Contingent Dimensions, Part 2
I’ve spent a couple days this past week in Louisville, KY. I was hanging out with nearly 200 youth workers from around North America. I used the time and conversations to test a fair bit of my more recent thinking related to faith formation of adolescents with a handful of the youth workers who were in attendance.
From my conversations, I’ve affirmed my thinking (although it was a relatively small sampling) that one of the most overlooked areas of guiding students into spiritual formation for the mission of God is the invitation and call to join a community of people who are on the way.
Often, those of us who work with youth are not deliberate about calling and inspiring students into spiritual formation for the mission of God. We are often very deliberate about telling them what to do, who to be, what to look like and how to live... but shouldn't the very beginning of the journey be a simple, authentic and meaningful invitation to be a part of a faith community that is on the way?
The invitation I am referring to isn't simply the words, "please join us" as much as it is the communal spirit of hospitality and generosity in which the invitation is extended. In addition, the invitation is not just to attend or be a part of but in a much deeper and connective way it is an invitation to participate in the formation of others.
I think this is where we often are confused between a group of people who meet regularly and talk about God and a community of people who regularly help others live in the intended ways of God. A group of individuals that is not dependent upon one another for formation is simply an assembly of many. A faith community, on the other hand, recognizes the role and participation of others in the shaping of the lives that comprise the community -- an interdependent body of one, a family.
We are not our own in two ways -- (1) We are God's and (2) we belong to a people, a community, and a family. A skimpy invitation to be an individual who represents a group or assembly is clearly different than a stout invitation to participate in the shaping of others lives through genuine community. We need to invite adolescents into a community of people on the way, not a mere assembly of people.
The first dimension of adolescent faith formation is indeed the invitation and call to join a community of people who are on the way. Subsequently, people who work with adolescents must be able to recognize the difference between an invitation into a group and an invitation into a faith community. An invitation into the first is really, in the end, about "self". An invitation into the latter is really, in the end, about "others" and this is why the invitation is key.
Key Factors of an Invitation into Community:
1. The invitation must be compelling -- irresistible and imperative. Inviting adolescents into a faith community that is bigger than they are and has a collective dream to change the world by participating with God to restore the world to its intended wholeness. Who wants to completely disorient and reorient their life for a lame cause or no cause at all?
2. The invitation must be recurring. Inviting adolescents into a faith community must be something that occurs more than "every now and then". Our faith communities must commit to a variety of ways of inviting others to explore what it means to live in and live out the mission of God, giving adolescents the chance to decide how they do or don't want to participate.
3. The invitation must be bigger than us. The ongoing invitation to adolescents to participate in the faith community needs to be about more than the spiritual discovery and growth of any one particular person. The invitation must also be one that reveals the desire to live out beyond the walls of the faith community and live amidst the needs of others.
4. The invitation must be about process and progress. We'll think on and talk about this more as the weeks go by but to the invitee, faith formation must be about the process and the progress that takes place within the process. Some are happy to engage the process to be a part of a body, a family, but the progress of an ongoing conversion is often not part of the original call or invitation.
Some thoughts to reflect on:
• In what ways am I (are we) inviting adolescents into a faith community?
• Do I (we) invite students into a group or a community? Could my (our) faith community recognize the difference?
• In what ways and I (are we) helping adolescents understand process and progress?
