All In The Family

Tim, the servant leader at SSM who works with me in family ministries, has been receiving training through Youth and Family Certification School. He is developing a long range plan to help us strengthen our efforts to make youth ministry into family ministry, to make the home church too for passing on the faith. Here's what we are hearing God calling us to do:

~ Restructure our monthly cross-generational event called 2.B.1. This event worked well last year as a way to get people thinking and talking about discipleship. But this year we included time in 2.B.1 for mentors and young disciples to do their monthly discipleship coaching if they so choose. The good news is that they have been meeting on their own time (for the most part), so they don't need the time in 2.B.1 for their coaching. The downside is that they usually don't come to 2.B.1 now if they've already done their coaching for the month, so (1) our attendance of youth has fallen off and (2) parents aren't participating in 2.B.1 like they did last year. So we're going to move 2.B.1 to Sunday evening once a month opposite our monthly REVOLUTION! We'll hold the event in people's homes, rotating hosts monthly to encourage parents to participate. The first hour will be split time for youth to hang out and parents to mingle, learn about making the home church, and other adult specific topics. Then the second hour we'll come together for cross-generational Bible study and interactive games.

~ Meet families one on one in their homes this spring and summer to cut Family Covenants. The idea here is that parents are the primary bishops and apostles to their children, as Luther put it. We'll meet to discuss what the parents hopes are for their child(ren)'s faith. The conversation will be based around two questions: (1) Imagine your child is now 21, how do you hope s/he is living her/his faith? (2) What can we be doing together to help her/him to get there? We'll do this for two reasons. (1) Discipleship coaching works only for those who want to do it. It's not a "program" that's one size fits all. So if the child isn't interested and the parents aren't supportive, we don't want to do discipleship coaching with them at this time. (2) Families are so over scheduled that we don't want to play that game and twist peoples' arms to squeeze all of our events into their schedules. We'd rather have families commit to the ministries that they see are most helpful in nurturing the child(ren)'s faith so s/he grows to be an adult engaged in a life of discipleship. Some may want to commit to worshiping together regularly and not do any family ministry events. Some may want to do only 2.B.1, or only REVOLUTION!, or only discipleship coaching, or any combination thereof. Based on this conversation, we will then cut a covenant for parents and family ministry leaders to work together. We'll only expect them to participate in the ministries they commit to for that year, and parents will expect us to support them in their vocation rather than us being the "primary care-giver" for their child(ren)'s faith.

~ This summer we will do a cross-generational, congregational mission trip. People of all ages are encouraged to participate: retirees, single adults, couples without children, teens, and children 0 to 12 with their parent(s). We explored several options for doing a cross-generational mission trip rather than the prepackaged youth mission trips. (There aren't many options out there other than doing all the planning and leg work yourself.) We are happy that Imago Dei Village of Camp Crossways is excited to work with us. Together, we're forging a vision for a Family Camp -- Service Week. We'll all go up and stay at the Village for Family Camp. In the mornings we'll have worship, Bible study, an hour of free time, then we'll travel to our work site for our service ministry between lunch and dinner each day, returning for the all-camp game and camp fire. I can't imagine a better way to help families and various generations share their faith together, not only in words but in action! We're still working on what exactly our service ministry will be that week. One idea I had is to work with a nearby congregation who would like to start a faithchest ministry but needs help with resources. We could make faithchests, art, sewing, and other mementos for the faithchests. Hopefully, then, our people will become excited about faithchest ministry and we can return home eager to start our own.

So that's our plan this year, summed up by "parent partnership, mentor relationship, and student leadership." How we'll implement the first two is clear from what I've mentioned above. Later I'll tell you about how we're working toward our goal of student leadership.

Please leave a comment by clicking on the link below to share your feedback on our plan (pros/cons, have you thought of . . .) and share how your congregation is working to raise disciples.

Where's Jesus?

Last weekend, I attended a youth workers retreat with two of our adult leaders at Imago Dei Village in northern Wisconsin. The keynote speaker was the Rev. Dr. Dick Hardel, the Executive Director of the Youth and Family Institute. Dick was engaging, entertaining, and encouraging. But most of all, I heard great affirmation from his expertise for what we are doing at SSM to implement discipleship coaching.

Dick began the conference by telling a story about his brother-in-law, Walt Wangerin, who is the Writer in Residence at Valperaiso University. When Walt was a young boy, he got into trouble one Sunday morning for getting out of his pew while his father was preaching to look for Jesus behind the altar. He wanted to know "Where's Jesus?"

Coaching discipleship is about expecting to see Jesus. We are Christians because Jesus is alive. But so often we tend to think and act like he's not really here. Instead, we ask ourselves "what would Jesus do (. . . if he were here)"? Yet the question for disciples is, "what is Jesus doing"?

God gives us the gift of Holy Spirit so that in our faith we are able to see Jesus among us. Because he leads us on our journey, all of life is sacred. The most mundane, every day things we do all of a sudden become great adventures when we recognize Jesus there reconciling the world to our Father.

During a coaching session, after the initial check-in time the first question to ask is, "Where have you seen Jesus this month, and what was he doing?" Disciples then give an account of seeing our risen messiah and participating in his mission. They are first hand eye-witnesses! It is by sharing our accounts with one another, that we hold eachother accountable.

There are no penalties when someone doesn't live up to the monthly action plan. There are no scoldings or even any stern looks given by the coach. The accountablily that is otherwise sorely lacking in the church occurs simply by sharing our accounts of seeing Jesus and experiencing his grace through our coaches who encourage us to continue seeking him when we stumble.

Take a moment and ask yourself:

+ Where have I seen Jesus today?

+ What was he doing?

+ How can I do that with him?

Death of Youth Groups

I'm preparing a workshop I am to lead this Saturday at our synod's training event for adult volunteers and paid staff working with youth in our congregations. When asked by our synod coordinator (whom we lovingly call our "sy-co") to lead a workshop about what is working well at St. Stephen the Martyr, I gladly agreed and said the name of my workshop will be "Death of Youth Groups: Raising Disciples." Our sy-co knows me well enough to recognize what that title meant, and so she enthusiastically welcomed the idea.

Why am I talking about the death of youth groups?

At SSM, when asked how many kids we have in our youth group, our adult leaders respond, "zero". We proudly boast that we don't have a youth group, because youth groups aren't the most helpful approach to making disciples. This is true for two reasons, and they both have to do with the two words "youth" and "group". First, "youth" is a misnomer because we do everything cross-generationally to mentor discipleship. Second, "group" is inaccurate because by definition, groups have insiders and outsiders.

We're not interested in getting people involved in what we're doing. We want to get involved in what God is doing through the lives of people in the world 24/7/365. Why waste our energy in a one-size-fits-all approach of trying to force square pegs into round holes?

I haven't seen research on this, but my personal experience tells me that those who experienced youth groups in high school are the same ones leaving our churches after high school. (Except, I think, those students who take on leadership positions and learn self initiative within a church setting.) Students graduate high school and move away from home, often to college. They visit a new congregation there, and it doesn't feel right to them. They're used to a nice cozy group that welcomes them and gives them lots of attention. They're used to hanging out with people their own age with similar interests. But upon entering an unfamiliar congregation they don't find anything like their familiar high school youth group, so they look elsewhere for a spiritual connection (if at all). My friend and colleague who is a campus pastor agreed with my hunch. He tells people that our ELCA youth groups are the best feeders for groups like Campus Crusade for Christ, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the like which offer the homogeneous attention of the familiar youth group -- despite a theological disconnect from their Lutheran catechism.

For those graduates who do get involved in another congregation after high school, I think the main reason they do so is because our youth groups teach them how to be good "churchy" folks. These are the few who took on leadership responsibilities while in high school. They know how to serve on a committee. They know how to walk the walk and talk the talk of the institution. Some of them even know how to start their own ministry if the new congregation doesn't have what they're looking for.

(Of course there are other variables to consider, the most influential I would think is that of family involvement and expectations. But even here my experience has been that young adults of active families still have at best a 50/50 chance of being active in a new congregation away from their families. If anyone out there is looking for a good D.Min. dissertation, this would be a helpful study.)

So instead of having a youth group, we at SSM coach discipleship cross-generationally. We meet people where they're at on their faith journey, walk alongside them by helping them discern their vocation and holding them accountable to it, and thereby we help each person become a leader of their own faith life and within the faith community. Only time will tell whether come young adulthood the statistics for these folks are different than the observed trend. But already we are seeing a difference. We have young students who are purposefully engaging in a disciplined life of discipleship, learning not how to be good "churchy" folk but how to follow Jesus 24/7/365.

(If you'd like to know more about how we raise disciples in this manner, read the previous posts on living WORSHIP and coaching discipleship.)

Millenials Meet Matisyahu

As I write, the song "Youth" by Matisyahu is pumping through my headphones from My Videos link on Yahoo Music.

http://music.yahoo.com/ar-16201287---Matisyahu

As one born on the threshold between GenX and the Millenials, Matisyahu (Hebrew for Matthew) was a young man wandering aimlessly through life, who found God by turning to Hasidic Judaism and now sings hip-hop reggae -- yes, reggae. Go figure.

Better yet, go watch the video and listen to his music. www.matismusic.com It's powerful spirituality focused on the God of Israel. Millenials are yearning to tap into a vibe of deep spirituality, and even many (read: most) Christian Millenials aren't finding it in mainstream Protestant churches.

Why?

My theory is because churches are so eager to please, so ready to make faith accessible and comfortable to consumers that we fail to offer anything deeper and authentic -- something bigger than all of us that claims our whole lives. Matisyahu found this in Hasidic Judaism. The man who dropped out of high school to follow the jam band Phish on a national tour, found God in a life of discipline.

Dare we say it? DISCIPLINE! That's not appealing to consumers; that's not easy to access. But it does offer a way of life in which we may connect with a spirituality that claims us. The offer requires that we ask people to make a decision. Matisyahu sings:

Young man control in your hand

Slam your fist on the table

And make your demand

Take a stand

Fan a fire for the flame of the youth

Got the freedom to choose

You better make the right move

Young man, the power's in your hand

Slam your fist on the table

And make your demand

You better make the right move

"Youth is the engine of the world"

Now before my Lutheran friends blast me, I'm not talking about decision theology. I'm talking about repentance; I'm talking about conversion; I'm talking about being Jesus' disciple. Because the word 'discipline' turns off consumers, churches hesitate to coach people how to be disciples. But you can't be a disciple without discipline. And churches can't make disciples if they're not willing to hold them accountable to the way of life that seeks to participate in Jesus' mission 24/7/365.

To GenXers and Millenials who are leaving the church in your search for authentic spirituality, allow me to introduce you to the engine of the world. The power is in your hand, and her name is Holy Spirit. She is Jesus' gift of salvation to you. At every moment, Holy Spirit invites you to participate in Jesus' mission of reconciling the world to his Father.

Take a stand. Make your move.
Salvation is at hand. You have the freedom to choose.

The church -- when it dares to be the church -- can help and guide you.

Coaching Discipleship

If you haven't already read the previous post entitle "living WORSHIP", please read it below before reading what follows here.

Ask a high school student at St. Stephen the Martyr Lutheran Church what the word "disciple" means and she will quickly respond "a follower". (We spent all last year repeating that same lesson in various ways.) To be a follower of Jesus means to participate in his mission of reconciling the world to God by the power of Holy Spirit.

That's a nice thought coming from an egg-head theologian. So let's break it down.

How can we follow Jesus? We have to be able to see him if we're going to follow his lead. So we look for signs of Holy Spirit revealing his presence among us. Signs of a world reconciled to God includes forgiving sins, loving enemies, transforming people's priorities beyond their own security, engaging life with a worldview by which people discern their unique role in God's salvation story, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

When we see these signs, our idols of self are shattered. We are free to respond to Holy Spirit calling us into Jesus' mission. We are free to follow Jesus in reconciling the world to God. This is a life-long journey. Our whole lives are dedicated to following Jesus 24/7/365 by "living WORSHIP".

God knows we don't make it very far along this journey if we're alone. The church is at our best when we accompany fellow followers with accountability, affirmation, and when need be even admonishment. We are all peers, equally incapable of participating in Jesus' mission apart from Holy Spirit empowering us. So none of us are experts to teach others how to follow Jesus just like we do.

That's why at St. Stephen the Martyr we do peer coaching to grow in our discipleship. The coaches aren't perfect, and they're not expected to be. Rather, they are partners in the journey, themselves wrestling with the difficulties of following Jesus. On the second Saturday of each month, at an event we call 2.B.1, students in grades 7 - 12 check in with their peer coaches to see where we've come this past month along the journey and to prepare for what we expect lies ahead in the weeks to come. Here's what the process of coaching discipleship looks like at SSM:

When a student first pairs up with a peer coach, the two of them cut a coaching covenant. The format of our coaching covenant has seven columns and two rows. Across the top of the columns are the seven marks of discipleship: Worship, Order, Read, Serve, Help, Invite, Pray. The first row is labeled "Where I am now" and the second "What one step further looks like for me." The young disciple and the peer coach discuss each of these one by one, keeping the focus on living out their faith in the world beyond the walls of the church institution.

So for example, one team may discuss the mark of ordering our resources to follow Jesus something like this. "Where I am now" is that I'm unsatisfied with the quality of my relationship with my sister. "What one step further looks like for me" is not to play video games by myself after school twice a week and instead spend time doing what my sister would like to do.

This is a sign of Holy Spirit revealing Jesus' presence where two are gathered, reconciling them to one another and to God. The two siblings themselves participate in this sign of divine activity.

The goal set forth in the coaching covenant is responsive to the unique faith journey of the student. This isn't the one-size-fits-all approach of traditional youth groups. And the goals aren't cast in some preconceived notion of what a good churchy person should be, but instead are based on the discernment of the special person God is calling them to be.

To return to the example above, the peer coach isn't an expert on reconciling estranged relationships. The only requirement to be a coach is to be on your own faith journey and formulate questions for the disciple based on your own experience. These questions hold the disciple accountable to the coaching covenant. questions such as: "How was your time with your sister this month?" "What challenges have you faced in meeting your goal of twice weekly spending time with her on her terms?" "What gifts has God given you to face these challenges?" And then finally, a coaching session isn't finished until the disciple comes up with an action plan to pursue the next month. "How will you use your gifts this month?" "How can I be praying for you?"

Authenticity and affirmation provided to each disciple by a peer coach accompanying their unique faith journey through life -- that's how the church forms followers of Jesus. And what is most often lacking in the church (along with accountability) is measurable results. By coaching discipleship via "living WORSHIP" we can look back at the end of each year and see where we've been on our faith journey. We can celebrate haven taken one step further in the marks of discipleship. And when these marks are understood as signs of our participation in Jesus' divine mission by "living WORSHIP", we can hold up our coaching covenants and say: "Look how we've been God's church in the world!"

Sanctified Vision

Judging by readers' comments, much of what I've written to this point resonates with them -- "community of radical discipleship", "to steward God's image with reckless abandon", "a community who lives in the hope that frees them to love and to fear"-- even though they'd like to know what that would actually look like in congregations. In addition, I also had a wonderful personal exchange with my friend, colleague, and team member of this blog (Rev. Craig Richter) after he recently heard Dr. Douglas John Hall's presentation at Gettysburg Seminary for the Luther Colloquy. Pastor Richter's lingering question following Dr. Hall's presentation on stewardship, which he asked me to answer is this: "What does an incarnational Christian stewardship of creatio crucis (creation of the cross) look like in an ideological capitalistic culture that consumes, abuses, and misuses creation to feed its over-abundant appetite for the globe's resources?" Not that I think I could possibly represent Dr. Hall's genius in response, but allow me to answer Pastor Richter's question by simultaneously responding to reader's concerns that my ecclesiological statements need some practical illustrations.

As leaders of the church, we equip the radical community of Jesus' disciples to steward God's image with reckless abandon by coaching them to see the world with a sanctified vision. The inspiration for this phrase "sanctified vision" comes from a book by that title which I read recently by John J. O'Keefe and R. R. Reno about the church fathers' methods of exegeting scripture. While the authors explicitly refrain from applying ancient exegesis to the contemporary church, nevertheless their insight is helpful for us:

"The rule of faith [i.e. regula, c.f. my previous post] was a rule for life as well as a rule for reading scripture and teaching its meaning. It was a spiritual rule that guided the whole person toward fellowship with God. Not surprisingly, then, the church fathers argued that a reader must have spiritual discipline to control exegesis" (128). "Thus disciplined by the body of scripture, our vision is sanctified and prepared for us to enter into the narrow footpath. . . . Vision must be sanctified if one is to see rather than be blinded by the mystery of God" (139).

I suggest that we learn from our faith ancestors. Their approach to reading scripture through spiritual discipline is the same approach we should take for cultural architecture within our congregations. Recognizing that Lutherans in particular shy away from spiritual discipline for fear of works righteousness, allow me to outline how the church today can story people in the gospel narrative with spiritual disciplines that even Lutherans can accept.

• Worship -- it's the main thing, specifically Word and Sacrament. Commune weekly at least, if not more frequently. And expect God to work through the bread and wine. Expect Holy Spirit to call people to the table who we might think don't belong there for reasons of age or theological correctness. Expect Jesus to heal, to liberate, to forgive, to empower. Expect God's reign to come and to shape your worshipping community. Preach in such a way that announces the decisive victory we share in God's reign, that illustrates God's reign transforming our lives presently, and that challenges disciples in the congregation to appropriate their whole lives according to the hope we share in God's reign.
• Pray -- for God's reign to come to us (see Luther's explanation to the Lord's Prayer in the Small Catechism). All action begins with prayer, and all prayer is taking action. Teach people how to pray. Not that one way of praying is inherently better than another, after all the key is simply to pray. Nevertheless, teaching people how to pray encourages them to pray regularly and helps them to put the eschatalogical expectation of the Lord's prayer into their own words in relation to each specific prayer concern.
• Read Scripture -- to encounter the salvation narrative. Christian education for adults in many congregations focuses on topical lessons such as how to be a Christian parent, Christianity's keys to business leadership, a Christian response to the latest best seller, etc. Often scripture is not even discussed, and when it is, it is as a user's manual of proof texts. Stop assuming adults in our congregations bring with them familiarity with scripture. Even those that do will grow in discipleship by focusing their learning on scripture. Those who are most familiar with the salvation narrative continue to be shaped according to God's reigning through continual reading of the texts.
• Serve -- beyond the walls of the church building. Allow ministry within a local community to be your congregation's evangelism. Service ministry is more than social activism. Disciples of Jesus don't serve others because it seems like a good thing to do. They do it, because that is precisely where they meet their Lord. Jesus' followers encounter him in serving others amid the brokenness of the crucified world.
• Give -- the first fruits of your income. The check book, savings accounts, and investments are typically the last aspects of a person's life to be converted into the salvation story. Coach people how to give their financial resources to the church's mission to the point that it challenges their priorities in life. Tithing is not a flat tax. Some may be challenged to change their priorities by giving 5% of their annual income, others 10%, still other 20%, perhaps 60% and up for those who have exercised this spiritual discipline for some time. Every year provides a new occasion to re-examine our priorities to appropriate our lives even further according to our hope in the good news of God's reigning.

Congregations who cast a vision to shape their life together through these five spiritual disciplines are constantly discerning Holy Spirit calling them into the mission of God's reigning and equipping them with a sanctified vision in the world. Notice that nothing in this outline can be pursued -- let alone accomplished -- in isolation. It requires coaching and accountability within a community of faith. When I speak of a community of radical discipleship, I don't mean by that an ideal utopian congregation. We Lutherans are much too familiar with our bondage to sin to follow that temptation. Rather, a community of radical discipleship is a congregation who takes seriously its vocation of coaching, encouraging, and holding one anther accountable to our hope in the Messiah. This draws into question all aspects of our congregation's life together, but particularly the ways we do new "member" orientation and "confirmation". (More about how these relate to our expectations for baptism to come in following posts, I'm sure.)

Stewarding God's image in the creatio crucis demands the constant appropriation of our whole lives, not just what we place in the offering basket or even how we treat the environment. When the salvation story grabs hold of us so that we constantly discern how God is calling us to appropriate our lives more and more accordingly, then our sanctified vision clearly sees the failures of other narratives that compete with the gospel and the limits of narratives that compliment the good news. Whether those narratives are capitalism, military and economic empiricism, democracy, the war on terror, the American dream, or any other story a society tells about itself -- all of them fall short of the glory of God, even those for which we want to argue some how compliment the values of God's reign. An incarnational stewardship of creatio crucis looks like a congregation of Jesus' disciples striving to engage the crucified world with a vision sanctified by Jesus' resurrection.

Resurrection Regula

My patristics professor, Dr. Michel Barnes, proposes a thesis about the development of the biblical canon. Contrary to popular theory, Barnes claims that the canon did not come about simply in response to forces outside accepted orthodoxy such as Marcionism and gnosticism. Rather, a greater force in the effort to develop a canon was the church's internal process of positively defining it's doctrine based on the rule of faith (regula) given in baptism.

While the regula became increasingly significant during the end of the second century, Christian theologians also began to define doctrine based on exegesis of apostolic and early Christian writings -- a new trend distinct from the previous exegetical method that solely examined the Septuagint. It was the new practice of articulating doctrine by exegeting not only the Jewish scriptures but now also Christian writings, through the lens of the regula, that marks the era of church history which Barnes calls "the period of self-definition." The biblical canon, then, was formed to determine which Christian writings are suitable objects of exegesis for defining doctrine positively.

If all that sounds confusing, I apologize. Dr. Barnes presents it much more clearly with graphs and pictures. What I'm trying to get at is the way the church developed a measure (canon) for exegesis through the lens of a regula in its effort to define itself positively .

I'd like to take this one step further for the sake of reading scripture. The lens (regula) through which we read scripture is God's revelation in Jesus the Messiah in light of his resurrection. Now, before you go charging me with antinomianism (throwing God's law out the window) or with loosely interpretating texts "non-literally", allow me to point out that the Bible itself gives us the impetus to do this in Luke 24:25-27, 32.

Two of Jesus' disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus, despairing over the death of their rabbi even though they heard reports that he was alive. Indeed, he joins them on their walk and engages them in conversation, though they do not recognize him. Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. When the disciples later recognized him in the breaking of the bread they said to eachother, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was . . . opening the scriptures to us?"

Jesus' resurrection then is our lens, our regula, through which we read and exegete scripture. Not that we are artificially to insert meaning into a text, but rather we won't recognize the meaning within the text itself if we don't read it through this lens. When I approach scripture in this way I find meaning that has been shining out to me all along, but that I had blindly failed to comprehend in previous encounters. A powerful example of this occured in my ministry recently.

Tragedy struck our congregation a few weeks ago. Suddenly and unexpectedly our pastor's husband died, himself a retired pastor and pillar of our congregation. Our pastor was in no shape to lead worship or to preach the following Sunday so she asked me to do it as a lay Discipleship Coach who has seminary training and who is approved for ordination. Immediately I knew that God called me to be an assuring presence of the resurrection in the congregation's worship. So as I began to prepare my sermon, I already knew the word God intended to speak through me. But when I looked at the assigned text for that day, I failed to see how the power and promise of Jesus' resurrection was shining through Matthew 22:15-22 (Pharisees ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor). What did that have to do with Jesus' resurrection, I wondered. Then after much prayer and study through the regula of the resurrection, I recognized new meaning shining through the text.

I realized that when Jesus asks for a coin and says "whose head is this?" the word there in Greek is the word for image (eikwv). So Jesus is saying, "give back to the emperor the image that belongs to the emperor and give back to God the image that belongs to God." We are God's image, formed and completed on our behalf by Jesus' death and resurrection. We give back the image that belongs to God by living together in the assurance of the resurrection. That was the word I proclaimed that day. And yet this resurrection regula is so much more than an interpretive lens for reading scripture. It is the rule of faith for discerning meaning in life.

Like the church in the late second century, today we once again find ourselves in a context that requires self-definition. Lots of external forces are working hard to define the church to fit their needs. In return, many within the church define it negatively, that is, in reaction to these external forces. However, like our faith anscestors, I propose that the task God is calling us to is that of positive self-definition. We are the proclaimers of Jesus' resurrection and the witnesses to its transforming power through the in-breaking of God's reign. As leaders in the church, our vocation, then, is to train disciples to live according to the assurance we have in the resurrection: to steward God's image with reckless abandon; to live together without the fear and denial of death setting the ground rules; to love our neighbor as our selves and our enemies as our Messiah. Such is the canon (measure) of discipleship given to each of us in baptism.