(e)mergent Voyageurs

A friend recently invited to sit in on a gathering in July made of up of theologians (profs & students) and young adults (which I assume I fall under) to explore a trend they are seeing emerge.  Many students, once leaving academy and entering into church ministry seem to stop thinking theologically, falling into business models of church structure and leadership.  This gathering is (in part) to explore why this happens and what can be done about it.

I still have a great deal of thinking to do on this topic, but many reasons immediately jump to mind.  I believe that the nature of academy, rooted largely in propositional and inductive approaches to education, provide little modelling of organizational formation.  Two qualifiers here: first, propositional and inductive educational methods are not inherently bad, but limiting and problematic as over-arching approaches.  Second, while academy general does a poor job modelling healthy organizational formation, it does teach a great deal on the ideas and theories of such formation.  However, I think we forget how powerful the methods and models of our education play in shaping our wordlview and resultant expressions of organization.

Another factor in this is that the business model is not only a predominant one within the larger Western culture, which is bound to have a significant influence, but a vast portion of church expressions have also adopted such models.  Church politics and long-standing models are not easily changed.  The bottom line is a still a significant factor for many congregations.  To expect students to function outside of this influence without an intentional effort to change the system for/with them is probably too much to ask.

Perhaps the largest influencer in this, and thus one of the more difficult to grapple with, is the worlview that guides most Western Christians.  For centuries the church has allowed secular modernism to redefine ecclesiology.  Even the perceived separation between ecclesiology and missiology represents a flawed understanding of what the Church is.  More recently, the impact of the Industrial Revolution has resulted in a significantly mechanistic worldview when considering organizational formation and development.  While this may sound innocuous enough, the implications are devastating to how we view relationships with people in those structures, especially in respect to the nature of Body of Christ.

Finally, I also want to point out that there are aspects where the business world has a great deal of wisdom to offer the Church.  Recent developments in organizational development are profoundly spiritual, reflecting ecclesiological truths that we would do well to heed.  We cannot allow these models to be our primary (or default) source of formation, but neither should we demonize them.

What do you think?  What are some of the factors that contribute to this problem and what can be done to correct it?

Today over Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight sensitively responded to a letter from a young woman who, after years of service in minsitry, has begun to experience deep doubt about her faith. His response is excellent and is well worth the time to read. As always, the discussion in the comment section is lively and engaging.

Doubt. This is an increasingly important topic, as I find myself coming across many people facing this same set of challenges as “Karen” shared in her letter to Scot- a letter, I might add, that required incredible courage and honesty. Some respond as she has, honest, but longing. Others have stepped away from faith, embracing alternative beliefs and non-beliefs. Responses are as varied as those responding, but one thing is clear: we are seeing more and more people within the Church experiencing this phenomenon.

I am quite sure that this is not a new trend, but rather that our Western Christian culture (especially in Evangelicalism) has more recently begun to allow for genuine and honest discussion and dialogue. As a result, the increase we see in this respect is likely largely due to the freedom, where most others have wrestled with these things in secrecy for free of alienation or worse.

When asked what young Christians today most need from their churches, my answer is always the same: a safe place to be uncertain. This is not a tacit endorsement of postmodern relativism, but rather a genuine response to the reality that we are all in process- a journey, if you will- and it is essential to our spiritual formation, to our capacity to become the Church, that we given a safe space and context in which we can question even the most sacred. This is not license to treat be reckless, casual, arrogant or dismissive about our faith and its rich traditions and history- by no means!- but rather a necessary stage in the pattern of the Gospel, drawing is through the cross, the emptiness of the tomb towards the Resurrection into His Body.

It is because “doubting” has been demonized that people like “Karen” suffer so much in this. If we recognized that it is the essential aspect of our spiritual develop that it is, we would be better able to extend the grace, space and understanding needed to allow people to work through the what follows. too many people are alienated in these times, when the very thing they need is the unconditional love of their community. We can agree with 12-step programs for their acknowledgement of the inevitability of this crisis, praising the wisdom in their requiring a reliquishing of certainty and control, but arrogantly see ourselves as above it in our own struggle out of sin.

This is not to say that this process will ever be painless. As though our very identity is at stake, it is terrifying, confusing and above all lonely. After all, while we take comfort in God and others, when we die to ourselves, it is essentially alone that we enter that void. Did not even Christ cry out from cross: “My God, why have You forsaken me?” And yet, it is into the community of faith, the Body of Christ, the Church, that we are reborn into.

Have you experienced such deep uncertainty? What did you do? What helped? How have you seen this done well?

The conversation that has grown in the comment section of my last post “Spiritual Formation, Education & Youth” has been excellent. So much so, that I thought I would push in a little further. Before we do so, however, I want to clarify some things I was a little unclear on in the last post. While I used the level of education required in respect to the difference between pastors and youth/child ministers, I did so to reflect on the implicit value system/biases that the imbalance reveals.

I was not saying that youth pastors, for example, should be required the same level of education as pastors. In fact, I think there are people who are called and practicing a pastoral gifting with very little formal education, often doing it better than some seminary grads. Obviously, as a YWAMer, I deeply believe in the power of informal and non-formal spiritual formation and education. That being said, I believe that youth ministers should pursue (in whatever form) a great depth of theological and missional training.

From the comment section of the last post, it is clear that most of us believe that this imbalance is unhealthy and needs to be corrected. The question is this: How do we do this? I know that the issue is more complex than simply saying it is wrong and needs to be made right. There are good reasons for the differences, but I think we can agree those positive aspect do not need to be lost with the change we seek to make.

Therefore, the question I would like to discuss with you here is what this might look like. Both in the context of local church expressions and in our Christian education and so called “para-church” organizations, what might we do to systemically shift towards a more balanced and holistic approach? Be creative. Share ideas and/or things you’ve seen or tried. I think we have a lot to learn from each other.

Emerging Church, Missional

This week, one of our students asked a question that I have pondered off and on for several years. After discussing spiritual formation, the student turned to Kim & I and asked:

“Why is it that pastors need a seminary level education, but youth pastors and kids pastors can get ‘certified’ with far less training or theology?”

It led to an excellent discussion about the positive and negative reasons that help create this dynamic, ultimately leaving the student (and several others listening in) frustrated with this reality. They felt, as do I to a great degree, that spiritual formation for children and youth are incredibly crucial as it represents a phase in peoples lives where they have the greatest freedoms they will likely ever have.

This is not to say that adults are locked into an immovable place where spiritual formation is wasted. By no means! Rather, it reflects the inevitable reality (generally speaking) that the older we get, the more roots we lay down, the more invested we become, etc. making significant shifts in our lives and faith more costly and challenging- NOT impossible, but difficult.

Sadly, while there are excellent programs for educating/training people for child/youth ministry, there is a general attitude (reflected in the materials) that we find these ministries less significant, therefore requiring a lower standard. This does, of course, also lead to the question of youth ministry in general, such as its validity or health in general. Whatever the case may be, there seems to be a flawed worldview at play.

What are your thoughts? Am I off base? Is there is good reason for this approach?

Emerging Church, Missional