Video Transcript: About Transformation
All right, let's get into what is transformation. Let's talk about transformation. What is it? If you were to look it up in a dictionary, it would say to make a thorough or dramatic change in form, appearance or character of the Greek. Word that the Greek that gives us this word is the word for metamorphosis. There are three passages in Scripture that deal with this matter or talk about transformation. The first one is Jesus's transfiguration. Jesus took his three disciples up in the mountain, and there he was transfigured before them, though we translate translation of this says the manner of his outward expression was changed before them, and His face shone like the sun, and so as the Son of Man, he in human form, he walked amongst us, but On that day, on the mountain he allowed his true essence, the Son of God, to show. Then there's the passage we've referred to before, Romans 12:2, do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So the emphasis of the passage is stop allowing the conforming to the pattern of the world. In other words, that pressure is coming. It is always there. It is a constant in your life. The idea is to not only recognize it, but stop it. But you can't just stop it. You have to replace it with a different activity, and that is the transformation by the renewing of the mind. And so the idea is that in order for us to stop the conformity, we have to start being transformed, allowing ourselves to be transformed. It's a command to stop doing one thing and to start doing the other then there's the passage in II Corinthians 3:18 where it says and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the spirit. This is an amazing passage, as we all do with unveiled faces. Moses, the people of Israel, they had to, they had to have a veil. They could not look directly into the glory of God. We have unveiled faces, and we contemplate the Lord's glory. And because of that, as we do that, we are being changed. We are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory. It really is a marvelous passage that speaks to the continual growing of the believer, changing, transforming of the believer. And so what does that mean? To be transformed is to experience a dramatic change in behavior, transformation. Transformative change involves the renewal, the renovation, the complete change for the better of the mind or one's thinking process. Tom Skinner used to say, it's not that Jesus is not since Jesus entered my heart, it says Jesus entered my mind. For the believer, transformation is both a is both commanded and expected. The emphasis in Paul's exhortation to the Romans is allow yourself to be changed by the renewing of your mind so transformation. It means change. It means metamorphosis. It's like, what happens to the to the caterpillar, who becomes that becomes a butterfly. The thing we need to realize is that to be involved with Transformation, or to be an agent, a means through which are working in sync with God as it relates to his transformational agenda,
need to recognize that preaching is not enough, that preaching can trigger transformation, but in order to do that, two things need to be present. One is the listeners mind is engaged, and the second is that the listeners heart is open to change. And this brings me to the Soren Kierkegaard wrote, what we know today is the parable of the ducks, and it illustrates this principle. Let me read it to you. It says a story is told of a town where all the residents were ducks. Every Sunday, the Ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They wobble into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir wobbles in and takes its place. And then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible. He reads to them, ducks, God has given you wings with wings. You can fly with wings. You can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you, no fences can hold you. You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds. All the ducks shout amen, and then they all waddle home. This happens in youth meetings. So many times in youth meetings where someone is up front and they're giving all kinds of exhortations, and then the kids walk out, and there has been, there has been no no change. Persuasion through assertion doesn't work very well in youth ministry. And then there's the example of Paul. If you look at Paul's life, you find that after he after his conversion, he spent 14 years in Tarsus, 14 years of preparation, 14 years he didn't jump directly into ministry. He had to rethink everything that he had learned. Put all of that through the grid of Jesus being savior and Lord in Isaiah 55:11, that verse is quoted a lot, that God says My Word will not come back to Me void. And we use that to say that we can use our word because we are quoting scripture, and we're because we're quoting Scripture. God is going to use those words to change people's lives. But sometimes we misunderstand the passage. He's not saying that his words are magical. He's saying that they're effective and filled with grace, we must understand that words are as power only, as powerful as the ideas that they convey. And so Paul, he engaged people with those ideas he wanted to take captive every thought, that was his emphasis, and he was adept at reasoning with his experience with King Agrippa. When King Agrippa said that, Paul, pretty soon, you're going to convince me to become a Christian. And Paul says, I would that you would be as I am, except for these changes these chains, need to recognize that the medium really is the message, that it's not just what we say, but it's what we do, Pressing belief into organizational behavior. It needs careful thought and intentionality. This is why, one reason why planning is important, understanding your purpose and your mission and then how you will flesh that out and pressing, pressing your convictions and your beliefs into your behaviors, what you do, not just individually, but as an organization, as a mission, as a youth program, what are you doing? How are you doing it? And how does that convey your beliefs? Sometimes helping ministries can struggle with this, a helping ministry, best of intentions, wanting to assist people, but
sometimes they can provide immediate relief, but can create long term problems. For example, there are some mentoring, wonderful mentoring programs that I'm aware of, and they're very good at matching leader people with kids. Many times it's the suburban person wants to volunteer, so they come in and spend time with an inner city kid. And I'm not saying that's that's bad. I think that's a wonderful it's a wonderful thing to partner people up and to have those kinds of relationships. But if you're not careful, if you are not drawing from within the community, or you're drawing leaders, unless you're not drawing leaders that look like the kids that you serve, you could be sending a message that can be harmful for young people, the message being here in America that only white people can solve the problems of the poor and the needy. You don't want to communicate that, but sometimes the medium becomes the message. Food Basket giveaways, again, you want to provide relief. This usually happens at Christmas time, where where they'll get a list of people that are in need, and people will put together a food basket and bring it. But there are times when, in bringing that food basket, the mom and the kids will come and accept the gift, but the dad is hiding out in the back. It sends a message that is more harmful than helpful. And then there's missions, mission trips, student mission trips. They can be wonderful to go into a foreign land and be of assistance. So you're going to build a house, so you're you're going to do something to be of help to people. But again, we have to be careful when John Perkins has said, if we do for others what they can and must do for themselves, you cripple them. And that that has happened on the mission field, where churches, poor churches, have gotten so used to getting help from the outside that they fail to work on how can we do this for ourselves? How do we how do we build up our own resources, our own capacity to be able to do this so that we truly are in a partnering relationship? Helping is fine, but when the help becomes, when the book, when helping hurts, when helping hurts others, then that's not a good that's not a good thing. Jesus, he said, I have called you friends. I mean Jesus made the disciples partners in his work. And this is about servant leadership, something that we will be looking at more, and it's really important for us today, we recognize that behavior sends a very powerful message that you've heard the phrase what you're doing speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying. So when methods sync with ideas, the message is credible, but when they do not, the message is suspect, and the transformation is stifled. So with transformation, the medium becomes very important. Then there is transformation and leadership. Now we're going to spend a number of sessions in segment two, leadership that transforms. We're going to spend a number of sessions talking about leadership. Again, most youth leaders are trained to lead, but they are not trained to develop leaders, and transformational leadership requires a different mindset, a different way of thinking, a different approach and a different skill set that is focused really on servant leadership. How do you serve them? And so we
need to take a good look at that. Then another one has to do with words, transformation and words. Proverbs 15:23, says that a person finds joy in giving an apt reply and how good is a timely word. Transformational leaders recognize that their words have meaning and impact if the if they are the right words. I remember I was I had accompanied a friend who was going in for court or something, and his daughter was was outside the courtroom. I was sitting with her, and another pastor was sitting with her. Her father was fighting for custody. Well, this little 12 year old was pretty spunky, and she was talking about how she could never forgive this other person for doing what they did to her, what she did to her. She says, No, I can never forgive them. That was a terrible thing she did, and I will never forgive her. And I remember, after listening for a while her ranting for a while, I just made the comment, only forgiven people forgive. And she just stopped and looked at me, says, What do you mean? And I said, Well, if God forgives you all the bad things that you've done, then you will be able to forgive what others have done to you. If God has not forgiven you of the bad things you have done, then you will have a you will not be able to forgive others, only forgiven people. Once you've tasted forgiveness, then you are able to forgive others. That took her by surprise. It also took the pastor by surprise, which, which kind of shocked me, but I've also been on the recipient, on the receiving end of apt words. Before I got involved in ministry and youth ministry, I was a student at Denver seminary, and I was standing outside with some students arguing that at that point in time. I said, I don't have to be in the inner city. I mean, I can't if God calls me there, but I don't really have to go. And I was arguing that point rather forcefully, where Dr Grounds the president of the seminary, I didn't realize, but he was standing off to the side, kind of listening to me talk. And then finally, I must have said something like, I'm not responsible, when all of a sudden he came by, and he said, Are you sure? Are you sure you're not responsible? And he just went right up the stairs, I tell you, that haunted me, and it wasn't long after that that I began considering being involved in urban in Urban Ministry. The right words spoken at the right time can produce life changing results and Proverbs deals with this Kidner, who wrote a commentary on Proverbs says a truth that in general, makes no impression, may be indelibly fixed in the mind when it is matched to its occasion and shaped to its task. And so transformational leaders know the power of timely words, so they use their words carefully and intentionally. When you are speaking to a person and you are in touch with their felt need and a sense of where God is taking them, and then a situation emerges, being sensitive to what you say and how you say it, you can find the apt words to say, and that too, is an important tool of transformation. So implications for youth ministry, transformation, it is change. It is metamorphosis that comes from within. It's not just change, going from here to here, but it's allowing, allowing your life to experience, experience a metamorphosis that you grow into something bigger and greater than what you
have been. It involves replacing conformity to outer pressures with change through the renewal of the mind and the tools that sync with transformation their reasoning, as it was with Agrippa ideas, where Paul focused on ideas, taking them captive behaviors in sync with beliefs, servant leadership and aptness, these are some of the tools of the transformational leader and for transformational discipleship.