We are being challenged to learn to respect one another and to find ways to live and grow in harmony. Our understanding of the importance and value of a positive self image, and how self-confidence influences our decision making has changed. There has been a shift from teaching our children that they are bad and need to be trained to be good, to recognizing that they are gifts that need to be loved and nurtured. Much theology is moving from 'original sin' to 'original blessing'. As levels of education have grown, clergy and laity have had to adjust their understanding of what it means to 'do ministry'.
Laity now have an understanding of their gifts, and feel a call to ministry.
We have shifted from an image of God as Santa Claus in the sky to One who is within us. We think of God less as One who intervenes and more as One who empowers. We find many meaningful images to use when referring to God, and no longer restrict ourselves to the male pronouns that have dominated descriptions of God in the past. We are flexibile enough to select what is most meaningful, rather than contenting ourselves with what the past imposed. We have changed and so have the communities that we live in.