If I'm honest (and I will be), I have no idea how to convey all that I learned. One of my friends described the conference as "trying to drink water from a fire hose". If you can think about all the sermons that have really "fired you up" (in a good way) and then imagine listening to all of those for 3 straight days, that was my experience. Wow!
If you have an interest in reading more about it, I'll point you to 3 folks who spent some time writing about their experiences.
- www.baptiststoday.org/cartledge-blog/month/may-2012 - 3 blog posts of 3 of the speakers - Brian McLaren, John Westerhoff, and Tony Campolo.
- www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2012/05/highlights-from-children-youth-a-new-kind-of-christianity/#comments - small nuggets from each of the days
- http://www.simplypastormatt.com/ - At the typing of this blog, he had summarized only part of the conference.
Some musings:
- The role of the parent in faith formation of our children and youth is vital. The role of faith formation has been given to the church and, while the Church does play an important part, if we desire for our children to become committed disciples of Jesus Christ, then parents have to share their faith, act out their faith. Just think about where our children spend their time. My own children spend about 5 hours a week at church. They spend a few more at our home with our family.
- Malcolm Gladwell writes that it takes around 10,000 hours to master one's craft. How much time are our children spending mastering the craft of becoming disciples of Jesus? If someone spends 2 hours a week at church, it'll take 100 years to "master the craft" (assuming their experiences at church are helpful in becoming a disciple). If someone spends 1 hour a week, it would take 200 years. Point - to become a "master" requires that faith formation happen in all parts of our lives, not just at church. Our faith must be holistic and move beyond one that just turns us into a "Sunday Christian" (my faith is important on Sunday but then I leave it at church).
- "Service is discipleship. It should be something we do every day, not just a one-time deal to get service hours."
- "The opposite of faith is certainty, not doubt."
- In a study done of children who were baptized as infants (I think the Catholic church), 83% of those children had left the church by the end of High school. In the Southern Baptist tradition, 80% of college freshman had left the church. Don't quote me on these stats in your next book - I can't find the study and I'm only 99% sure about the exact details of which church. If we deem faith formation to be important, we don't have a very good record of making committed disciples.
One of the main things that continues to haunt me is what are we doing (we being the Church and our families) to help our children to become committed disciples of Jesus Christ. What we're doing (we being the universal we here) isn't working for the majority of our children.
In a study done in 2005 of the common religious beliefs among American youth, the authors defined the tenants of the religion that most teenagers in America subscribe to (these ideas were true across all religions, not just Christianity).
- A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
This type of religion understands God as a "divine butler" - one who is only concerned about my personal problems. I hope we're conveying and showing and pointing our children to a God who is bigger than the one described above.
Why do children believe in a God as described above? Many factors but one that stood out to me - our youth believe in this God because our parents believe in this God (this comes from the book, not my assessment, so don't write me nasty comments). Certainly, the Church plays a role in this, but how are we in the Church helping parents to "pass on their faith"? How are we in the Church creating a system where parents abdicate their role as faith formers and pass that role onto the church? How are we as parents spending time with our children, talking about and, more importantly, showing our faith?
So many questions - so few answers - at least right now. I look forward to sitting with all of this and seeing what settles out. I look forward to sitting with families in our church to see how we will move forward - together.
For now, I'll open my mouth a little wider, hoping that some of that water from the hose settles into me and becomes a part of my being.
