIPOC, and Catholics), the main reasons that people reported for why they left the church were: did not feel like they fit in, had bad experiences in church, did not feel much love in church, gender identity, church scandal, schedule was not convenient, or they moved. And the reasons people cited for considering attending church again include looking for friendships, spiritual practices, outreach programs, and want a healthy and stable congregation. I wonder - what of these findings feels familiar to you? Where do you see the potential for God to use LaSalle’s gifts and identity as we walk through change this year?
Beloved, we have all lived through a lot of change, and we are still learning how to do this in healthy ways together. It’s a time to remind ourselves that God’s economy works differently, and that while we always honor where we’ve come from, we’re now living into a new thing together. Every time we sow seeds of trust, following, waiting, being patient with one another, and taking the next faithful step toward what God is doing, we are building deep roots of faith, health, authenticity, and joy! We are creating more room at the table for many more to taste and see the abundance, the healing, the possibilities of joining an expansive church like LaSalle. If you’ve got ideas, thoughts, or questions about how we can best walk through all these changes together, please feel free to reach out to me or another staff member - and keep watching for invitations this fall to welcome each other on the journey as we launch fall programming and lean deeper into God’s call on our Body for such a time as this. We need one another to change - heal - and grow - together!
With great expectation - RevLiz