Making the investment...

I read as much as a can... sometimes it's a lot and other times just rarely.  What's "fun" for me to read are mostly books about Christianity... whatever angle that might be.  The book I'm reading right now, You Lost Me, is one of many I've read about the struggle that many people have in their faith life during the ages of 15-25.  For a variety of reasons, across denominations, this is largely an absent section of the population.  There are reasons for sure... some feel they have to choose between faith and science.  Others state they believe in Jesus, they just don't think that the church is a good representative of Him.  Some simply feel that the church has never helped them apply faith to their daily lives.

Now there are probably a lot of reasons contributing to this.  One of the things I find most interesting and convicting though is the idea that the "dropout" struggle isn't a problem; it's a symptom.  More specifically, the faith struggles of teenagers and young adults are just the visible symptom of the faith life of adults.  In other words if we think they are apathetic about their faith maybe it's because we are.   This is something that's suggested by a number of people, Kendra Creasy Dean in Almost Christian, Dave Kinnaman in You Lost Me among others.

I've thought about it a lot and I wonder how true it really is.  I mean just about everyone I know would say that investing in youth is the most important thing we can do as a faith community.  We have staff, programs, events and partnerships all focused on helping youth and young adults grow in faith.  I can't help but ask myself, when was the last time we (aka the rest of the "adults" in the faith community) invested in the life of a youth or young adult?  By invested I don't mean money, I mean taking time with them and telling them our own personal faith stories.  If we think it is so important to grow in your faith, then we should be taking time to share our stories of faith.  If you were one of those who stayed active in the church why not regularly tell the story of why it so important to me to have been involved in the church during High School or College and beyond.  If you weren't, are you willing to articulate to someone why you wish you had been?  Can you tell someone what you think you missed by not being involved in a faith community those years?

If we, as adults, cannot look back and tell the story of why our faith has been important to us no amount of programs, staff or partnerships will ever have the result we are looking for.  I am increasingly convinced if we want our young adults and youth to have vibrant and active relationships with Christ we need to make the investment ourselves - all of us.  We need to be open and honest, build relationships and tell our stories of faith.  Youth and young adults don't struggle with faith for a lack of information... they have all the information they need.  Maybe they struggle because they don't understand why they should pursue it in the first place.  Maybe those books are right - they struggle, because we struggle.  While none of us ever have a "perfect" faith hopefully we have a faith worth expressing, and if we aren't apathetic about our faith we should stop acting like it and keeping it to ourselves.  We have the reason, the experience and the stories others need to hear.  We just need to make the investment in their lives.  Expecting a younger generation to do something "just because" just doesn't cut it anymore.

Does it Matter at All?

A few months ago I stumbled onto a weekly blog that one of my former professors writes.  Peter Berger is a well-known church sociologist, which really means that he looks at church with an unusually objective view.  I vividly remember sitting in a small class with him talking about the practices of the church in a way that really opens yours eyes to begin to ask why we do things the way we do.  Last week Berger wrote a blog post entitled, "Do The Three Abrahamic Faiths Worship the Same God?"  It's actually a very well written blog looking at whether or not Christianity, Islam and Judaism have the same roots.  Berger takes time looking at the reasons people agree and disagree with this statement.  His strongest statement, "There is no reason why Jew, Muslim, and Christian should not be able to work and live in harmony together."  I agree, when it comes to causes of humanity, certainly those of education, caring for children and elderly, and basic human rights there is no reason individuals of any faith (or no faith) cannot work together to serve others.  The article begs the question though - is Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and maybe even other faiths just different paths to the same destination?

As I read this I couldn't help to think about our beliefs in/about Jesus.  While there is certainly historical common ground when it comes to Jesus there is something fundamentally different about what we believe - mostly we don't pursue God, God finds us.  There is fundamentally a difference between living to earn God's favor and living out God's favor.

A great witness to this comes in the book of Hebrews.  Here we see how faith, a forward, outward looking faith that anticipates the work of God.

First, in Hebrews 10 we read about the work of the priests to sanctify (purify/cleanse) God's people.  Of course for the priests this was first a work of earning the forgiveness of their own sins and then later for others.  In Hebrews 10:11-14 we read about how Jesus has come and eliminated this need for serial purification because he has done what could not be accomplished through the law.

And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Hebrews then goes in Chapter 11 to discuss the "heroes of the faith", those who lived in prior generations yet demonstrated a faith that is completed through the work of Christ.  I believe what is implied here is that even before the birth of Christ there were those who longed for what they new God intended for humanity yet was beyond their grasp.  So Hebrews writes, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval."  (Heb 11:1-2)

Jesus completes the longing of those who have gone before; those who longed for God's presence and reconciliation with God but knew it was beyond their power to achieve.  They were faithful to walk forward to what God called them to.  Even though what had been promised made no sense (a child in old age, the sacrifice of an only son, delivery from Egypt, a virgin birth) they trusted and walked forward in faith.

Jesus completes what we cannot do on our own and did so for each of them.  In Jesus we experience God's forgiveness, God's presence in our life and we become a new creation.  Jesus does complete God's promises and begins the recreation of our world.

Why does it matter and why is it any different?  It's because it's not our job to seek God.  It's not our job to earn God's salvation.  Being a follower of Jesus isn't about following Jesus hoping to find or experience him.  Being a follower of Jesus is a transformed and restored relationship with God so that all we do is not out of obligation but instead in response to the love and joy we experience as God enters the world and our lives.  It's knowing the truth that our greatest longing is already fulfilled and our greatest joy, hope, peace and love comes to us simply in a manger.  Unexpected, unmerited, unwarranted and irrational, true.