What a great pic! This was taken right be fore the group headed off to LAX. It was a beautiful day in sunny Malibu. Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful week of ministry and fun.
I am still recovering. Being back in staff meeting this morning was rough. I feel like I have missed a month worth of stuff. There is a lot going on at the Creek right now. I can't really go into it all. Just a lot of stress on the staff and elders. Ministry to people is never easy. I know--I am a minister AND a person with all the baggage that being one of those people things entails.
In LAX I bought the new Time Magazine because it had Darth Vadar on the cover. For all you Star Wars lovers out there, it's a great read. But, there was another article in there that really made the magazine a prize for me. Please run out and buy it before it goes off the stands. I tried to create a link to it online, but you can't read it unless you subscribe online to Time. The article is entitled, Faith and Frat Boys. The subtitle asks, "Can devout Christians reconcile their beliefs with college culture?" It is an EXCELLENT article. Seriously. Go read it. I worry so much about the youth culture around here. Longer story there, but basically, there seems to be such a tepid sense of spirituality. I don't understand it. Reading this article made me want to jump for joy. These kids are truly being missional. I want that so much for Maddie, Ella and Sam. The immersion of kids into church bubbles does not seem to do the trick. I know there are always exceptions, but it seems to me that most of the kids in that environment struggle to keep their faith alive. Maybe some of you have seen this or experienced that? What's the deal? It's like our Christian private schools (secondary--not necessarily college, although it's there too) suck the spiritual life right out of them. Especially those in this area. Any thoughts?
Sheryl has Bunko tonight. I know she's excited to have some time out. I am so glad things went well last week. I am so blessed to have a wife like Sheryl. The girls and I are going to party down while she's out. Just don't tell her. Oreos and singing. What could be better?
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
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You've got me curious with your comments about secondary Christian schools. I'm wondering if that's just your general impression or if there are specific situations in your mind.
Jesus was unchurched and yet we try desperately to church up our kids as much as possible thinking that is the very best way to equip them for life.
Yes, Jesus was unchurched. He defied the religious order of the day and chose to be a man who made relationships with all kinds of people crossing racial, gender, socio-economic and spiritual lines.
We teach our kids not to cross those lines, but to think poorly of the people on the other side of those lines, to change the people on the other side of those lines, to, shall I say it, judge them.
There is little room inside the Christian bubble for humility, grace, patience, and so forth. It is in the world where these need to be practiced. How are we going to bless the world if we don't even engage it except in judgment, debate and us/them stuff?
Jesus was unchurched and yet we try desperately to church up our kids as much as possible thinking that is the very best way to equip them for life.
Yes, Jesus was unchurched. He defied the religious order of the day and chose to be a man who made relationships with all kinds of people crossing racial, gender, socio-economic and spiritual lines.
We teach our kids not to cross those lines, but to think poorly of the people on the other side of those lines, to change the people on the other side of those lines, to, shall I say it, judge them.
There is little room inside the Christian bubble for humility, grace, patience, and so forth. It is in the world where these need to be practiced. How are we going to bless the world if we don't even engage it except in judgment, debate and us/them stuff?
I went to a "secondary" Christian school. Pretty much the same things went on there that go on at public high schools, just on a smaller scale.
Going to college at MTSU was one of the best decisons I have ever made. For the first time I had choices. I wasn't forced to study the Bible or forced to go to church. I went because I wanted to. Getting involved at the Christian Student Center at MTSU allowed my faith to blossom.
In high school I became burnt out on Bible study and Chapel everyday, to the point that I wasn't wanting to go to church. It took me two years once I got to college to start going over to the center. I was at a point where I needed a break. Now that I have grauated from college, when I think back on high school, I think that I just had too much of a good thing. Studying the Bible and Going to chapel and worshipping are all great things and important things. However, you need time for just you and God. I didn't learn that until I got to college.
I think we tend to assume or expect too much just because a particular school has "christian" in their name.
People often send their kids to Christian schools hoping to straighten out their kids. This makes for a difficult, challenging enviroment.
Now think about a school like Texas A&M and the Aggies for Christ. There is an intentional effort in this program - method to the madness.
All that to say in a "Christian" school it may be easier to coast through spirituality. In a "secular" school you have to seek and carve out your spiritual path.
I could be wrong, it has been quite awhile since I was in school!
Oreos and singing? You really do know how to party!
Brandon,
It was great to finally meet you -- at the computers in the cafe at Pepperdine. Nice to finally meet face-to-face after having so many friends in common.
You raise an interesting issue here. I think Christian school cultures sometimes keep people stunted in their growth -- trapped in the "affiliative" stage of faith development that says, "I believe what I believe because I belong to a group of people who believe this."
Christian culture often discourages young people from going through the "inquisitive" stage, but that's the part they have to get through before they can really own their own faith.
What struck me about that article is that those people continued to live and profess their faith in a secular college. Some, I'm convinced were even MORE missional because they were in such a place. The opening paragraph, about the aftermath of a party that a Christian frat member attended was disturbing. And it make me ask the same question I've asked a thousand times...When should we stay and minister, and when should we leave and shake the dust off. These days, I'm leaning far more towards staying...being the example...loving everyone and needing no greater reason to do so than that the Lord loves them even more.
Oh yeah, the Star Wars stuff rocked too.
Brandon --
I saw the same article. It was good. And I agree with Fajita's assessment.
From my perspective, the evangelical and fundamentalistic churches of America have largely cloistered themselves from society at large. This has actually been happening for a long time. We have created a separate "world" in which we can be what we perceive to be "Christian" with the greatest amount of harmony and righteousness and comfort, etc. In part, this has driven the proliferation of Christian schools, Christian colleges and universities, Christian youth groups, Christian home schooling, contemporary Christian music, and many other expressions of what we think it means to be "Christian" in our world.
It's not that these things are necessarily bad. (I know some kids for whom a Christian school has probably meant the difference between a solid faith and no faith.) It's just that they lead IMHO to cloistering. Just as surely as the Essenes of Jesus' day, the Pharisees with their religious behavior (something about the root word for Pharisee being related to "separation" pops into my head here), the Desert Fathers of old, or any monastery or convent that has ever cloistered, we have separated ourselves -- literally -- from the world.
As I said, this has been around for a long time in our experience, at least since the 1940s. The only thing that has changed in the last 30 years is our perception of how big that "Christian" world is and how big it should be. The push for conservative Christian political involvement has been about "re-taking territory" that we perceive we have lost.
My question is whether these "Christian" independent environments should even be at all? Or how? Or why?
I don't know the answers. But these ought to be questions we ask ourselves, I think, in the context of how Jesus lived his life. And in the context of our world today... for the sake of the love of Jesus and the mission he has given us.
(I already am planning to talk about this on my blog soon in a post entitled "Manzanar", named after the WWII Japanese internment camp in the Owens River Valley.)
Sorry to have missed Pepperdine. It would have been good to see you.
Blessings!
Owen
I think the "christian bubble" is good as a retreat. We all need a safe place to go and refuel, to be safe and affirmed. But we are called to be a part of this world. By isolating ourselves from those that don't live the way we think they should is doing a great disservice to Christ. I am trying to teach the kids in my youth group about being a christian IN the world, not apart from it. I want to offer them a safe place to ask questions, grow, share and be filled so they have the spiritual strength to be a part of this world every day. They cannot live in youth group every day. That would deny the world of their great gifts and deny them of seeing Christ in the most surprising places.
I went to a pulic school and was often aproached by random kids asking faith questions because for some reason they sensed I might have some insight. If we put our children in Christian schools, who will be Christ's hands and feet where they are really needed, outside the bubble?
Please understand that I am not saying Christian schools are all bad. I think that they can provide a wonderful atmosphere for growth and community. Not coming from that background, I have to ask... Are they equipping their charges to be capable of being a window for Christ when they are not surrounded by that perfect community?
Every school I have ever attended was not just Christian, but CofC. No kidding. Preschool through graduate school.
When I was young, that decision was made for me, and while I have a strong knowledge of Scripture and hymns, I have always felt that my spirituality developed in spite of my "Christian" school, not because of it. Sin happens everywhere; Christian schools are usually more adept at sweeping the problem under the rug. A survey my freshman year in high school revealed a 85% alcohol use rate. Comared to somewhere around 50% in public schools. Also, a lot of the doctrines I was forced to memorize and spout back on Bible tests, I completely disagree with now. To a certain degree, I will always resent that time when I wasn't being taught critical thinking, just the party line.
But, when it came time to make the decision for myself, I gladly chose the institutions I did, because they did have a lot to offer me. Again, I have spent a lot of time studying the Word and theological writings; more than most people I know who aren't professional ministers. And once I figured out what a relationship with God was all about, I was able to make the most of my education.
The absolute biggest factor, in my opinion, comes down to what the children are seeing and hearing at home. My parents modeled a spirituality I was never "taught" at school. The parents who depended on school to teach spirituality and faith, and to keep their kids on a tight leash, were usually the ones whose kids went crazy as early as possible.
I'm going through a study with my church of a book called "Fearless Faith" by John Fischer. It's pretty darn thought-provoking, even if he's not the best writer in the world. It deals at length with the Christian subculture. We had to tear down some of our expectations of the Christian stuff we surround ourselves with for safety and rethink Christian schools and other Christian things as places to go to be equipped or to get resources before we enter the world and try to love it as God did (John 3:16). They can't be places we go to escape...they have to be places we go to be built up and prepared.
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