BECOMING A TRANSFORMED NONCONFORMIST (THE REMIX)

 

“Be not conformed to the world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)

 
About fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached a sermon entitled, “Transformed Nonconformist.”  Dr. King based his message on the familiar text from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Roman Church, where in the 12^th chapter, Paul reminded the Christians in Rome that they were to “be not conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of (their) minds.” 

The context for Dr. King’s message, this matter of transformed nonconformity, was the American Civil Rights movement of the mid-20^th century, and the need for leadership in the church and society that would stay the course in seeking to transform society and deliver America from the racial division, economic disparity, and other social maladies that plagued our nation then.

Dr. King’s message has haunted me over the years, as I have thought about what it means to be a leader in the church today.  And it has led me lately to think about what it means for us to be adaptive in our leadership.  In a nutshell adaptive leadership is what I sense that Dr. King was talking about when he talked about transformed nonconformity. 

And who better to turn to than the apostle Paul in thinking on matters transformation and adaptation?  Indeed, Paul knew something about transformed nonconformity.  He knew something about adaptive leadership before it became one of the new buzz-phrases in the church and business world. 

Paul was the embodiment of adaptation.  He was a Jewish Pharisee, who would be touched by Jesus and would become a Christian convert.  A  Judeo-Christian he was, a born-again Christian, a lawyer, a theologian, a philosopher and a new church start pastor.  Paul preached to Jews and Gentiles, the rich and the poor, the haves, the have nots and the have mores. 

He was practical and systematic, pastoral and prophetic.  If there was anybody who modeled transformed nonconformity, and adaptive leadership, and practiced what he was preaching here, it was the apostle Paul.

Paul said, “don’t be conformed to (don’t try to be like) the world, but be transformed (be changed) by the renewing (the changing) of your minds.”

Hear Eugene Peterson’s re-mix on this verse from the Message translation of the Bible: “Don’t be so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.”   

Concerning this matter of conformity and the call to transformation, Dr. King wrote in his sermon decades ago these words, “Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority… In spite of the prevailing tendency to conform, we as Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists.”

Transformation – adaptation.  This is primary the challenge for the 21^st century church.  In this nano-second, drive-through, instant message, instant everything world in which we live, it is our challenge as leaders to lead in changing the realities in our churches and communities in ways that make sense for today.  And we must lead in ways where we are not subsumed by every fad, and every quick-fix, and every church guru, and consultant and coach (some of whom haven’t transformed and grown churches themselves), every program and seminar and workshop and conference, webinar, and great idea that comes along. 

As transformed nonconformists, we must be prayerful and discerning and discreet and strategic in determining what will be needed to lead our churches and communities towards the specific vision - the preferred future - that God intends.  We must resist the temptation to keep up with the “ecclesial Jones,” and copy and imitate every apparently successful mega-church, big-church, Bentley-driving preacher that comes along. 

We must be pastoral and theological, love everybody while leading them, and stay true to the Gospel while relating (not conforming) to a super-fast-changing world.  Ours must be the life of the re-mix – changing, growing, improvising, and transforming – but never conforming.  

For to conform means that we stay mired in the mess in our midst, but to transform means we’re about the business of helping to re-mold the mess that’s around us.   

Indeed, it is the adaptive, transformed leader’s task to speak truth and change where there is un-health and dis-ease in the church, lead in transforming current reality where necessary, and celebrating and building on those places and spaces where the church and God’s people are healthy and growing.

And we know that adaptive leadership – transformed nonconformity - is not easy.  Paul, said “you” be not conformed, and “you” be transformed by the renewing of “your” minds.  He didn’t say that the church needs to be transformed, or that the denomination needs to be transformed, or even that the world needs to be transformed, but that “you” (and I) must first be transformed. 

Indeed, if the church and society are to be transformed in this present day, if change is to occur around us, it will have to begin in us.  ““You” be transformed by the renewing of “your” minds.”  Mohandas Gandhi told the people of India in the midst of their fight for change, that they were, “to be the change you want to see in the world.”

Indeed, it has taken persons like the apostle Paul and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to show us what such transformational adaptive leadership looks like.  It has been persons like John Wesley and Bishop Leontine Kelly who have led the way in showing us what it means to be adaptive leaders.

And now… It’s up to you and me.