Banked Beliefs Are Killing the Faith of Teenagers

Banked beliefs are “beliefs that do not fit in with other beliefs.  They are remembered or stored away, but do not affect the way a person acts, except perhaps, when there is occasion for those beliefs to be “regurgitated”.”**  In other words, these are beliefs that we learn and only recall when the setting is just right.  For many youth this seems to be the primary type of belief that our youth groups are perpetuating.  Students learn the content of a set of beliefs, and they “bank” them away for use in the next Sunday School lesson or for the next time their parents quiz them on what they are learning at church. What they “learn” does not influence they way they live their everyday life.

This is to be completely contrasted with “actual beliefs”  which are the beliefs that a person holds that influence their behavior and action. Often people do not articulate these out loud, but understanding their culture and observing their life lived out will tell this tale.

Teens carrying around "banked beliefs"

Over the past year this contrast has kept rising to the surface of my conversations with both teenagers and youth workers.  For the youth workers they wonder how a student can so readily and rightly regurgitate information about Scripture, God, church and faith – but yet live as though they know none of it.  For teenagers the conversation is often more complex because they say they like youth group, like their youth workers and like (as one student put it) “the Jesus stuff”, but when pressed about how it changes their behavior or separately asked about the actions of their life, there seems to be no internalization of this faith.

All this to say that it seems to me that the great myth of modern youth ministry (and perhaps modern ecclessiology) has been that “information equals transformation”.  If we simply give the students the right information – in a cool and relevant way I’m sure – then they will be changed and make the right decisions and their behavior will be changed to the way we have prescribed for them.  This operates out of the faulty assumption that we are rational people who are sometimes capable of emotion, when in fact the converse it true – we are emotional people who are occasionally capable of reason.

If we hold to this second claim – that we are primarily emotional people – then the way we do youth ministry simply has to move beyond sharing information.  I would like to briefly propose that youth ministry has to start with engaging the world of the teens and people we are living life with, seeking to understand and reflect on their culture.  In joining them in their place, and joining God where He is already at work, we reveal an intention that is “rooted and grounded in love” and moves well beyond the simple desire of giving students more information so that they can change their behavior. The movement towards really knowing the person and caring for them as for Christ, is a movement toward our emotion. I would also like to propose that we live a faith together that is “caught” as it is being taught.  In this way the students we love will see the lives we live for Christ, the brokenness that we also bring, the healing that Christ has begun in us and all-encompassing actual beliefs we possess. But the information is also important – but only in the lived out life of faith together – because it gives words and expression to the larger things going on in our lives.

I am not arguing here for an emotionalism that capitalizes on students, though many have discovered that this does move people.  I am rather arguing for the deeper level of emotional youth ministry where we actually know the teens we are working with, their struggles, doubts and fears and they know ours.  This type of ministry moves beyond building up the “banked beliefs” that do not affect our daily lives and moves towards a much more messy and wonderful faith that impacts how we actually live our lives.

Anybody else see these “banked beliefs” at work in their youth ministry?  What actions do we take to help move past “banked beliefs” to “actual beliefs”?

** The main ideas behind “actual beliefs” and “banked beliefs” come from Philip Hughes, “The Use of Actual Beliefs in Contextualizing Theology”. East Asian Journal of Theology, 1984.

 

 

Ichthus and Jesus

Had a great time at Ichthus Music Festival this weekend!  I spent most of my time in the Youth Worker Tent (Ground Zero) making new friends, telling stories, giving gifts ($200,000 in scholarships!), and helping throw a party.  I am very tired, but since this hits on my core values it was very rewarding as well. Some highlights:

- I got to meet some incredible people!  I’m going to name drop in a moment, but before I get to that stuff, let me just say that by far the greatest people I met were the youth workers who came in the tent to catch their breath. I love meeting youth workers and love spending time with them because they love Jesus and love teenagers.  It never ceases to bring me joy spending time with this group.  Just awesome people with awesome hearts who encourage me so much with their ministries to teens.  I saw Jesus in them this week.

- I got to tell some stories.  Specifically I lead devotions Thursday and Friday morning with youth workers (Saturday was schedule but thunderstormed out) and I focused on the parable of the Prodigal and Perfectionist sons from Luke 15.  I’ll probably post more on this later as God has had me here for most of the year.

- I got to hear some stories.  Dan Lewis did a great job with our youth worker training times.  His notes are available at his website, including the rained out Saturday morning session.

- I was able to facilitate some great discussions and meet some incredible people on our panels each day.  All of the topics around youth culture(s) were filled with conversations about approaching culture as missionaries.  Good stuff.

Thursday was a panel discussion on Hip-Hop culture and why it matters to all youth ministry.  Great discussion from Efrem Smith, LaCrae, Trip Lee, and Pro.  All of these four guys were so insightful, thoughtful, and very articulate.  This was a real treat.

Friday was a panel discussion on Underground Culture, its many faces/styles/types and why it matters to youth ministry.  Great discussion from Loyal Thurman, Gideon Thurman, and Heather Vaught from Hope for the Rejected; Goth Mom, Donna Sheehy and Stephen Long from GraveRobbers; and TD and Veronica Benton of White Collar Side Show.  These are such missional people and ministries.  I’d highly encourage you to find some time with them and to support them however you can.

Saturday was a panel discussion on Social Networking and the pros/cons within youth ministry.  Great discussion again from Clinton Faupel of Remedy FM, Nathan Elliot, Nathan Head, and Janet Dean.

- I also got to lead some discussion with some artists who were at the festival including: Skillet; Seventh Day Slumber; and Matthew West.

So now you can see why I am excited and also tired.

 

7 Billion is a lot

National Geographic is working on a series around the issue of the earth’s population hitting 7 billion people very soon.  Quite fascinating stuff.

Two quick things jumped out at meet in this: The first is below, a video on the “typical human”.

The second was a stat about the country of Uganda where 1/2 of their 34 million people are under 15 years old.  What does this mean for the church there?  Youth ministry?  How can I train youth leaders that will go there and minister?

And here is another preview video

 

Five Stages of Grading

In the midst of the semester, I stumbled across this link shared by a colleague.  It’s funny cuz it’s true!

Five Stages of Grading

 

The Emotions of Speaking

I just returned from speaking at a youth retreat.  I really enjoy speaking and teaching and feel that God has gifted and called me to do that.  I also feel like God has placed some important people in my life to shape the ways that I approach study, preparation, prayer and speaking.  I have taken courses in public speaking and preaching at both the undergraduate and seminary level.  I have read lots of books about this.  God has given me a lot of opportunities to speak and teach.  I am so thankful for all of this and consider it all grace.

However, there are many dangers in speaking that I’d like to talk more about, as well as some of the ways that I’ve tried to deal with these dangers.

First let me identify the selfish dangers in speaking:

- Relevance – There is an incredible temptation to be seen as relevant, as having something significant of yourself to offer, of being somehow important or worthy in and of yourself to be heard.  This of course is garbage.  I am a dork.  I am so far from perfect.  Most of what speakers share is what we hope to be and hope to live into and hope that God gives us the strength to do and become.  These are important things to share to be sure, but the temptation is there to pretend that somehow we are those things.  One of my favorite quotes from Heninri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus reads, “…I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.”

Some ways that I battle this temptation is to bring someone with me who knows me.  Sometimes its someone from my family or a colleague or a student. (This weekend I traveled with a recent graduate who was helping to lead worship.)  This keeps me from telling too many tales and beginning to believe the hope that others have in me to be perfect is somehow true.  It also helps to tell on yourself in your speaking, relating stories of your failures, errors and blunders.  Another huge help in this area is preparing well, which leads me to my next temptation…

- Rely on your talent – Yes, I do believe some people are talented speakers.  This is usually why they began speaking in the first place.  Someone recognized this in them and encouraged them to do it for the Kingdom.  But what begins in that talent can become a trap that leads us to not prepare as we should and to instead lean on our talent or past preparation.  What’s even more difficult about this is that oftentimes a talented speaker can “get away with it”.  We can do a good enough job in our time to get some attention and praise, to connect with people and scratch an itch, but we are not truly connecting out of overflow of the heart.

Some of the ways that I battle this temptation is through developing a plan of preparation for every opportunity.  This begins with prayer and lots of it.  Prayer for myself, prayer for humility, strength and grace.  Prayer for wisdom, discernment, and love.  Prayer for more of God and less of me.  Prayer for those who I will be speaking to.  That God would somehow prepare a way for what He has for all of us.  Prayer that the true teacher, God’s Spirit, would be the one connecting here.  Prayer over the Scripture and preparation process.  The preparation process also requires a lot of listening – yes, to God in prayer, but also – to the leaders of the group to whom you’ll be sharing.  What are the issues that the group has been facing?  What is the group like (demographics and personal anecdotes)?  What are the kind of things that have seemed to resonate in the past?  Not?  What are the things you are hoping will happen when things are finished here?  Are there any things you don’t feel like you can say, but you’d like me to?  And so on.  There is also then a listening to the Scriptures that you will share from.  This is the development of the actual messages, but is important.  There are a lot of other resources on this that I’ll defer to here.

- Pride – There is a temptation to take pride in what you do, the results of what you may see God doing, or the praise that you get from people when you are done.  And why shouldn’t we be proud?  We could say that it was us who did the work, who developed the message, crafted the presentation, formed the word choices, framed the questions, etc.  But that would be foolish.  Yes, we need to be faithful and hard workers at the craft we are given, but let us not forget who gives us these opportunities, these words, this text, this voice, these relationships, etc.  The only one who ever exceeds the hype every time and has true integrity is Christ, so let’s get over ourselves and move on.

I battle this one through prayer and accountability.  I also work hard to turn all conversations praising me away from me and towards God and towards that person.  I ask them about themselves.  I pray with them.  I praise God for any good that comes from anything that I ever am involved in.

Finally, let me confess another important danger in speaking: emotional drain.  I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know for me speaking and teaching is an incredibly emotionally draining process.  Not because I don’t like it; I love it.  Not because it is some secondary effort or anything else less than what I feel I should be and want to be doing.  It is emotionally draining because you are working to connect people to your very inner heart, your journey, your learning, your stretching, your vulnerabilities, your passion, your dreams, your failures – and specifically God’s work in all of you.  When I speak for three times in one day – teaching or preaching – I am exhausted.  Not just tired – exhausted.  When I am preaching like that it is a true pouring out.  I am working hard before and after to refill so there is something better than me to pour out.

I think this is important to recognize because when  you are that emotionally drained it opens you up to all kinds of temptation and selfishness.  I don’t think it a coincidence that Jesus modeled this continual rhythm of filling up in prayer and time alone and the pouring out in miracles, speaking, etc.  I once had a good friend ask me why we pastors didn’t just share and copy each others’ sermons like we sing other people’s worship songs.  I asked him if he’d ever take someone else’s autobiography and put his name on it.

For those you know who preach or teach regularly, let me encourage you to pray for them, and make sure they are filling up regularly.  This is an emotional process.

 

I’m stupid, but God is good

As if anyone needed to be reminded of the first part of that title…

Yesterday I had plans to go to Lakeland, Florida to do some field work for my PhD stuff and also to speak to the awesome Middle Schoolers at Highland Park Nazarene.  I got to the airport only to realize that I had left my wallet at home.  Yes.  My wallet.  That which holds my drivers license and credit card and cash.  Now I’m 1 1/2 hours from my wallet and need to get on this plane.

I press on just to see what will happen and find out that its possible to board a plane without your ID on you.  They take you to the side, call mission control who taps into your enter life and they ask you weird questions that only you could answer.  This of course takes some time and they of course are in no hurry.  So once cleared I sprint to my gate where the worker says, “Are you Brian?”  “Yes!” I exclaim, thinking they have been waiting for me. “Sorry.  They just pushed away,” he says as I see the plane rolling back from the gate. “But we can get you on another flight that lands too late for it to be of help to you!”  (OK it wasn’t quite like that, but that’s the gist)

I am frustrated and sad and frustrated and so I start praying and call my wife who talks me down to sanity.

I say to God, “If I can find a flight for under $200 I’ll still do this, otherwise I guess its not supposed to happen.”

I approach another airline who says they can get me there in the time needed but they add, “But it’s going to cost you a lot.”  “How much?”

The lady does her type in the computer thing and stops and says, “Oh, wow!  That’s pretty good.  It’s $190.”  So I get on the flight.

Once on the flight, the guy sitting next to me asks me how I’m doing and I tell him the story and we talk.  He generously gave me $20 cash.  He is intrigued by my involvement in the church and we have a really good conversation about faith and church.  I really feel like God is working through my situation to bring this together.  As we leave he tells me that this is truly an incredible event because he “never talks to people on the plane.”  I find this startling because most who know me, know that I don’t either.

I arrive in Tampa and go the rental car counter to pick up the car I’ve reserved.  It turns out that you can fly on a plane, but not rent a car without a physical copy of a drivers license.  (and yes, if you are wondering, every rental counter at the airport abides by this policy)  Not knowing what to do next I stumble outside and around the corner where the taxi stand is.  $100 he says.  This is a bit steep I feel.  Super Shuttle says they’ll do if for $60 and so I take the chance that there won’t be 400 stops before me on the shuttle.  Sure enough there is 1.

After we quickly drop off the first person, I strike up a conversation with the driver and he asks where I’m going.  I tell him and he says, “no problem.  I’ll get you there fast.”  He kindly drives at a rapid pace and drops me off at the church.  Again, I really feel like God was with me in that because of so many variables that had to fall into place.

Once finally there I am able to do the talk (which goes really well thanks to God) and meet with some people for interviews.  What a great ministry they have there!  Thankfully, my hosts for the evening, Br0okly and Coy Lindsey are kind people and Coy drops me at my hotel by the airport and then I fly back today without incident.

All this drama because I’m dumb.  All this grace because God is good.

Throughout this my awesome and hot wife has been an incredible support, getting people to pray, loving me and answering my phone calls all day.  I am blessed.

Just felt like I had to share.

 

One of my favorite videos ever

You really need to take the four minutes to watch this.  It’s one of my favorite videos that I’ve ever seen.  I really like the inclusion of teens and kids in the story, which is a piece I’m constantly advocating for and reminding people of…

 

How do you view transitions?

Transitions are a part of life.  We grow older and transition from child to teenager to (we hope) adulthood.  We change our minds, our opinions, and sometimes even our values.  We change jobs sometimes.  We change little things, big things, on purpose, on accident.  Sometimes change happens to us to cause transition.  Transition is inevitable… the question is – how do you handle it?

Side bar – An orthodox friend asked me, “how many orthodox Christians does it take to change a light bulb?  Change!!!  Change!!!  We don’t change it, we venerate it for its years of faithful service and give it a holiday!”  Some funny people, my orthodox friends.

I’m thinking about transitions because my oldestson just turned 11 years old this weekend.  In our family we consider this a very important transition time and so we do a rite of passage weekend getaway with one of the parents.

Training at the Ali Center

My son and I had a great time as we talked about life, where he is right now, where he wants to go, the transition time he’s in, etc.  We also played, laughed and set up a slot car track in the middle of our hotel room.  One of the things we, as a family, are trying to re-claim are the rites of passage that mark specific and important transitions.  We believe these are incredibly healthy as they allow us a period of getting away, reflecting, sharing “insider information” on this next stage of life and then returning to a new rhythm and role.

How have you seen transitions handled well?  Poorly?  How was your experience?

I’m also thinking about transitioning in this blog.  I’m realizing more and more that I don’t spend the time I should at this, nor do I really have a direction with it.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to start another blog focused on “missional youth ministry” that will reflect my thoughts, research, class lectures that I’m giving and be a bit more of a resource I hope.  I’m also pretty sure I’m going to keep this one, but focus it a bit differently.

More to come on that and I would appreciate any and all suggestions.

 

Throwing Parties

One of my core values is throwing parties!  So I’m throwing a really good party next week, Oct. 7-9 here at Asbury University.  This one is specifically for High School students and for Youth Workers.

It’s called the CALL Conference and it exists to encourage High School students in the exploration and living out of their call for ministry.

Mike King will be with us for the weekend including a time in chapel here and a time with just youth workers.

Love to have you join us!  Cost is free!

 

Real Issues with Concerned Nazarenes

Many Nazarene lay persons and clergy are aware of an issue brewing underneath the surface of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States and Canada. The issue has been framed in its most formal conversations as a debate between the emerging church and a group of Concerned Nazarenes. This awareness has been brought on largely by the campaign of the Concerned Nazarenes which has included a website, a formal strategy to approach and influence church leadership at all levels, a strategy to pass out propaganda at General Assembly including their DVD’s, and countless letters, blog posts and website comments from the core group of the Concerned Nazarenes.

Basically the Concerned Nazarenes claim that all things related to the emerging church are heretical and stand against the Church of the Nazarene. They have also included contemplative spirituality as heretical. The thrust of their argument is that these two things, which they see as interwoven, are threatening to infiltrate the denomination and take it away from Christianity.

To this end the Concerned Nazarenes have used the following phrases and adjectives to describe the emerging movement and contemplative spirituality:

1. “…grieved by the spiritual demise of our much-loved denomination under the influence of the emergent movement.”

2. “…purging our denomination of the emergent cancer before it is too late.”

The Concerned Nazarenes have gone on to list out several of their concerns:

1. We are concerned about the authority of God’s Word being undermined. We consider His Word to be inerrant (without error) in all matters.

2. We are concerned about the teaching of Open Theism within our academic institutions.

3. We are concerned about the invitations extended to emergent teachers, such as Brian McLaren, Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt, to speak at our universities and colleges

4. We are concerned about experiential works-based techniques for prayer being promoted on and through our academic campuses.

5. We are concerned about the emergent ideology that our academic institutions and General Church within the United States are promoting.

6. We are concerned that the “Jesus” that the emergent movement is preaching is “another Jesus”.

I would like to look at these concerns based on the doctrine of the Nazarene church:

1. This group openly admits that their view of Scripture (inerrant in all matters) is not part of the manual of the Church of the Nazarene and never has been. It should be noted that they are attempting to pass a resolution to change that, but to date, their views on Scripture are different than the formal position of the church as agreed upon by the larger body of the Church of the Nazarene.

2. The concern about open theism centers around their disagreement that God has given man free will to choose to follow Him or not. While the concerned Nazarenes would say that God has given us free will, He already knows what we will choose. In other words God has created us with the intent to choose to accept His love or not. This view of God’s creation is not free will and is predestination. The Church of the Nazarene has always followed the belief of free will and has denied predestination in matters of salvation. To be clear this view is different than the Church of the Nazarene.

3. The concern about who is invited to speak at our academic institutions does not include any concern for those speakers who might speak incorrectly on any issues other than those they have chosen as significant. There is no concern over speakers who might incorrectly teach students that all Scripture is completely inerrant which is against Nazarene church belief, or any other matters that would disagree with Nazarene church beliefs. It should also be pointed out that the role of higher education is to expose students to a variety of views, beliefs, and ideas so that students can, under the teaching of professors, process these ideas and come to their own conclusions, articulations and thoughts. In short, the purpose of the academic institution is the help teach people to think, not only give them the right answers.

4. The concern about experiential works-based prayer techniques upon closer examination is a concern about accepting and following the early church’s own practices. According to the cited article the Church of the Nazarene should ignore those first few centuries of Christianity altogether because there were some heresies that arose during that time. Any serious historical look at the church would reveal heresies emerging at every step. We do not choose to ignore all of our history, nor should we! To explore the concern even deeper, there is a fear that these practices will be too much like other religions views of prayer. These practices that they are concerned with include times of solitude and fasting, quietly and earnestly seeking God. They also include times of walking in nature and inviting God’s Spirit to reveal any separation in the heart. These are things that Scripture informs us that Christ modeled himself. If the concern is that we are too close to other religions then perhaps we should also be seriously concerned about the almost universal adoption within Christian homes of the pagan religion’s Christmas tree!

5. This concern about the “emergent ideology that our academic institutions and General Church within the United States are promoting” is difficult to assess or react to because there are no further issues developed or discussed here.

6. As a Christian and a Nazarene, I would agree with being concerned about anything that would point us away from Christ. I also would share concern for another Jesus being preached than what is found in Scripture. This is why myself and others wrote this White Paper to the General Church building on the work of another scholar, to show the connections we feel exist between some of the emerging church movement and the Wesleyan theology that the Church of the Nazarene was built upon.

It is not my desire to angrily fight over any issues regarding Christ or the church. Nor is it my desire to divide in any way from my brothers and sisters in Christ or my brothers and sisters in the Nazarene church. In fact, I stand with many who would state as their heart’s cry to join together with these brothers and sisters in reaching the world for Christ through the love of Christ.

The reality is that the Concerned Nazarenes are concerned about issues that are related to the theology of the Church of the Nazarene as it has always been. The claim that they want to “return to our theological roots” is not true for these are not our theological roots. If it is a different theological church they want the Nazarene church to become, then that is their prerogative and I hope that they will go through the necessary channels, gatherings, leadership and processes to have that conversation.

It is my desire that the global Church of the Nazarene would stay united in Christ, in mission and in holiness. I welcome genuine dialogue around these issues and would be happy to meet with anyone to discuss these issues further.