I’ve been saying for a long time now that children and youth are the Church today and tomorrow. It’s more than a marketing phrase for me and one reason why I think of my service in the church as “teaching the language of faith and the practice of Christianity for the Church today and tomorrow.” Here in Oklahoma we are using that as a benchmark, vision, and mission statement all rolled into one. A friend in ministry, Rev. Evan Dolive, continues the practice of “public theologian” as he writes for the local paper in his community. His thoughts on this topic are shared in this paragraph.
Young people are not leaving the church because they have objection with the teachings of Christ, rather they are leaving because they have no place in the church. Sure churches do a great job with their nursery program, Worship and Wonder program and even youth and college programs, but after that the church has not done too well. The church has bought into the lie that the late Whitney Houston promoted, that the “children are our future.”
This, my friends, is a bold face lie.
Children, middle schoolers, high schoolers, young adults are not the future of the church, they are the “right now.” Click here to read more.
As I reflect on my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we too are contracting as many mainline denominations and even the “megas” are as well. I don’t think “mall Christianity” works long term and for me long term is more important than “saving souls.” No, my denomination has systematically dismantled ministry with/for children, youth, and young adults from our General manifestation right down to local congregations. It’s the easiest way to cut the budget when dollars decrease. We’ve noted in resolutions and mission imperatives that children and youth are important, even vital, for our expression of faith, but as yet have not reallocated resources to match those words. We delegate children’s ministry and youth ministry to “professionals” that may have theological training and smile at them when these people who know something about this ministry remind us that ministry with children, youth, and young adults requires everyone in a congregation, a Region, or a General ministry unit.
So, the next time I hear a Sr Minister, a Regional Minister or our General Minister and President talk about the importance of these ministries with children, youth, and young adults I’m going to vocally suggest, beginning with this post, that the next time they are offered a raise these persons set an example by declining it and asking that those monies be allocated to the children, youth, and young adult ministries in their context. If, our GMP would make that statement from the pulpit at General Assembly this year it would send ripples throughout our denomination. It would set a tone and direction. If, the next time a Regional Minister is offered a raise and announced that those funds needed to be allocated to the Region’s ministry with children, youth, and young adults that would ripple into congregations and set a different tone. If a local Sr Minister or solo Minister did the same it would set the tone, the direction, and note the actuality that children, youth, and young adults are the Church today as well as tomorrow.
I’m not saying that congregations have to become children, youth, and young adult focused only. I am saying that intentionally including this age demographic in “being” church/Church is, like an educated laity, congregational and Church reformation. It’s one way to arrest contraction before it plunges too far down the lifecycle toward death or worse, irrelevancy. That’s why some of my peers in ministry and I call this “missional ministry.” At some point this missional ministry has to be as important at starting new congregations because where this intentionally happens in local settings, congregations are born anew or revived by the gifts of the entire community. New congregations emerge with each generation and retain Disciple DNA. In Regions where this intentionally happens, leadership is learned, shared, and shaped because the ideas, energy, and presence of all ages is important to the life of the community and the structure not simply to survive, but to thrive. Thanks Evan for the words about the big lie.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) will gather in Orlando this summer for what has become a nice family reunion that can at times, like all family gatherings, become a shouting match over religion and politics. Our congregational polity and powerless hierarchy ensures that relationships will always matter and that conversation around a table will always be the norm no matter where our expression of Christian witness exists. This way of being church has been under assault of late as “ecumenical” has turned more to theology and recognition of ministries and away from serving the world together. Our denomination continues to dilute what the vocation of ministry is and what the mission of the Church is as a means to blend into the changing Christian religious landscape of America and woo the consumer of spirituality and religion.
This summer the General Assembly will test the process of discernment, some call it “process of stalling”, on the issue of welcoming LGBT persons not only into membership of congregations, but also into the vocation of ordained ministry. Wendell Berry does a good job talking through the issues that hangup many believers in the post below and I encourage everyone to read it. Like all family systems there is a delicate balance to our relationships and some have already noted that they may need to leave the family because they cannot find it within themselves to “welcome as they had been welcomed” into the Christian Church (Discipels of Christ). This resolution doesn’t feel like a watershed moment nor a benchmark to me. It feels like another step in the journey. It feels like is adding seats to the table that has a place set for many even if that means we have to give up some personal space to do so. Those of us who are liberal/progressive have been doing this for a long, long time as orthodox, neo-orthodox, evangelical, and pentecostal believers have fled their previous denominational ties and welcomed, not only to the table and journey of discipleship, but asked to be leaders at the table and help point the way. Now it is time for these persons to be accountable to that “welcome” by welcoming LGBT persons and giving up some personal space for the good of the kindom and the witness of the good news of God. To do so would mean, it seems to me, that they have embraced a Disciple ethos that first embraced them.
I support this latest invitation from some of our congregations to be a “a people of grace and welcome, are encouraged similarly to declare their support for the welcome of and hospitality to all Christians, regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, ethnicity, marital status, or physical ability.” I find problems with a theology of ministry that claims on behalf of Disciples that we affirm “baptism as the primary call to ministry,” as much as I have issue with the phrase, “The Confession” on our denominational website. Baptism is an outward sign of an individuals inward decision to be a follower of Jesus. That is a call to participate in the ministry of the Church, but not a call to the vocation of ordained ministry. It is claiming the lifestyle and practice of Christianity, but not the lifestyle of ordained ministry. Some of us keep being asked to make more room on our side of the table, only, while the other sides of the table seem to be declaring the need for personal space and freedom. We all know, we know, that “separate but equal” or “first among equals” is not a good place for the Church to inhabit nor particularly faithful to the authentic life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
Here are a few paragraphs of the resolution before it has been altered by the General Board. My thanks to Dmergent for working with the congregations and posting the resolution to their site prior to the General Board’s work with it. Click here to read the entire resolution.
Proclaiming the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) a People of Welcome and Grace to All
WHEREAS, we, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) understand ourselves to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world, called to welcome others even as we have been welcomed by God [1] and to practice hospitality to one another,[2] as well as to strangers;[3]
WHEREAS, Holy Scripture affirms that all people have worth and are created in the image of God and share with all others in the worth that comes from being unique individuals,[4] which has been reiterated at past General Assemblies (2001, 2005, 2011);
WHEREAS, we affirm that as Christians we are many members, but are one body in Christ–members of one another, and that we all have different gifts.[5] With Jesus we affirm that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves,[6] and that we are called to the ministry of reconciliation and wholeness within the world and within the church itself;