‘How do we develop young people’s spiritual lives?’
-
Geoff Westlake, 7 March 2001
Spiritual
living is essentially about worship
& mission. If we did these better, our young people would develop
better. I’d like to focus my paper on the role of mission[1] in producing spiritually
healthy young adults.
In their very good book New Celts,[2] Roger Ellis and Chris Seaton argue that the Christian Celts were very culturally discerning[3] missionaries. In our multicultural world of fast generational changes, this culturally savvy mission plays a crucial role in raising healthy young adults. As Ellis & Seaton say,
When
our mission does not operate on that basis, we see the vast hemorrhaging of
young people from the church above the age of fourteen, and the huge gap of the
whole generation between about eighteen and thirty-five.
These disturbing facts show that
we have been unable to establish church that both reflects the values of Jesus
and is appropriately contextualized within the cultures of those generations.
We need to proclaim the message
and establish community that is genuinely
for all peoples. Something that does not smack of cultural imperialism, but
enables an expression of true, credible, Christian faith. Once people experience a taste
of
church which is in their language and culture, it inspires them to greater
depths with God and empowers them in their spiritual growth. (p117-8)
Why are they so inspired? Because they can more readily see “how the Gospel makes sense for me, and for you too, even though you come from a different culture.” They can see “Christ for all peoples”, themselves richly included!
Compare this mission, to church-as-a-chapel as we know it. Faith expressed “at the lowest common denominator.” More talk than power. The call to “Stay here”, when Christ assumes we’ll “Go.” A cultural ghetto, with false dichotomies of “us vs them.” No wonder emerging adults struggle to make sense of Christ in their real world. Small wonder they conclude it is of marginal relevance, or that the whole thing is a façade, & drift away.
_______________________
Taking Peter’s vision (with the sheet and
the “unclean” animals), Ellis & Seaton note that at this stage, “it
had not yet dawned on (the NT church) that actually Gentiles could receive the
Holy Spirit and be accredited by God, and that church could be expressed and
developed in their culture.”
(p117) To me it is sad that it still comes
as a revelation to some Aborigines that they can be both Aboriginal and
Christian, such is the cultural imperialism of our past. And I have observed the same oversight in young people growing up
in our quickly changing culture – it
doesn’t occur to them that Christ can be expressed
in the cultures of their real world!
“Today
there are many ‘new Gentiles’. Generally these are people who in their
lifestyle, tastes, and cultures do not
fit into the framework that has become the dominant norm in Christianity.” (p117) Our young
people are part of that culture. And when they compare that wider culture
with the church ghetto, one of 3 things
happens:
(1) They choose the “world out there.”
(2) They choose the church enclave.
(3) They realize the false dichotomy. But then often they soon get frustrated with the church’s apparent inability to express the Gospel in “real life.” So they either suppress that frustration & stay (option 2), or go out themselves to try to express the Gospel in “real life.”
Option (3) is often a basic attempt at mission. It’s a great instinct, and the church’s loss when these young adults leave. Yet if the church were already doing incarnational mission, young adults wouldn’t have to “leave” to do it.
1.
There wouldn’t be a culture gap in the
first place. (We’d be constantly reframing the gospel for the
ever-changing cultures.)
2. There wouldn’t be an “out there / in here” dichotomy. Everywhere would be “here.”
3. The Gospel would make far more sense in their real cultural milieu. And hence the Gospel would make more sense to who they are as emerging adults in these cultures. Hence a healthier spiritual life.
4. They’d have good models of mission practice to observe, and so learn to do it, not just learn about it.
5. They’d be more often “Spirit-filled,” because it is for the task of mission that Spirit-filling mostly happens.
6. And they’d pray & praise hard, since worship flows more freely from our experiences with Christ in mission.
[1] By “Mission”, I
mean our mission of bringing the news of God’s Kingdom to the world. (Not
‘doing church overseas.’)
[2] Roger Ellis &
Chris Seaton, New Celts: Following Jesus into Millennium 3, Kingsway
Publications, Great Britain, 1998.
[3] By “culturally
discerning”, I mean recognizing that not only ‘sin’ but also ‘the image of
God’ are reflected in cultures (because they are produced by humans who
always reflect both). And, because our cultures inform our identity, to see the
image of God within our own culture is to see Him in an intensely personal
& whole way. (Acts 17)