Cultivating Consequential Faith

Ethicist L. Gregory Jones warns us that many mainline churches are trapped in a “narrative of decline… We reassure ourselves that God calls us to faithfulness, not success, with is true. But … too often we turn ‘faithfulness’ into a misguided justification for aiming low, settling for mediocrity, and remaining content with decline.” So quotes Kenda Creasy Dean in Almost Christian: What the faith of our teenagers is telling the American Church (p. 192). Dean is convinced we are frittering away the mission of the church with dreams that are too small and unimportant when it comes to our young people.

In the second half of Almost Christian, Dean maps out a plan for cultivating Consequential Faith. Although her particular interest is in reaching teenagers with the gospel, it is clear that her ideas reach across generations. Her plan is not really spelled out in a neat package with Steps A, B and C. Rather she makes observations about the effective ways we might nurture faith in young people and others.

Dean talks in detail about the need to translate faith in much the same way a missionary might try to translate the scriptures in to another language. Deans insists we are steeped in our own American culture that is not Christian, and in many ways runs counter to the values taught by Jesus, particularly when it comes to American’s passion for consuming. Teenagers not only buy into the American dream but layer on an additional culture of language, media, music and values. Reaching into this culture with a message about a first century teacher/prophet/savior is complicated at best.

Surprisingly Deans suggests parents are the best translators of the faith, but not surprisingly she also says parents often drop the ball. She does not really blame parents, but rather points out that they often rightly feel they do not have the theological tools to do the job adequately. Full of encouragement, Dean suggests what is needed is not theological expertise but a willingness to let our teenagers sneak a peek at our love life – the one with God. She writes, “We may question what we believe, but most of us are pretty clear about who we love, and who loves us. It is such a preposterous claim – God with us (oh please) – that young people are unlikely to believe it unless we give them opportunities to do some sacred eavesdropping on us as we seek, delight and trust in God’s presence with us.” (p. 119) This translation of the gospel to our young people can certainly be done by other trusted adults as well. The most important truth to be grasped here is: faith is communicated by people, not programs.

Along this line Dean talks about the importance of developing conversational faith. The vast majority of highly devoted teenagers surveyed in the National Survey of Youth and Religion came from families and traditions that “talked about God, the scriptures, prayer and other religious things together” – a lot! She quotes Tom Long who insists that “saying things out loud is part of how we come to believe. We talk our way toward belief, talk our way from tentative belief, through doubt to firmer belief, talk our way toward believing more fully, more clearly, and more deeply” (p.142). Dean likens learning the faith to the experience of learning a foreign language. One can study in school and know the basic vocabulary and grammar, but until one has the opportunity to speak the language a lot, it is not really known by heart. Dean urges us to develop conversational Christianity in our churches.

Lastly Dean talks about the importance of “thin” or “liminal” experiences for developing consequential faith. This word, liminal, was a new one for me, but I like it. The word actually comes from the word “threshold” and gives the sense of standing between two places. Dean uses the word liminal to refer to experiences in which one stands between world views, having left behind the world and one’s self understanding in which there is a great deal of comfort. One stands on a threshold before one has composed a new world view to make sense of one’s life. Dean says it is during moments, in this in-between, liminal place that God is likely to move in our lives.

I think Dean is drawing from James Loder’s book The Transforming Moment when describing the importance of liminal experiences. In fact she quotes from his work significantly. Loder describes a similar process for transformational faith experiences in which one’s world is turned upside down. He calls it entering the void where one’s world has been “undone”. Loder says the individual then goes through a period of scanning ideas and options until there is a break through or “aha!” which enables him or her to compose a new reality that makes sense. Like Dean, Loder says the divine often reaches us in moments when we are vulnerable and open to a new world view. He would say that the “Aha” is of divine initiative.

The problem, of course, for those of us who would like to encourage transformational or convictional faith is how to legitimately engender liminal or transformational moments. The nature of such events presupposes significant conflict in the life of the individual to initiate the complete reevaluation of one’s world view. Loder was in a major car crash that almost claimed his life! That’s not exactly what we want to encourage in our youth ministry. Dean suggests camp experiences and mission trips can become such transformational experiences but may not be. She says it depends how much these experiences challenge the cultural world view assumed by each youth. Leadership on these events can make the difference, but again nothing is guaranteed with the work of the Spirit.

I suspect an especially fruitful opportunity for transformational faith is when the believer experiences moments of trouble and challenge as a natural part of living. Betrayal of friendship, lost loves, family trauma, the disorientation that comes with life decisions, financial trouble and of course the death of a loved one all send one to a threshold where we leave the world as we have known it and seek to compose a new sense of stability. In these moments God will often touch us in significant ways if we are open to the movement of the Spirit. These are the moments that tax the energies of ministers, counselors and friends and often we concentrate on simply listening and providing comfort. I expect Dean would encourage us to wade into these liminal experiences with courage and speak words of faith and hope to open the way for the Spirit.