I must apologize for disappearing for a month, but it has taken a while to adjust to the whole "semester" thing again after only having one class to deal with in the summer. School has taken off at a break-neck pace with lots of reading and papers (due this week). New classes raise new questions, and some of those I hope to explore here over the next few posts.My first question deals with a discussion I had with my mother this weekend on a visit home to Knoxville (for the UT vs. Florida game....sad,sad....). She teaches the middle school Sunday school at our church, First Presbyterian, and currently the middle schoolers are not receiving as much pastoral attention as years past. New youth directors with responsibilities for children and adult Christian Education and the like. I'm not interesting in figuring out how the system is broken, or blaming anyone for a lack of attention to this area of church life. Instead, I wish to think about something that has been raised by a student in her class.
One of the middle schoolers in this class is currently struggling with where he fits in the life of our church. This particular student lives in the suburbs, and First Presbyterian is a downtown congregation; it isn't your neighborhood suburban church. In his area, there is a particularly large and influential Southern Baptist congregation where many of his school friends attend. He is reaching an age where her and his friends are beginning to have theological discussions about the nature of salvation and the like.
In addition to this, they have a VERY active youth program that does lots of exciting things like trips and retreats and mission projects and fun games at youth group and lock-ins and all those things. Now we can debate how appropriate ski trips and beach trip vacations are for church life, but that isn't going to convince a 6th or 7th grader that it is better to attend the church where his parents have always taken him instead of going to a church that is "Bible-based," full of friends from school, and is always offering exciting programs.
My question is, then, what is the relevance of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to a thirteen-year-old? I think the answer to this question might also give us insight into the relevance of our church in the broader Christian sphere in general, but I am currently interested in how our denomination- its theology, polity, worship, mission, and education- make us unique or relevant to a 6th or 7th grader. This is in line with the questions the moderator of our church has been requesting Presbyterians ask on blogs, facebook, etc.
Unfortunately, I am not going to offer how it is so, for I have yet to figure out a good way to articulate anything about it since I began pondering the question. I would love any comments or thoughts others who happen on this post might have.
1 comment:
Hi Andrew, I wrote a post about this last week. Becca Berry at Erin sees youth work as spiritually relational rather than ecclesiastically pastoral.
I understand the angst of that middle schooler. He probably feels like a fish out of water. His parents should think about going to a church nearer his home, before he rebels and quits believing in God.
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