Anchored for Change

A few months ago, I attended an event sponsored by the Texas Methodist Foundation that focused on innovation in ministry. While the entire event was energizing, I was particularly struck by Steve Rader’s presentation on Change and Innovation. He started the talk with this statement: The world is changing - this is not a cycle. Rader went on to say that the problem was not so much change itself, but the rate of change. He did not offer ideas on how to slow down the rate of change. He invited the group of leaders to lean in to the change and adapt our ministry models to serve a world that was living through it. As you can tell, I am still thinking about Steve’s talk and specifically, it’s implications for us in the FLUMC.

From the impact of Covid to the reckoning around race and the shifting landscape in our culture and tensions in our governments, the rate of change has put pressure on our society. But for us as United Methodists, this season of disaffiliations is probably the change that has all of us - and I do mean ALL OF US - feeling a lot of feelings. It’s like being on a rollercoaster that is faster than you anticipated. We can’t get off this ride, but we can’t enjoy it either. 

There are some who would hope and pray for things to stop changing. Others would pray for the rate of change to slow down to a more manageable pace. I feel this prayer, and sometimes have found myself praying it too. It’s in that prayer that we often focus on what has happened and how we might renegotiate the change that is before us. But alas, what we are finding is that change is and will continue to happen, and possibly faster than we could have ever imagined.

Thank God, we have not been left to navigate the season of rapid change alone. God continues to be with us, and the grace of Jesus is still available to us in this moment. By God’s Spirit, this grace can hold us steady even as the winds of change blow all around us. The question is, will we receive it?.

To the laity who have been working tirelessly to hold your congregations together, we stand with you in solidarity and in prayer. Even as disaffiliations are changing the make up of our Conference, there remains an anchor for our souls. The invitation in this season of uncertainty is to remain rooted in Christ, grounded in our connection as United Methodists, and focused on our call to make disciples who transform the communities of Florida. We could pray for the pace to slow down, or we could pray for the kind of anchoring grace that would give us wisdom and courage to live faithfully in this season.

It’s not an easy time, but we were not promised easy. We can’t slow down the rate of change in our Conference, but we can, as the Hebrews preacher reminds us, hold on to our hope. There will be a new day on the other side of these disaffiliations, and we’ll need leaders who are ready to embody the love of Christ for the sake of the world. So my friends, as we are all experiencing the ever increasing rate of change in our Church and our world, may we open ourselves anew to the anchoring grace of Jesus who has called and equipped us to live as His hands and feet in this rapidly changing world. May it be so.

Derrick Scott III
Co-Lay Leader, Florida Conference

Check out the last reflection, Release and Blessing, by Alice Williams, Co-Lay Leader, Florida Conference