The Work Before the Flight

Serving the Future of New Thought While the Plane Is Still on the Ground

Airports have a way of teaching spiritual lessons whether we ask for them or not. As I sit in the Nashville airport writing these words, the departure board above the gate tells a story that many travelers know well. My flight has been delayed by an hour and a half. People around me refresh their phones, glance up at the screen, and quietly adjust their expectations about how the day will unfold. Some sigh. Some laugh. Some simply settle into the uncomfortable discipline of waiting. Travel, like life, does not always move according to our preferred timeline.

It occurs to me that the delay is an almost perfect metaphor for the work a small but deeply committed group of leaders has just undertaken in service of the future of New Thought.

Over the past three days, the leadership of the International New Thought Alliance gathered for an intensive period of conversation, reflection, and relationship building. This gathering was not simply another meeting on a calendar. It was an opportunity for the stewards of the oldest New Thought umbrella organization on the planet to pause together and ask a deeper question about the future of the movement we serve. Founded more than a century ago, INTA now stands in its 111th year, a living thread connecting generations of spiritual teachers, ministers, and communities who have been exploring the implications of spiritual principle in everyday life.

When an organization has existed for more than a century, the work of leadership carries a particular weight. We do not begin from a blank slate. We inherit stories, traditions, breakthroughs, disagreements, successes, and unfinished questions. We inherit the courage of those who came before us, along with the responsibility to ensure that what they began continues to evolve in ways that serve the present moment.

The gathering brought together ministers and leaders from across the New Thought family. Representatives of Unity, Religious Science, Divine Science, the Universal Foundation for Better Living, and independent New Thought ministries sat in the same room. Each person arrived with their own personal journey, their own organizational history, and their own sense of what the future might require of us.

The beauty of New Thought has always been its diversity of expression united by a shared recognition of spiritual principle. Yet anyone who has ever served in leadership knows that diversity also requires patience, humility, and a willingness to listen deeply to perspectives that may differ from our own. Leadership in a movement like this is not the work of imposing a single vision. It is the work of discovering what becomes possible when many sincere voices remain committed to a shared purpose.

For this process we had the great privilege of working with Martha Creek, whose decades of experience guiding transformative dialogue helped create the container for our work. The role of a facilitator in a gathering like this is not to provide answers, but to help reveal the questions that matter most. When those questions are asked sincerely and held long enough, something remarkable begins to happen. People begin to see one another more clearly. Assumptions soften. Possibilities that were previously hidden begin to emerge.

Many people imagine that gatherings of leaders culminate in a dramatic moment of revelation. A perfectly worded vision statement appears. A new mission emerges fully formed. Everyone leaves the room inspired and certain about the path ahead.

That is not how real spiritual work usually unfolds.

The work of the Divine often moves more slowly than our strategic plans. Instead of lightning bolts, there are conversations. Instead of dramatic declarations, there is listening. Instead of instant clarity, there is the patient discovery of what becomes possible when people stay in relationship long enough for deeper wisdom to surface.

“The future of New Thought will not be created by a single voice or a single organization. It will emerge through the courageous willingness of many leaders to sit together long enough for deeper truth to reveal itself.”

During our time together we did not emerge with a brand new vision statement ready for immediate publication. What we did accomplish was, in many ways, far more meaningful. We learned about one another. We listened to the histories that shaped each person at the table. We explored what it means to serve a movement that is simultaneously ancient and newly emerging. Most importantly, we began the work of establishing covenants that will guide how we work together in the years ahead.

Covenant is a powerful spiritual concept. Unlike contracts, which focus primarily on obligations and rules, covenant speaks to relationship. A contract asks what we must do. A covenant asks who we are committed to being together.

That distinction matters profoundly in a spiritual movement.

New Thought has always been about more than intellectual philosophy. It has been about the embodiment of spiritual principle in human relationship. If we are to serve the evolution of this movement in the years ahead, the quality of our relationships will matter as much as the clarity of our ideas.

“Movements do not evolve simply because new ideas appear. They evolve because people are willing to grow into new ways of being with one another.”

As our conversations deepened over the three days, it became clear that the work we had begun together is only the beginning of a longer journey. The leadership of INTA will gather again following the upcoming 111th International New Thought Congress, where ministers, spiritual leaders, and seekers from around the world will come together for several days of exploration, dialogue, and celebration of the living tradition we share.

This congress represents far more than an annual gathering. It is a living reminder that New Thought has always been a global movement. The ideas first articulated by pioneers such as Emma Curtis Hopkins, Melinda Cramer, Myrtle Fillmore, Charles Fillmore, and Ernest Holmes have traveled far beyond the small circles in which they first emerged. Their influence continued through teachers who helped bring New Thought into the modern era, including voices such as Jonnie Coleman, whose work helped introduce countless people to the living principles of this path. Today those ideas are expressed in communities across the world, interpreted through many cultural lenses and lived through countless individual lives.

The work before us now is not merely to preserve those ideas, but to help them evolve in ways that remain relevant to the challenges of the present moment.

We live in a time of extraordinary change. Humanity is navigating technological transformation, ecological crisis, social upheaval, and a profound reexamination of long standing cultural assumptions. In such a time, the spiritual insights at the heart of New Thought are more necessary than ever. The recognition that consciousness shapes experience, that divine presence lives within every being, and that human beings possess the creative capacity to participate consciously in the unfolding of life are not merely philosophical curiosities. They are practical insights that can help humanity navigate a rapidly changing world.

Yet ideas alone are not enough.

The real question is whether those ideas will become lived practices in the everyday lives of ordinary people.

“Our task is not simply to make New Thought famous. Our task is to help make New Thought practiced.”

Which brings me back to this airport.

When a flight is delayed, it does not mean the journey has been canceled. It means that something somewhere requires additional attention before the plane can safely move forward. Perhaps the weather is shifting. Perhaps the aircraft arriving from another city has not yet landed. Perhaps the runway at the destination is not yet ready to receive us.

In my case, the destination is Denver, where snow is currently falling.

The sky above Nashville may be perfectly clear, but the landing strip where I am headed must be prepared before the journey can continue.

There is wisdom in that.

Movements move forward in much the same way. The future we are preparing to enter must be ready to receive us. The relationships required to sustain it must be cultivated. The leaders who will steward it must be willing to grow into the responsibility they carry.

Sometimes that work takes time.

Sometimes it requires waiting.

Sometimes it requires sitting in uncomfortable chairs at an airport gate, trusting that the journey will continue even if the schedule shifts along the way.

The good news is that the journey of New Thought is far from finished. In many ways, it may only be beginning.

The invitation before us is simple, though not necessarily easy. Each of us must ask how we are being called to participate in the evolution of this movement. Some will serve through ministry. Others through scholarship, activism, education, or community building. Still others will serve simply by living the principles of spiritual truth in the ordinary circumstances of daily life.

The future of New Thought will not be created by a handful of organizations alone. It will be created by the collective commitment of thousands of people who believe that consciousness matters, that love matters, and that humanity is capable of growing into a more compassionate and awakened way of living together.

That is the deeper vision that organizations like INTA are called to support.

If that vision resonates with you, I invite you to consider becoming part of the work. Membership in the International New Thought Alliance is one way to support the ongoing development of this global movement. Attending the upcoming New Thought Congress is another opportunity to participate in the conversations that are shaping its future.

More than anything, we invite you to recognize that the evolution of New Thought is not someone else’s responsibility. It belongs to all of us.

“The future of New Thought will be written by those willing to serve its evolution, patiently, faithfully, and together.”

Together we are bringing these ideas into the world not merely as a philosophy to be discussed, but as a way of life to be lived. Together we are helping ensure that the insights of this tradition become not only household names, but household practices. And together, through patience, courage, and shared commitment, we are participating in the slow and beautiful work of creating a world that truly works for all.

Rev. Robert Brzezinski, D.Div., is a New Thought minister, writer, and the Spiritual and Creative Director of New Thought Media Network. He serves on the Executive Board of the International New Thought Alliance, the Board of Directors of the Affiliated New Thought Network, and the Board of Regents for the Emerson Theological Institute.

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