Butterfly Moments

For our May Common Learning Day, we partnered with the Center for Leadership Excellence who hosted a visioning workshop led by Dr. Margaret Brunson. During this workshop, she used the journey of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly as an analogy for the process of moving from dreaming and visioning to implementation. 

Dr. Brunson explained that the caterpillar’s first task is to diligently nourish itself with all the sustenance it will need for the journey ahead. As they head into the chrysalis stage, their bodies undergo a complete transformation. What is no longer needed dissolves away, and hormones spur the growth of their wings and other vital organs. From the outside, the chrysalis can look still or even lifeless, but inside, important work is taking place. When the transformation is complete, the butterfly struggles to slowly find its way out of the chrysalis, taking time to strengthen and dry its wings before finally taking flight into its new life as a butterfly.

As I have served with our Annual Conference the last two years, I have come to believe that we are living in a kind of chrysalis season ourselves. What we were is no longer, and God is inviting us into a new season that we cannot fully see yet. Right now, we’re in the midst of doing the good and beautiful work of dreaming, being formed and reformed, and listening to where the Holy Spirit is leading us. It has been a privilege to get to witness and be a part of this work. 

Though we don’t know exactly what is ahead, it is clear that we have to center co-creating new places for new people to gather in communion with Jesus Christ. Our New Faith Communities Lead team has been looking across the conference at places where there are United Methodist deserts or demographic deserts, and we are working with the Bishop and cabinet to place and equip leaders with the resources they need to co-create new places for new people.

I am so grateful for the ways our New Faith Communities pastors are leading in this season. In many of these communities, we are already beginning to see glimpses of “butterfly moments” where the original vision for welcoming new people is beginning to take flight. In this newsletter, you will hear stories from each of our NFC pastors that reflect these moments of transformation and hope.

As I prepare to head back to the local church to serve as the new Lead Pastor of Duke Memorial UMC in Durham, I do so with deep hope for what is ahead for our Annual Conference. I look forward to the day, years from now, when we can look back and recognize how God was at work among us during these chrysalis years, forming and reforming us for what is next. I look forward to all of the butterfly moments still to come, including the ones we cannot yet even imagine.