Introduction to Religious Transformation

My intention in creating this blog is to do some thinking and sharing about the nature of religious transformation in our time. If religion is that which binds us together and transformation is a dramatic or thorough change in form, then religious transformation is a term that describes at least three separate but related phenomena:

·         First, in religious community, the fact of being bound together by a shared covenant, with free and open discourse and discernment, changes us each in dramatic ways. In other words, what transpires between and among us in authentic religious community is bound to change each of us—and change us in ways, both large and small, that we cannot possibly predict beforehand.

·         Second, religious transformation suggests that in order to stay bound together in any meaningful way, our congregations and other religious organizations and institutions must exist in a state of perpetual change.  Maintaining the status quo is not a religious undertaking. On the contrary, transformation is the only option for religious institutions if they wish to thrive.

·         Third, religious transformation inevitably expresses itself as movement outward toward change in the larger community and the world. Real and meaningful religious transformation is undergirded by a vow to that which is larger than just those few gathered together and compels us to work to fulfill a specific mission both within and beyond our walls.

All three of these ideas center on this notion that the very things that bind us together will (and must) change us and change themselves and lead individuals and institutions toward changing the world.

Many religious organizations and communities are failing in one or more of these three areas: individuals are not being meaningfully transformed, the organizations themselves have stagnated and resist changes at all costs, and these communities are not acting upon a larger vow in any important way.

Although I am writing from the perspective of a Unitarian Universalist minister, I believe that the challenge of religious transformation is one that must be engaged by any religious institution that aspires to be something beyond a social club or support group or narrow advocacy organization. All three of those undertakings I just named are worthwhile and important endeavors, but they are not necessarily religious.

When Jesus said: “Unless the grain of wheat dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 20:24), he was providing an apt metaphor for religious transformation on all levels.

Bearing fruit requires a kind of death, a dramatic change that must occur not just once but again and again. Our former selves must die, our old ways of being with one another must pass away, our failed ways of

engaging with the world must perish. It is only in this way that we can live into the great promise of religious transformation.

In upcoming posts, I will dig a bit deeper into each of the points I made above and will explore some of the underpinnings and implications of religious transformation in our era.