Time to "Get Changed"

When I was growing up, the back porch was where we left our muddy boots, heavy coats and small garden tools. Getting changed there meant peeling off the outside layer of clothing in order to be comfortable and cleaner inside the house. Although that's not what F@W founder, Sam Shoemaker, meant by "get changed, get together and get going," the image of shedding our protective clothing makes sense to me.

For Sam, "getting changed" was a summary of steps 4-6 of the 12 steps of AA:

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

It was a process of conversion, of shedding unwanted behaviors in the light of God's love and power to make all things new again. Gordon Cosby's article in this issue describes that process more fully. And the interview with Tom McMakin, CEO of Great Harvest Bread Co., puts it in marketplace language.

My own story of this time to "get changed" is more prosaic. It's about a shift in my call and relinquishment of my position at the door of Faith@Work. The moral inventory I need to make looks more like cleaning out the basement, lightening our load of possessions so we can listen for God's guidance about where Peter and I can give our life energy in the next decade (step 4). I will continue to meet regularly with my spiritual director at The Seekers Church to listen and learn from my interactions with others, especially those I would like to exclude (step 5). And I am old enough to know that my "defects in character" will never get straightened out, but if I can treat my fears and foibles as teachers rather than my enemies, I will have lifelong companions for learning and growing and changing (step 6). In this, I look toward Paul Welter and Adaline Bjorkman, our senior writers, who keep challenging me to grow toward the wisdom and needs of children.

This month, the Seekers Church was presented at the Pastoral Summit in New Orleans as one of eight excellent Protestant congregations in the country. In a Lilly-funded project, author Paul Wilkes and his small research staff interviewed 300 congregations to find examples of Catholic and Protestant churches where good things are going on. Our little church was featured because, like the other congregations that grew out of Gordon Cosby's Church of the Saviour, intimacy and commitment shape our lives toward Christ. The three qualities that Wilkes noticed particularly have been important in grounding my life there for the past 25 years: commitment to growth and service through a mission group, the centrality of creative worship (including an open pulpit with different preachers from the congregation), and ongoing education through the School of Christian Living.

As a second-generation Church of the Saviour, Seekers is in the process of moving out of the headquarters building in downtown Washington into a storefront that will open up new possibilities for mission and outreach. And, having written about the evolution of call for individuals, I am eager to get started on a book about the evolution of call at Seekers for others who are looking for models of lively, lay-led faith communities. (For now, you can visit us at www.SeekersChurch.org.)

To be honest, even the word "getting" has begun to bother me. I prefer "being changed" because it has a softer sound. But I've learned that my resistence is often a clue to something that needs attention, something that may have an aspect of call about it, so I'll continue to work with the steps included in the theme for this issue -- a time to get changed -- and hope you will continue in your support for the changes going on at Faith@Work.

Marjory Bankson is editor of Faith@Work magazine and is a Steward of The Seekers Church, a faith community of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC.