Member Values

Re-narrating even working practices involves an appeal to transcendent values and asks if the practices that represent those values are the best way of relating to the world. Changing them requires another story, another way of looking at the same truth but through eyes freshened with possibility and that takes into account the myriad ways custom and technology creates new opportunities. When I say, “transcendent values,” I compare that term against another: “transactional value.” I’ve parsed an individual’s values as being held as transcendent or transactional (the language is mine). Values held transcendently are absolutely right or correct, non-negotiable, and resistant to change. Values held transactionally are those needed to transact a person’s living in a given situation or course of life. An example of this is one person’s comment that if the practices of the church changed she would “keep an open mind, evaluate it, and see if it’s something that the other members want to do.” When asked if other members were to change their position regarding the Bible being inerrant would she go along with that? Her response was a firm, “No.” “That’s one thing I won’t change.” The willingness to change and even adapt to a practice not completely of her liking so long as it was “something that the other members want to do” would not extend to every practice. Clearly, there was more than a single value or a single narrative at work.