CENTRAL FLORIDA PRESBYTERY'S BOOK CLUB
Next Selection
|
Book Discussion
Thursday, March 20 1:00 p.m. CFP Resource Center Conference Room 3101 Maguire Blvd., Ste. 244, Orlando Or Via Zoom |
|
I will begin with a confession...
I don't like change. I have clothes that I bought 3 decades ago, and still wear...because, well, why would I buy a new garment when I still have one that functions as a perfectly good T-shirt? I don't like it when the store rearranges the bread aisle, and I can't find the one item I went in to buy. I create a room arrangement of furniture I like and keep it that way for years.
I don't like change.
But like it or not, we know that change happens. And we know as faith communities that the world outside our doors, our ministry context, has changed...even as we have kept on doing what we've always been doing. The PC(USA) declined in members from 1,302,043 in 2019, to 1,140,665 in 2022, a loss of 53,105 members in three years.1 Many of us have seen similar declines in our own congregations.
Why, though, has the church not kept pace with change outside our doors? Urgency drives change, yet for the most part we have not felt any urgency to change, despite a multiple decades long decline.2 There is resistance to change, for change always involves risk and loss. Change requires energy many of us simply do not have.
Seeing the need for change in business more than twenty years ago, Ronald Heifetz and others at Harvard Business School began to use the terms "adaptive change" and "adaptive challenges." Adaptive challenges are those problems which require new learning. They require tools, skills, and wisdom we do not yet have. The church is facing adaptive challenges all the time, on every front. Change is disruptive and difficult. This is true on a communal, personal, and on a neurobiological level. When we are learning new things, doing new things, we are literally re-wiring our brains. It is hard to know exactly what to do, but we are faced with the hard truth that doing what we have always been doing no longer works.
I don't like change. I have clothes that I bought 3 decades ago, and still wear...because, well, why would I buy a new garment when I still have one that functions as a perfectly good T-shirt? I don't like it when the store rearranges the bread aisle, and I can't find the one item I went in to buy. I create a room arrangement of furniture I like and keep it that way for years.
I don't like change.
But like it or not, we know that change happens. And we know as faith communities that the world outside our doors, our ministry context, has changed...even as we have kept on doing what we've always been doing. The PC(USA) declined in members from 1,302,043 in 2019, to 1,140,665 in 2022, a loss of 53,105 members in three years.1 Many of us have seen similar declines in our own congregations.
Why, though, has the church not kept pace with change outside our doors? Urgency drives change, yet for the most part we have not felt any urgency to change, despite a multiple decades long decline.2 There is resistance to change, for change always involves risk and loss. Change requires energy many of us simply do not have.
Seeing the need for change in business more than twenty years ago, Ronald Heifetz and others at Harvard Business School began to use the terms "adaptive change" and "adaptive challenges." Adaptive challenges are those problems which require new learning. They require tools, skills, and wisdom we do not yet have. The church is facing adaptive challenges all the time, on every front. Change is disruptive and difficult. This is true on a communal, personal, and on a neurobiological level. When we are learning new things, doing new things, we are literally re-wiring our brains. It is hard to know exactly what to do, but we are faced with the hard truth that doing what we have always been doing no longer works.
|
|
Why participate in the presbytery's Book Club? Rev. Casey Riker, Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian, DeLand
shares what she discovered from reading "Generosity Rising" and why she joins in the discussions. |
Recent Selections
Honest Advent: Awakening to the Wonder of God-with-Us Then, Here, and Now
by Scott Erickson
by Scott Erickson
Disruptive Witness: Spreading Truth in a Distracted Age
by Alan Noble
by Alan Noble
Generosity Rising: Lead a Stewardship Revolution in Your Church
by Scott McKenzie
by Scott McKenzie
Pause: Spending Lent With the Psalms
by Elizabeth Caldwell
by Elizabeth Caldwell
Following Jesus in a Warming World
by Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
by Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
Heaven and Earth: Advent and the Incarnation
by Will Willimon
by Will Willimon
Finding Jesus at the Border:
Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrant Neighbors
by Julia Lambert Fogg
Opening Our Hearts to the Stories of Our Immigrant Neighbors
by Julia Lambert Fogg
Words of Love: A Healing Journey With the Ten Commandments
by Eugenia Anne Gamble
by Eugenia Anne Gamble
Collateral Damage: Changing the Conversation About Firearms and Faith
by James E. Atwood
by James E. Atwood
Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us
by Mark Yaconelli
by Mark Yaconelli
Healing Our Broken Humanity:
Practices for Revitalizing the Church and Renewing the World
by Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill
Practices for Revitalizing the Church and Renewing the World
by Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill
Meeting Jesus at the Table: A Lenten Study
By: Cynthia M. Campbell, Christine Coy Fohr
By: Cynthia M. Campbell, Christine Coy Fohr
Hope: A User's Manual
by MaryAnn McKibben Dana
by MaryAnn McKibben Dana
Prepare the Way for the Lord: Advent and the Message of John the Baptist
By Adam Hamilton
By Adam Hamilton
Signs and Wonders
by Amy-Jill Levine
by Amy-Jill Levine
Wholehearted Faith
by Rachel Held Evans with Jeff Chu
by Rachel Held Evans with Jeff Chu
Freeing Jesus:
Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence
by Diana Butler Bass
Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence
by Diana Butler Bass
Everyday Contemplative: The Way of Prayerful Living
by L. Roger Owens
by L. Roger Owens
In Defense of Kindness: Why It Matters,
How It Changes Our Lives, and How It Can Save the World
by Bruce Reyes-Chow
How It Changes Our Lives, and How It Can Save the World
by Bruce Reyes-Chow
The Color of Compromise:
The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism
by Jemar Tisby
The Truth about the American Church's Complicity in Racism
by Jemar Tisby
Hope in Disarray: Piecing Our Lives Together in Faith
by Grace Ji-Sun Kim
by Grace Ji-Sun Kim
How to Lead When You Don't Know Where You're Going:
Leading in a Liminal Season
By Susan Beaumont
Leading in a Liminal Season
By Susan Beaumont
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters
By Priya Parker
By Priya Parker
The Difficult Words of Jesus:
A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings
By Amy-Jill Levine
A Beginner's Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings
By Amy-Jill Levine
Holy Chaos: Creating Connections in Divisive Times
By Amanda Henderson
By Amanda Henderson
Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change
By Tod Bolsinger
By Tod Bolsinger
From Daughters to Disciples: Women's Stories from the New Testament
By Lynn Japinga
By Lynn Japinga