Wow, CORNY. In his attempt to passionately convey the spirit and meaning of the “transformasphere” movement, Pastor Seth whipped out seven colored balls signifying the various spheres in society and explained how each color correlated with a respective sphere – ‘Red is for healthcare…because of blood!’. Besides reminiscing back to my days in elementary art class, I laughed to myself because some of the colors were a bit of a stretch – even to this day, I have no idea what the purple or blue or yellow colors stand for. The word ‘transformasphere’ isn’t even a real word in the dictionary. Initially, I scoffed at the entire idea of the movement and laughed it off as a radically willed initiative that the church wanted to engage in. Perhaps the zeal emanating from the lips of all the church leaders and pastors made me think that the transformasphere movement would entirely change the scene of every social sphere, and soon, our society would be doing things the biblical way – poverty, social injustice, economic greed would all be eradicated as a result of this seedling movement. What I have realized, detached from my feigned cynicism, is that the transformasphere movement is not a bloated excuse to quickly and automatically change society. Rather, it promotes principles of awareness, sustainability, and diversity that aims to challenge and transform the current perspectives controlling society to a more biblically centered view on the world.

Far too often, I am surprised at the lack of awareness that the campus and church community exhibits when asked about the current state of affairs in the world, let alone the University’s happenings. We all say that we want to be involved with this world and change it, but how does it even start? Merely acquiring a college degree will not fulfill the goal of establishing a transformasphere. In order to effectuate genuine change, one must not only have qualifications but an awareness of what the world environment is like. In healthcare, if a physician lacks the awareness of the latest health care policies, the patients and fellow doctors will not trust that physician with consequential decisions. If one truly wishes to stand up for something and bring about positive change, he must be equipped with knowledge of the problem before mobilizing some kind of force to combat it.

Furthermore, ‘transformasphere’ partially evokes the meaning of the word ‘atmosphere’, which is a distinctive environment that people forever attach certain feelings and experiences to. The sense of a lasting effect is crucial to forming a transformasphere in whatever sector of society one is placed in. Thus, the mark of a transformasphere is not whether one can use his or her position to change the culture, attitude, and policies of the sphere, but whether that change can be sustained for the long term. As students, we are called to be witnesses in the classroom, voice our opinions on certain issues, and join in on activism for those issues. If, for example, students unite in the name of social justice and are compelled to action by our faith in successfully provoking the University to divest its resources from a country condoning social injustice, then that victory must be sustained, monitored, and testified continually so that the University does not revert back to its old policies.

Lastly, the transformasphere movement is defined by an undeniable component of diversity, where people of all different backgrounds, experiences, and skills must unite to transform people’s hearts, perspectives, and actions. Though it may seem the diversity of ideas and backgrounds could potentially lead people to clash in their plan for action, the essence of diversity is ‘integration’ of people. Diversity should not be about who is liberal and conservative or who fights for the corporations or the non-profit organizations. Integrating the multitude of contrasting perspectives and experiences to bring forth a change rooted in the solitary belief of promoting a biblical paradigm and principle should be the result of diversity in transformaspheres. Therefore, partisanship and theoretical clashes should not pose as a barrier but a strength of differences to promote the tenets of what a certain sphere is imagined to be.

While it is certainly far from the day that this society will be transformed to work and live in a way that honors God, it is encouraging to know that the transformasphere movement’s embodiment of the three components will effectuate change in the perspectives and actions that often taint the true purposes of existing societal spheres. This movement is about the long term state of the world – quick fixes and schemes will only prevail until newer ideologies take over. It is important to always maintain the convictions that one forms in his respective sphere, whether it is as a student or a professional, through education, sustainability of change, and diversity in order to build up God’s kingdom in a secular world.

Brian Choi submitted this essay for the recent transformasphere essay contest. Brian is currently a senior at the University of Michigan.