"Road signs" greeted participants Monday as they checked in for the afternoon forum on "Transformation: A Starting Place for Congregations." Photo: Neil Topliffe

By Ted Parks, DisciplesWorld contributing writer

FORT WORTH, Texas (7/25/07) — In the opening portion of a two-session "learning track" on congregational transformation at the 2007 General Assembly, presenters emphasized the role of spiritual disciplines like Bible study and prayer in guiding change, encouraging participants not to ignore the contemporary currents of God's Spirit.

With a unique format alternating speakers, brief times of spirited worship led by a praise band, and small-group discussions, the Monday-afternoon session was the first installment of a workshop scheduled for a total of almost six hours.

Titled "Transformation: A Starting Place for Congregations," the event was one in a series of offerings designed to equip congregations for the challenges of today's world.               

Organizers began with a working definition of the process of change. "Transformation is the intentional spiritual journey that a congregation undertakes in order to realize what God called it to be as a church and to do in mission in today's world," read a PowerPoint slide flashed before participants.               

Presenter Dick Hamm, former Disciples' general minister and currently president of The Columbia Partnership, an organization assisting churches and other groups with transformation, stressed the importance of being "spiritually grounded" when seeking change.               

Hamm likened spiritual grounding to electrical grounding. In circuits, a grounded connection allows an electrical surge to pass into the earth, he explained. In the divine realm, grounding allows a person to be "firmly connected to the ground of being...so that the spiritual power of God can pass through," Hamm said.               

A symptom of church leaders "seeking grounding" but still disconnected is arrogant and empty self-assurance, Hamm believes. "God save us and the church from people who are so damned sure," he said. "True spiritual leaders know where the power comes from and ... that the power is seeking only to pass through them on its way to doing the work of another."               

For Hamm, change is about God's will, not the will of church leaders or anybody else. "Transformation is about God and what God wants," he said. "It's not about what our congregation wants, but about what God wants."               

Hamm warned Disciples against polling congregational opinion instead of discerning the divine will. Congregations can "fall into the trap of confusing democracy with discernment," he said. "Transformation takes time. In fact,  transformation is a journey rather than a destination. The goal keeps moving out in front of us."               

Sandhya Jha, pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Oakland, Calif., and one of various congregational leaders who spoke about change, stressed that churches must heed the Spirit and seize the opportunities around them.    

"From the beginning, God has equipped the church to connect with its context, to be in relationship with people of different cultures," Jha said. "The Spirit sometimes forcefully equips us."               

"I sometimes wonder if the rush of the Holy Spirit blows into our congregations and we say, what a lovely breeze," Jha told participants.                

The Disciples pastor recalled when congregations in the Northern California-Nevada region took an offering to begin a Hispanic church. A few in the region, she said, criticized the plan to start a congregation tailored to Latino preferences, believing immigrants should instead learn English and attend existing churches.               

Jha was especially impressed by a congregation that decided, despite the controversy, to reach out to its undocumented neighbors by not only offering English as a second language but inviting immigrants to use their unique gifts to teach church members Spanish as a second language. Such a decision, Jha believes, will allow the church to "receive the gift that God has blown into their congregation and their community."               

Workshop speaker Carlos Cardoza-Orlandi, professor of World Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Ga., offered a case study in the challenges churches face when they reach beyond themselves.               

A Southeastern congregation, he related, sponsored a mission trip to build a church annex in Mexico. Concluding the visit with an enthusiastic service with their Mexican hosts, the North American participants made the stereotypical offer to return the hospitality someday.               

Someday came quickly. To the congregation's great surprise, six weeks later 16 young men from Mexico showed up in town asking for just one night's stay on their way to farm work in Pennsylvania. After a panicked emergency meeting, church leaders said no.                

The resourceful pastor, Cardoza-Orlandi said, then called a local Hispanic Pentecostal congregation, which had the Mexican visitors nestled safely in homes in a couple of hours.

Cardoza-Orlandi asked, in conclusion, "What does it mean to be church? What does it mean to be a church in today's challenging and wonderful opportunities that God gives us?"