Youth Ministry Abuse: Research from the National Center for Family Integrated Churches

A new survey by the National Center for Family Integrated Churches (NFCIS) declare that youth group is the reason why young people are leaving the church, as reported in Charisma. The article does not indicate how many people completed the survey and a quick review of the three-question instrument reveals that no demographic data is collected and the questions are skewed. Who completed the survey? How did they find the link to the survey? What part of the country are they from? Why only three questions? Why do the questions presuppose a certain answer? In essence, the survey’s poor design renders the data meaningless.

I fear for our young people whose pastors read this report and decide to act on it. I fear that a pastor will read Adam McManus’s comments and take them seriously. Mr. McManus seems to have forgotten that Deuteronomy 6:4-7 is written principally to the Israelite Community and not parents; that Proverbs is a group of wise saying, not promises.

Yes, our young people are leaving the church. There are a number of contributing factors. Youth group might be a contributing factor in a limited number of cases; it is not the enemy. Making youth ministry the villain, as NCFIS does, is not helpful.

There is better research. There are more thoughtful descriptions of why you young people are leaving the church. If you want to begin understanding why young people are not in church and leaving the church, I recommend that you watch Diana Butler Bass’s lecture at http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/diana-butler-bass-church.

In the meantime, if you pastor reads Charisma do the pastor and your youth group a favor and shred this article before its read.

the spiritual nurture of young peope: parental responsibility in perspective

The blog post 3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don't Leave the Church sparked some interest around the web. This post  is worth a second look.

The first and second traits, "they are converted" and "they are equipped" deserve an "Amen". Sure we can quibble about what it means to be converted and equipped, but in the end I am not sure much will be gained. The third trait is a bit more troublesome, "Their parents preach the gospel to them" places too much responsibility on the parents in lieu of the faith community.

 Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is written to the nation of Israel. It is the nation as a whole, the faith community, who is instructed to impress the commandments of the children, to talk about them and bind them on their foreheads. Parents ought to teach and pass on the faith to their children; the community has a responsibility as well. Young people catch an understanding of the Christian faith from their parents, churches, youth groups and other social units. Parents without a strong church community supporting, encouraging and participating in the spiritual nurture of their children face a daunting challenge. This is why it is essential that youth workers divert their attention from working primarily with youth to equipping their congregations to disciple young people and fully integrate them into the life of the community.

Detangling vocation from occupation

Tim Otto’s video Thoughts on Christian Vocation calls into question the church’s understanding of vocation in the same way Gary Friesen’s Decision Making and the will of God did in the 1980s. I suspect Otto’s points, also preceded by Quentin Schultze’s Here I Am: Now What on Earth Should I Be Doing? will fall on deaf ears as the earlier attempts appear to have done. All these works require a paradigm shift.

Concern about vocation is evidence in that people desire to find meaning and significance in their labor. People are seeking their “calling”. Yet, in scripture we are “called” to follow Christ, to find our meaning and significance and hope primarily in Christ; not in our labor. Faithfully following Christ is every Christian’s vocation which is worked out through one’s occupation or in Schultze’s station in life.

This understanding of vocation opens up opportunities. Living our shared vocation together involves a shared commitment to foster faithful Christ following by the entire community. It is the community’s responsibility to assist a person in identifying and validating each person’s gifts. It provides a context for wrestling with questions about which occupations would allow one to faithfully utilize their gifts; to faithfully labor in light of who they are in Christ.

This approach anchors our understanding of vocation in the gospel; our calling is to faithful Christ following. Our shared vocation is then worked out in and through various occupations where one’s gifts and talents are seen as gifts to one’s employer.

Otto, Friesen and Schultze’s understanding of vocation lodge meaning, significance and purpose in the gospel rather than what we do. The paradigm shift proposed is both freeing and weighty; it places greater responsibility on the community of faith to live out a shared vocation and to assist each other in identifying appropriate occupation 

Volunteerism and the Cult of Self

The DVD series Bridges explores the challenges of building gospel bridges to the LDS community. In

one session the narrator notes that within the the LDS community volunteering is considered a prideful act. This stands in sharp contrast to the Protestant tradition were churches solicit volunteers and even chastise people for not volunteering to staff its ministries. In essence churches ask their people to self-identify and self-validate their giftedness. This is out of sync with Paul's description of the Body of Christ in Romans 12.

The Body of Christ metaphor with Christ as its head values every part (member) of the body because every part is essential to the body's functioning. Different parts play different roles; every role has the same value. Depending on your tradition, the role of elders and deacons is to guard the gospel, nurture faith within the community, and equip people for works of service. This involves assessing and validating the gifts of those present for the building up of the body of Christ. The North American church's culture of volunteerism is a reflection of Western individualism that unintentionally fuels the cult of self as a substitute for authentic community.

"Go play with toys?"

My daughter and grand daughter wandered into the Worship service this morning a bit late as usual. My two-year old grand daughter greeted me with a long warm hug and then looked up and asked "Go play with toys?" Her understanding of the church is in process of being formed, but as an educator it troubles me that she thinks church is a place where you go to play with toys, i.e. the nursery. It is not in her mind a place where you learn about Jesus, take communion or even worship. Contrast this with her eagerness to take her offering forward, which she has done every week of her short life. As a covenant community that sees our children as members of the community it seems odd that we segregate them from the community of faith's central activity, worship. We log them into a nursery or send them off for a more "age appropriate worship" experience shaped more by North American values than Jesus' teaching on children and Paul's use of the Body of Christ metaphor. It is time for the church to honestly wrestle what it means to be and practice being a counter-culture intergenerational covenant community.

Palm Sunday - March 2013

On Palm Sunday I visited once again another church in SLC as I have done many times during my sabbatical. I am trying to get a sense of why such a large percentage of 18-22 years leave this church. The church I attended this morning was composed primarily of 18 to mid-thirty young adults. The service is what I expected, a couple of songs that were hard to sing and a message that lacked a clear crystalizing point. Perhaps my biggest frustration was that the significance of Palm Sunday was briefly mentioned and there were no Palm Froms. 

I do not mean to be grumpy, though I am deeply concerned about the lack of history many of the churches I have visited manifest. Without at least a few connections to the Church, her history and the whoop and warf of the church year, all one can do is connect their faith to their immediate experience. It seems to me that at a minimum the contemporary church needs reconnect with Advent and Lent, including Holy Week. 

In struck me this morning that perhaps Robert Weber's Ancient-Future approach to worship deserves a second look. 

Character and qualities of a mentoring relationship

Mentoring relationships strive to engage the mentee holistically – as a relational, intellectual, emotional and spiritual being. Mentoring relationships (herein MR) are intentional in nature and in light of their formative potential ought to possess the following characteristics.

§  A MR values all participants as learners; each participant must be authentic, open and willing to learn from the other(s).

§  MRs involve learning to converse with each other. Adults learning to talk with young people, young people learning to talk with adults.

§  MRs are marked by mutual respect.

§  MRs respect boundaries; they do not force their way into areas of life where one is not comfortable going.

§  In MRs a mentor does not tell someone what to do; they ask questions and tell stories that challenge the mentee's perspective and frame of reference.

§  MRs seek to assist one in thinking through issues by asking questions, challenging assumptions, exploring options, identifying the possible intended and unintended consequences of one's attitudes, decisions and actions.

§  A MR challenges the mentee to consider and process perspectives that they may not normally consider.

Instructional Reflections

Over the last several months I have been reflecting on pedagogy or more precisely andragogy - the teaching of adults. Having taught for over twenty years at the undergraduate and graduate level I find myself increasing frustrated by the learning-teaching process. As an educator, this is okay. What I find frustrating is how both the understanding of teaching and learning are changing.

Sadly, when I began teaching the focus was on conveying data to students so that they could accurately recall it on an exercise. Yes, the students were to develop their reading skills, ability to communicate and critical thinking skills. Those things were generally "caught".

Over the years my understanding of teaching morphed to where I saw myself as mentoring students into a field of study. This shift in focus to mentoring was accompanied by a renewed interest in the learning process. Mentoring students into the field of biblical studies is different than teaching General Education survey courses. How do you assist students to develop a knowledge base so that they learn to evaluate, think, engage and make decisions as an educator?

• Define what it means to be competent - what is a sufficient knowledge base so that our understanding of the educational process is clear and one is able to clearly communicate?
• Learn how to ask the right types of questions - What are good questions and how ought they be framed? (Challenge: students are socialized into asking certain kinds of questions in a certain contexts?)
• Diagnosis a situation is accurately - What is taking place?
• Develop a biblically and theologically consistent instructional strategy - Will the approach build up the body of Christ and foster unity in the faith?

Teaching for data transfer, in the early years, was much easier. Mentoring students into a field of study is much more difficult and challenging. 

Practicum in Teaching - Student Questions on Teaching Styles

What exactly is a practicum in teaching? This is the question a class explored during its first meeting in order to develop an operational definition/description.

A practicum involves teaching in a laboratory setting complete with assessment in order to enhance one's teaching skills.

Teaching involves motivating students to learn new information so as construct an understanding of the world that shapes how they live.

Employing these description, the students self-understanding of their instructional styles, development of an assessment instrument and teaching multiple times in class the objective is to enhance their skills and effectiveness as instructors.

In reviewing student questions and synthesizing them, two important questions emerge.
1. How does one effectively adjust her/his teaching style to enhance effectiveness?
2. What is the relationship between the type of content and the teaching style employed?

Reflections on the above questions will appear in the next couple of days.

Practicum in Teaching

The evening was spent prepping for a new course titled Practicum in Teaching and reflecting on the axiom what is good for our young people is good for our congregations. How are these two things related, you ask? First, it keeps the focus on student learning. This questions the ever present assumption that good teaching ensures learning. Rather the focus ought to be on student learning in a way that contributes to creating meaningful learning experiences, including lecture. Second, by focusing on student learning it forces the instructor to identify the learning base present rather than assuming students know more than they do. Third, it challenges one to keep things simple - one point illustrated/illumined in multiple ways.

Pushing students to consider "Who they are teaching?", "What they are teaching?" and "Why they are teaching?" is fun, especially when they are forced to confront these questions after teaching.