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Discerning, dreaming, crafting, deepening, and refreshing.
Spirit, water, fire, earth, and air.
For twenty-five years, I have helped people navigate the complex work of culture change. These endeavors are about more than just individuals and one-time shifts. True transformation involves sustained practices and communities.
To facilitate this work, I have identified five key areas I recommend individuals and congregations engage with together for long-term success: discerning, dreaming, crafting, deepening, and refreshing. As a nature-based spiritual practitioner, I use the elemental symbolism of spirit, water, fire, earth, and air to represent these dimensions of transformation work.
DISCERN (why/spirit)
Goal: Discern clearly why transformation is a profoundly sacred matter of the spirit.
Example practices: Storytelling and information sharing. Meditation. Conversation. Forest bathing. Deep listening. Reflecting on profound questions about what it means to be alive.
Personal and community clarity can unlock powerful, liberatory possibilities. Change processes are full of natural cycles. We live in social ecosystems that require sustained nourishment. How will we foster change through leaders and the grassroots? How do we catalyze change without controlling others? How will we empower those most harmed by our current approaches? Why does good process matter? Understanding awakens us to the ways power dynamics show up in both interpersonal interactions and institutional structures.
DREAM (what/water)
Goal: Dream of what worlds we could design, flowing in the water of creativity.
Example practices: Deep rest. Music, poetry, and arts. Brainstorming. Journaling. Sharing and co-creating plans for developing communities of greater love and liberation.
The work of culture change requires continual maintenance and deepening to flourish, says Rev. Shige Sakurai, director of Equity, Belonging, and Change at the Unitarian Universalist Association.
We can’t foster a better future if we can’t dream it. Artists and prophetic thinkers point us towards possible futures we could create. Against the culture of productivity, we must rest. Rest creates space away from the buzz, where we can conceptualize future communities, processes, outcomes, and cultures we might seek. What ways can we build relationships and community? What ways of worship can truly enhance belonging? What can we plan together for greater equity and justice, using more transformative and restorative approaches?
CRAFT (how/fire)
Goal: Craft together how we live out our values, sparking the fire of transformation.
Example practices: Action learning groups, committees, and councils. Trainings and programs. Book groups. Shifting resources. Activism. Conferences and networks. Religious education. Behavior changes.
Take action to share material resources, foster learning, advocate justice, and empower those of us who have been most disenfranchised. Align actions with our discernment and dreams. Sometimes we are so fixated on what is wrong that we fail to leverage what is working or seek available opportunities. We often are curious to learn from books, but can we turn book learning into action learning, changing behaviors of individuals and institutions? Checklists and progress dashboards can be helpful, but they don’t replace the humanness of being present with each other. We need craft, not factory production.
DEEPEN (who/earth)
Goal: Deepen our sense of who we truly are, rooted in our shared earth and existence.
Example practices: Ritual work, ceremonies, and celebrations. Actions of social witness. Community care and expression. Policy changes. Membership and leadership development. Shifting power.
Transformation is not just about what we do. It’s about who we are and who we become, together. We must infuse and meld changes into the very structural and cultural contexts around us. Change is not an add-on; it’s a continuous grappling with the deep “why” underneath our justice and equity work. Relationships are the glue. We can build our momentum and commitment by harnessing and applying energy, symbolism, and rituals in our change work.
REFRESH (when/air)
Goal: Refresh ourselves when we must renew transformation with the air of possibility.
Example practices: Breathing activities for relaxation and letting go. Ringing bells. Gathering input and conducting assessments. Sharing humor and joy. Healing trauma and anxieties.
As we continue to try new ideas, some things will work, and others might not. Change happens in seasons and cycles. Rather than deciding we are done or tapering out, we can celebrate our wins and reflect. Take notice of how our very processes for transformation could improve. We can integrate transformation cycles into liturgical cycles. We can leverage what works and release what does not. We can take calculated risks and encourage experimentation, breathing in healing and repair. These moments of reflection can help us rebalance and consider what we might centralize or decentralize, what we might approach anew.
I have listed these five elements of transformation in an order that could constitute a full cycle of practice, but real life is always more complex and less linear than any model. I encourage you to take, leave, adapt, or add to these suggestions as fits your congregational and community contexts.
Ultimately, the loving and liberatory work of community transformation must be sustained and nourished, as we continuously discern, dream, craft, deepen, and refresh together.