Nostalgia for the good old days is real!
Since March, at the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve been hanging out with the boys from the band, my high school buddies of three decades ago (via Zoom, of course). We enjoy reminiscing about our youthful stardom (playing a brunch session at the local mall) and savor the innocence of those growing years. But while several of us continue to play and write music, as much as we loved them, those early band days are long over.
We are not going back.
As churches, nonprofits, and businesses negotiate current realities (including the pandemic, racial division, political polarization, environmental catastrophe, economic uncertainty, and relational isolation) there is one reality that we need to be clear about: what was before mid-March 2020 no longer is and no longer will be.
Glory days.
I believe we are in a unique position to engage the change and embrace a new world.
After a recent listening session with a group of pastors, I made the following observations about the shifts that we’re in the middle of and will be required to navigate in order to thrive into the future. These aren’t new; many authors have been writing about them for decades. But they are prominent for us now in ways they may not have been earlier. A few of these shifts are:
from control to service (servanthood)
from fear to trust
from self-focus to focus on others
from production to presence
from power over to power with
from conflict to cooperation
from privilege to periphery (for white establishment folks)
from decision-making to discernment
Each of these shifts can be unpacked in compelling and complex ways, and by no means do they capture the whole of the present and future reality. But they speak to the types of shifts occurring, and imply the degree of work which will be required by all of us to emerge into that new reality with vitality, compassion, and equity.
In my next blog post I’ll offer a few areas for leaders to focus on while swimming in the sea of turmoil and change, and ultimately, with God’s grace, emerge reinvigorated on the shore of a transformed world.