7 - The Renewal has Started (again)

Breaking down to build up

Welcome to the next installment of The Lydia Effect (If you’re new here, catch up anytime with the Table of Contents).

If you’ve ever felt like things in your life were stuck or slowly falling apart, you're not alone. That’s what my garden looked like, with projects half-finished and plans frozen in place for years due to other priorities. Sometimes I avoided looking at them because it was hard to see them messy and unfinished. Maybe you know this feeling.

Well finally this week, I unleashed some courage and pent-up “transition energy” onto my gardening projects that had been stuck. My solace during these 5 years on hold was to focus on one single thing—building rich, deep soil.

Soil Building

Each fall I added leaves and rotten wood to garden areas and each spring I added cover crops or mulch to shade the soil. I reminded myself when I got discouraged with progress — “Just keep building the soil.” I knew it would take time and eventually pay off, which is the same as my faith journey. When everything visible feels broken or stuck, God is still quietly creating the conditions for renewal underground.

As a soil scientist, I’ve spent years studying what the “dust of the earth” (Genesis 2:7) is doing below the surface. The cycle of renewal plays a leading role in everything hiding under our feet. The soil is a renewal engine, breaking down last year’s grass, leaves, and sticks into food.

Renewal is sacred—a patient, often painful unfolding, always happening even when we can’t see it. God wove this rhythm into creation—we see it in nature, in stories, in music, and in Holy Scripture with rebirth and resurrection. And we feel it in our hearts when we go through loss and recover to grow again.

In the garden like my permaculture projects, renewal requires a death for decomposition for the soil to get deeper and healthier. This part of the process is hard to accept — the breaking down required for renewal.

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
John 12:24, NLT

You may have noticed the painful decomposition process has been happening in the Christian faith. Even if you are Christian-curious or spiritual-but-not-religious, you can see the closed churches, public scandals, and how the culture war has affected Christianity and broken through into our national political conversation. The decay, deconstruction, collapse, and conflict within the “Christian” community even seems to be metastasizing.

What are Experts Saying?

While I have been up to my elbows in soil, I’ve also been watching for signs of renewal of faith. Mark Sayers, a pastor and cultural analyst in Australia, has called the status of renewal a “green light moment” (Rebuilders podcast on April 16). And this month, one article in Christianity Today really got my attention.

Skyler Flowers and Michael Graham wrote A Splintered Generation: Evangelicalism’s fracturing is chronic, but not terminal. Here’s how we can move forward. This article struck a chord with me about the renewal, echoing the decomposition that happens in soil before the renewal can begin. They discuss the early stirrings of renewal but that the trends “code more male than female,” which I have noticed as well.

When I saw their recommendations for the future, I got excited. They reflect what I have been thinking about Lydia of Thyatira.

1. Anchor the center on Christ — Lydia’s church didn’t have a New Testament yet. Their center was telling stories and Christ.

2. Whole-person discipleship — that’s what I imagine the first century being like, with Lydia’s integration of business, home, and worship.

3. Leaders who bear the fruit of the Spirit — not attention-seeking influencers but hosts who create space and empower others.

4. Local focus — Lydia’s church was rooted in Philippi and connected to the other local house churches

I imagine Lydia’s house like what we need more of in this renewal. Yes, the deconstructing and decomposition is still in full swing, but Lydia’s pattern is a solid vision of what we could build as we process through these difficult times.

The strategies outlined by Flowers and Graham suggest depth and authenticity. They sound like soaking rains and digging deep. They nailed so much of what’s missing and where hope might be found. But I was disappointed in one thing — they lacked curiosity about what might happen when women feel truly welcome and empowered in faith to help their friends and communities. They did not connect the last dot.

If I could be so bold to suggest an addition to their list of recommendations, I would add this:

#5 - Empower women of faith to help lead this renewal.

This strategy deserves more than a footnote or just assumed to be part of the plan. This is the true innovation and collaboration needed to dig as deep as we need to dig. Empowering women in their faith to help lead the church through this renewal is a critical strategy. I will go more into this in my next post.

So, no matter what stage you are at in your own personal or faith community renewal — still grieving a loss, breaking things down, cocooning in preparation, or gearing up to step forward, just remember—you are already part of this natural pattern. And it’s painful, since you have to give up something before you can move forward.

Next week, boys and girl power and renewal of faith.

Reflection Prompts:

• Is there a part of your life that feels like it’s breaking down or being stripped away right now? Could that be part of a deeper renewal process?

• Can you name a time when growth came after a season of waiting, grief, or decomposition?

• Spend some time in a garden or plants to spend some time thinking about the renewal in soil and nature.

• Ask one woman in your life: “What’s something in your life that’s quietly transforming?” Listen. Encourage her story.