This page is dedicated to the philosophy and progress of the transformation of our congregation.

 

The First Presbyterian Church of North Little Rock, Arkansas, is in the middle of an exciting congregational transformation.  Having survived for over 100 years, the church had been experiencing a steady decline during the 1990’s.  However, the redevelopment of the Argenta District in downtown North Little Rock demonstrated to us that our congregation needs to be transformed in order to minister to the needs of those around us. 

 

Just what is transformation?  According to the Office of Mission Program Grants of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), “Transformation is about disrupting the current cycle of a congregation’s life in order to intentionally bring about change."

 

The concept of "disrupting a church's cycle" and "change" are hard concepts for some folks to accept.  However, the "motto" of the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions is:  "Reformed and always being reformed."  If we were not "transforming" or "reforming," then we would not be true Presbyterians.

 

Under the leadership of the Presbytery of Arkansas and the guidance of the church session, First Presbyterian Church of North Little Rock began an intentional process of transformation and disrupting the church's cycle of decline in 2003.  The process has been slow, but deliberate, and often painful. 

 

Part of the process involved our congregation coming to the realization that our church was not only “dying,” but that it was already dead.  Now, that was truly painful and a hard pill to swallow!  However, the membership had declined and the programs deteriorated to the point that closing was imminent.  It took coming to grips with this reality in order to get to the place to where we can trust God for resurrection from this dead state.  Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it cannot bear fruit.”  Even Jesus, God in the flesh, had to die.  If he had not died, then he could not have been raised.  And, as Paul say, “. . . if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.”  He went on to say, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”  Resurrection cannot come until AFTER the “garden agony” of Maundy Thursday, the “crucifixion” of Good Friday, and the “tomb” of Holy Saturday.  For the Christian, death always has the hope of the rusurrection.  However, resurrection cannot come without death.  It is one of the great paradoxes of our faith.

 

The great 20^th century church reformer, theologian, and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The unbelieving world says: 'the church is dead; let us celebrate its funeral with speeches and conferences and resolutions, which all do it honor.'  [Or . . .] The unbelieving world, full of pious illusions, says: 'the church is not dead; it is only weak, and we will serve it with all our might and put it on its feet again.  Only good will can do that; let us make a new morality.'  The believer says: 'the church lives in the midst of death, only because God calls it from death to life, because God does the impossible toward us and through us — so would we all say …' " [From the book entitled A Testament to Freedom, edited by Geffery B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson, p. 103.]

 

 Steve Boots elaborates:

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words in the summer of 1932.  The context was a youth conference in Gland, Switzerland.  The church he was referring to was the church as it was at that time in Europe. There was a world wide depression and international crises related to the rise of Nazism in Germany.  What he wanted to do was tell the participants at the conference not to sink into pessimism about the Church or world affairs.  The perceived anxiety among Christians was “everything which we undertake here as church action could be too late, superfluous, even trivial."

 

He also warned them about the unbelievers in the church who thought all the church needed was positive thinking and the will to resurrect itself.  He told the young people gathered that what they needed to be about as members of the Church was to “Let Christ be Christ.”

 

Congregational transformation is about letting Christ be Christ.  To believe in the future of the church but not believe that is our “might” that will resurrect it.  We cannot resurrect the church by working, harder, faster, smarter.  Christ can transform a congregation that is willing to face death and is open to a new life that God is creating. [emphasis added]

 

[The above was taken from the Congregational Transformation page of the website of the PCUSA.  The page may be accessed by following this link:  http://www.pcusa.org/transformation/stories/deathtolife.htm]

 

That process of seeing life rise from death is difficult and even painful at times.  There are those who will not understand it, those who will not like it, and there will also be those who will violently oppose it.  That is because we humans want to control things ourselves rather than let God do it God’s way.

 

If we are to become the church God is calling us to be, then we must all die -- die to our own desires, die to our own agendas, die to our own power, and die to our own selves.  After all, Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to be my disciple, let him take up his cross daily and follow me."  As Bonhoeffer said, "God calls us from death to life."  As St. Francis of Assissi said in his famous prayer, "For it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

 

The Presbytery of Arkansas, of which we are a member church, has adopted a guide for congregational transformation.  That guide can be found at this link:  http://www.pcusa.org/transformation/stories/transformationplan.htm

 

These must be the philosophical and theological underpinnings of our congregational identity, our congregational ministries, and any plans for the future.  Transformation is just that . . . TRANSFORMATION.  We must be transformed, or CHANGED into something else, changed into what God wants us to be, not what any of us think we should be.  Therefore, we must convenant together to set our agendas aside, diligently seek God's will and leading, then do our best to follow what we come to believe is the direction of God for us.  As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5: 15:  "And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them."

 

The Apostle Paul admonishes us, "Be NOT conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what that good and perfect and acceptable will of God is."  In other words, if we are going to be transformed, we have to change our way of thinking.  We have to put aside the old thought processes of how the church ought to be, and we have to take on "the mind of Christ."  Then we can begin to know God's will for us.

 

More later.