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VOL. 15, NO. 10

WALKING IN THE WORD

Walking in the Word:
Called to be Adventurously Expectant

Acts 2:1-21
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17

By Edwin Delong

Change. Nothing stands still. Change. It is all around us moving with exponential speed. Some people embrace this change. Others would rather see the new go away.

Joel Barker, a futurist who works with institutional leaders, speaks of change in the terms of 'out-of-the box thought,' '10X Change' and 'disruptive technology.' For him, how a person reacts to the change that was not requested is a matter of attitude.

Barker indicates that leaders who sense the opportunity in the changing ways of perceiving life in real time will find the 'breakthrough' opportunities that will enhance life. While leaders who do not think and vision with possibility will return, on a continuum of 1 to 10, to zero.

As I read Scripture I become aware that Jesus was Gods '10X change,' or 'out-of-the-box thought.' God knew that if what was envisioned in Genesis would become reality, a radical restatement of the vision was needed. God had tried kings, prophets and hymn writers as restatements. Finally, to get to what was envisioned, God sent Jesus.

Jesus engaged many of the most unlikely of people to be part of the community of faith and thus, in a real-time lifestyle, carry the message.

Paul, Elizabeth, Peter and Mary are included in this list. The story of Pauls life is perhaps the most dramatic.

Paul changed his attitude and began to embody the new way of thinking. He stopped his 'grave-tending' ways and became an adult with childlike expectancy. He wanted to know what his 'papa' was leading him to do next.

His childlike expectancy positioned him to embrace the possibilities of change. It was as if he stood on tiptoe looking over the edge of the current moment, expecting to find the unexpected opportunity to experience the reality of the Genesis vision.

Often what happened next surprised him: a multi-cultural, multi-generational, multi-ethnic group of men and women sharing leadership opportunities.

The churches of our annual conference that have begun to act with expectant thinking are engaging those in our neighborhoods who at first glance might be written off as not part of the Genesis vision — senior adults, the poor, immigrants new to our neighborhoods, teens, young adults, women, men, secular dechurched and unchurched — with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Leaders of these churches sense the possibilities for Genesis reality in the midst of the exponential change just as Paul, the least of the apostles, came to sense how Jews and gentiles, men and women, children and adults and those on the whole spectrum of the economic continuum are interrelated with each other.

The Rev. Edwin DeLong is an associate council director with the Baltimore-Washington Conference who leads the conferences Board of Congregational Life.