Reformation/Re-formation

Haarlem, Netherlands.  A. Hanson, 2009.

Yesterday was Reformation Sunday in the ELCA.  If you want a quick and dirty primer on what the Reformation is, click here. Reformation Day is celebrated among Lutherans with a particular sort of affinity that some of my clergy friends call "Lutheran pridefulness day."  It's where Lutherans get to pat themselves on the back and be thankful that they are different than OTHER kinds of Christians.

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg church in 1517, he was responding to a overruling church hierarchy that was out of touch with the people and with what God was already doing in their midst.

 But it is with care and deliberation that I raise the following question, with this radical reforming history in our tradition, are we really willing to be re-formed now?  

I am not convinced that the ELCA is open to reformation in this day and age.  I raise for your consideration this article that appeared in the most recent edition of the Lutheran magazine, "Get set for clergy retirement wave: Age, perspectives to change the face of the ELCA" by Charles M. Austin.  Austin's article is primarily making the observation that there is an anticipated wave of clergy retirements in the near future, and these retirements will change the face of leadership in the ELCA.  This is an absolutely valid observation.  He also argues that this can be a good thing, with young clergy bringing energy to their work and perhaps building bridges between younger members who are new to the ELCA, with which I also agree.

But the overall tone of the article is one of unwarranted mourning.  Austin, along with many others quoted in the article, lament that with the retirement of many of these older pastors is the loss of "skill and wisdom gained in decades of ministry", "'residual memory' of predecessor church bodies", and perhaps most grating, these retired leaders' "commitment to ministry."  (Which seems to imply that younger clergy do not have the same commitment to their work.)  To all of this lament, I raise our own theology for consideration.

At the core of our Lutheran theology is the cross.  A symbol of death.  That in order to have new life, the old self must be crucified. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to that door in 1517, it probably felt a little bit like death. He was standing up against a giant behemoth of an institutional church, and he had no way of knowing that his bold act would lead to anything but excommunication. But as Marty himself said, "Here I stand, I can do no other."  This is not to say that older pastors are dragging down the ELCA, but rather the attitude that the good days have already passed in our church.  It is fully possible to be a pastor in a call for decades and be continually open to what God is creating new every day. In fact, I feel fortunate to know and be mentored by several of these older pastors.

I have been working on my ELCA assignment paperwork, and in my Rostered Leader Profile, one of the questions is, "What are your hopes for the ELCA?"  which I answered with the following response:

It is my hope that the ELCA will be open to what God is already doing in the world in surprising places, and be willing to let some things die in order that new things might be born.  It is my hope that we believe what we confess in our own theology about death and resurrection.

Here I stand, I can do no other.

The ELCA is in decline.  This is not a special distinction.  We share this dubious distinction with all other denominations. There are fewer people coming to church.  There can be no assumed Christian culture. Being a member of a church is the exception, not the rule.  We are more likely to be eating brunch than attending church on Sundays. The understanding of "church" that pervaded American culture for so long is dead.  It hurts to hear and hurts to say, but it is true.  Healthy congregations still exist, and will continue to do so, but the sort of church that we hold up as overwhelmingly normative in the ELCA (or any other denomination, for that matter) just doesn't exist any longer.

I am a Lutheran. I love our tradition.  I love our theology.  I also hurt for a church that seems to be stuck in the past.  I hurt for all the vibrant, excited young leaders who have their vision squashed by people like Charles M. Austin and others who view us as second-string replacements for the "all-star" pastors who are retiring.

I do not think it is timely or appropriate to throw out all of our tradition.  But I ask that we consider why we do the things that we do. And be willing to let certain things go to make room for the new life in our denomination.  I know that the word "death" used in this post is going to make some people uncomfortable and angry. So how about re-formation?


Are we as the ELCA actually willing to be re-formed?

Are we willing to let go of "cultural Lutheranism" (tired jokes about jello salad and lutefisk and Scandinavians) and be willing to see what Lutheranism looks like today?  Are we willing to find places for people of color in our overwhelmingly white churches? Places for other languages and cultures in our expression of liturgy and worship?  To be influenced and changed by those people that we label as "Other" to "Our" tradition?

Are we willing to dare to be different in the way that we "do" church? Are we willing to provide space for our people to co-create worship alongside the seminary-educated professionals? Are we willing to let go of control?  Are we willing to explore alternative ways of educating and forming pastors?

Are we willing to dare to believe that the church does not actually exist within four walls?  That it might have nothing to do with buildings at all?  To believe that God is already at work in the world and instead of creating a place where people can come and encounter God, we will walk alongside people in the world where God is already with them?

Are we willing to stop lamenting what has been and turn with joyous expectation to that which is to come?  

Where are the "kids" in church?

A. Hanson, Paris. 

There has been an article floating around cyberspace today called, "Grow up, Grownups!" that looks at why young adults do not feel welcome in the church.  The article related the author's experience of hearing a speaker present at a conference and then having an audience member say that while "young adults" (18-29) are legally adults, they do not act like adults.  The author points out that this is an extremely problematic attitude in the church.

The author argues that we treat young adults like children and adolescents in the church, and I could not agree more. The church appears to argue on one hand that there are not enough young adults in church and that the key to saving our declining denominations is to get more of these people into congregations. But on the other hand, we are treating young adults like children and so we ask, where are the "kids" in church?

The "kids" have gone elsewhere because they do not feel valued as members of our congregations. We reinforce this attitude every time that we schedule church leadership meetings during working hours.  We reinforce this attitude when we live in the past "glory days" instead of looking into the future with joy and expectation.  We reinforce this attitude when we attempt to force young adults into existing structures of leadership and governance in our congregations. We reinforce this attitude when we lament the death of what has been instead of trusting in the resurrection of that which is to come.  We reinforce this when we "let" young adults teach sunday school and lead youth group, but not serve on our finance or stewardship committees.

Young adults are labeled as immature because they are delaying marriage and children and becoming rooted in communities, and yet instead of asking why this occurs (the answer is profound economic insecurity), young adults are labeled as hedonistic and individualistic, and thus do not belong in our congregations.  Young adults are not rushing the doors of our congregations because we have not made them places of welcome. Churches have made young adults into a commodity, rather than seeing them as valued and beloved members of the body of Christ.

There are much bigger questions and issues at work in this discussion, but how about we start with treating young adults like the valuable people that they are?  They are hardworking, contributing members of our society and our congregations.  They are not children.  They are not teenagers.  They are fellow workers in the kingdom of God.

Letter to my 21 year old self

Pretty sure I was 21 when this photo was taken.  Or maybe 20. 

Dear Self,

You are living on the top of the world right now.  Your 21st birthday was spent on Flathead Lake in Montana, you went out to the Great Northern bar in Whitefish and danced with your friends.  You are headed back to your senior year at Augustana College.  You feel like you have MADE it.  You feel like you are a completely formed adult right now.  You feel like you know who you are.  You are feisty, you are opinionated.  You are a feminist, you are an outspoken pro-choice activist and gay rights activist.  In fact, you seem to have a an "activism flavor of the month."  Life seems pretty black and white.  Right and wrong.  Liberal and progressive is good.  Always.  Conservative is bad. Always. You don't really seem to have an understanding of how you impact other people. But all you know, is that you are a grown up, and your knowledge and liberal arts education and opinions are a gift to the world and you are going to keep sharing them (or ramming them down people's throats).   You've spent so much time thinking these things, that certainly no one else has ever had these thoughts before, and the world needs to hear them.

Looking back, ten years out, I sometimes wish that I could have just a little bit of the stupid confidence that you seem to have had at age 21. But a decade later, there are some things that I wish I could go back and tell you, although I won't, because we all need to learn them.

First, nothing is ever completely black and white, particularly when it comes to beliefs, values, or opinions.  Everything is gray.  Everything. You will be working at Planned Parenthood one day, and strike up a conversation with some very gentle Catholic pro-life activists.  You will realize that other people hold their values just as closely as you hold yours and you will realize that openness and listening to others is the way that real change happens, not militant shouting. You will end up living in intentional community with a friend who is a very conservative evangelical Christian.  He will become a close friend and he will teach you how to love others before judging them, and he never points out to you that you were judging him first.  He only listens. You will meet many people along the way who teach you about places and situations that will forcefully expand your comfort zone.  And you will be better for it, but it will be painful.

Next, right now you think you have a pretty good grasp on issues of social justice and feel the need to tell everyone about them.  A year from now, when you are working in a homeless shelter, you will fall to your knees when you realize that you really know nothing.  Things are far more nuanced than you realize.  You've spent a lot of time bashing political/fiscal conservatives or people who don't think the same way that you do as being ignorant or misguided.  You will come to realize that most people are basically good, and most people are just doing the best they can at any point in time with the resources that are available to them.  You will feel a lot less exhausted when you stop trying to take on the world and make the world see things from your perspective. Just being, and doing the best you can with what you have, is all that you can do. And that is enough.

And being a fully self-supporting adult is really, really hard. Right now you have all these values, like having a fulfilling job that will change humanity for the better and traveling the world. But then real life will creep in, with all these boring things like car insurance and root canals and saving for retirement. You might not find the job of your dreams at age 22, but you need to find a job to support yourself.  And guess what, that is okay.  Because work doesn't define you.  You will go on to travel a lot, and that's okay too.

This might come as a shock, but most people don't actually care about the earth-shattering revelations that you have uncovered in College.  Everyone that goes to college ends up reading Betty Friedan, Simon de Beauvoir, Anais Nin, Ghandi, queer theory, interfaith dialogue, and so on, at some point. They've gone out into the real world and gotten jobs and learned important things like how to play well with others and make compromises, and that's actually worth more that being able to recite feminist theory anyway. You will make valuable contributions to the world, but learning is just as important as teaching and doing.

So calm down, take a deep breath, and just be.

Love,

Me

"What Young People Want In Church..."

...is something that I am not actually sure of.  But I am going to make an effort to identify some of these things.

I am in a preaching intensive class this week at Luther Seminary.  Yesterday one of my classmates (a woman in her late fifties) delivered a sermon in which she used powerpoint slides.  Her reasoning for doing this was that "Young people want this in a church and they are more likely to come to our church if we do multimedia sermons."  Ummm...no.

I felt compelled to speak out on behalf of young people.  The three of us in my lab but also young people everywhere.  By no means do I have all the answers and this is just a starting point.  But I do have some unique qualifications to speak to this:
-I am a young person (I'll be 30 in a month)
-I have spent a lot of time in non-traditional congregations over the last few years
-I am training to become a pastor
-I have a call to speak change into the church

So here are some of my thoughts about this.  Please chime in as you feel so moved.

1. Young people want innovative things in church.
Now, this is going to seem to stand in direct opposition to what I said above, but bear with me.  Far too often faith communities latch onto the word "innovative" and think it means media in worship services, contemporary bands, and so on and so forth.  This is wrong.  This was maybe innovative 20-30 years ago.  Maybe not even then.  When I say innovative, I mean different from ordinary life.  I have a smart phone and a laptop that are with me constantly.  I am constantly connected and surrounded by a multimedia, multi-sensory experience.  In the church that I attend, I want something different.  We actually want to be fully present and have an experience of the divine.  We are not looking for entertainment.  Which leads me to my next point...

2. Young people want church to be part of the world
Congregations have gotten into a nasty habit of trying to appeal to young people, or furthermore any new people, by trying to make their churches as much like the "outside world" as possible.  This rests on at least two problematic assumptions.  First, that the church is separate from the world and, second, that we want to be isolated from it.  This is not true.  Just because your congregation has a coffee cart in the narthex, doesn't make me think you are cool and certainty doesn't make me want to come attend worship.  We want churches that are in touch with their neighborhoods and our country and our world.  This is not limited to once-yearly Habitat for Humanity builds or mission trips (that is another post entirely) to Mexico once every couple years or collecting food for the food pantry.  No, young people want their congregations to share life with their communities.  The good, the bad, and the ugly, which leads to...

3. Young people want church to be a place where they can be real
Coming of age as a young adult right now is a lonely and terrifying proposition.  We are disproportionately unemployed.  We are the first generation who are "worse off" than our parents.  We are drowning in debt.  We are putting off getting married and having children and owning homes.  We will likely never realize the American dream as it has been known in the past.  We are being bombarded with demands to "hold it together" and maintain a certain image because networking is important and we "never know what contact will help us get a job".  There are very few places where we can be truly who we are.  Where we can share our pain and disappointments and joys and fears. Church can be that place.  But most of all, we want to be heard in all of who we are, which brings me to...

4. Young people are tired of having assumptions made about them
"Young people" are often seen as a commodity.  And furthermore, seen as THE commodity that will save the church.  A church is seen as thriving if it has young adults and we sometimes feel only like numbers and a bullet point in the strategic plan.  We are talked about and around and all sorts of people have ideas about what we want and what we need, most of which is wrong.  There is a pretty easy way forward.  People could ASK us what is important to us, which leads to...


5. Young people want to feel valued in the church

We want to have opportunities to serve and learn in faith communities.  But it is not as simple as keeping the existing structure of volunteer positions and leadership structure and plugging in young adults.  How about getting to know us and identifying and nurturing our gifts?  This is an entirely opposite approach than currently exists and it is scary.  If you want us to lead, you might have to step out of the way to make room for us. Which leads me to...

6. Young people aren't interested in maintaining the status quo in church

The Derek Penwell article, What if the kids don't want our church?, has been floating around for awhile  and I have even written about it on this blog before.  This is painful but I am just going to say it, we don't really want your church.  This is not a value judgment.  It just is.  The Baby Boomer generation is perhaps the first in American history that has had such a wide swath of products and experiences targeted especially towards them.  They received this well.  And this huge and gifted generation has assumed that everyone else wants the same thing that they do.  We do not.  We want the same opportunities that you all have received to re-imagine and re-shape what church can be.  Which opens the discussion of...


7. Young people value authenticity
Authenticity gets thrown around as a marketing tool, particularly in churches.  Young adults have a finely tuned ability to smell inauthenticity and nothing is more pathetic than a carefully crafted facade of being "authentic."  We want congregations to recognize their own gifts and identity and live into that. Not every congregation can stand for everything and not every congregation is going to be able to be a place where young adults find a church home.  But that is okay, because we need to leave room for the Holy Spirit to do what she will and form and reform our congregations and our leaders which leads me to my final points...

8. We are open to where the Spirit is leading us and we want our churches to recognize that
Those of us who are a part of faith communities are incredibly faithful.  Our religious practices look different.  We want to discuss theology in bars with our friends.  We want to experience worship, not just attend it.  We want to sing hymns loudly and badly in pubs with our congregations.  When we start becoming engaged in congregations, it might look different than our parents and grandparents, but it is no less valid.  

9. Those of us who sense a call to serve want to be raised up as clergy in the church
We are young.  We are faithful.  We are LGBTQ.  We have tattoos.  We sometimes swear.  We have made mistakes.  We will continue to do so.  We are no different from you, yet we are so different from you. We need to be mentored by you, but we also need for you to allow us to fly and to be moved by the Holy Spirit.  

10. We want to hear when we need to step back and let a new generation lead
We won't be young forever.  Even though we are often the youngest in congregations, we will continue to age.  And if our church communities are doing what they hope we will, we won't be the youngest.  And we need to learn when to get out of the way for something new to happen as well.  At that point, we will need you to help us know how to gracefully step aside.  

This is not an exhaustive list and I would love to have this conversation continue