That one person we know is probably not the exception to the rule. They’re probably the rule, which we could know if we cared enough to find out.

“But he’s different” probably means “He’s the only one we actually know.” In the absense of first-hand knowledge, we default to conventional wisdom, which is too bad, because it has never been easier to find out about something, even something complex, than it is today.

Listening to Monica Davey discuss the story she reported about the beloved owner of a Mexican restaurant in a small Illinois town who has been detained by ICE is where this comes from. The people she interviewed claim with conviction about their friend that he “gives more to the community than he ever takes.” They know now, first hand, that the portrayal of undocument migrants in the U.S. as dangerous freeloaders is a cruel fiction.

But they could have known that before. The truth is out there. Not strictly in personal relationships with exceptional people, but in peer-reviewed studies and carefully-sourced news stories.

We don’t know what we know until we urgently need to know it. On this subject, we all need urgently to know. Now.

Our Confirmation class welcomed a group of 8th graders from the Jewish temple down the street yesterday. Before they arrived I spent about 10 minutes with our students discussing interfaith dialogue–why it matters for Confirmation and for church generally. Lots of nods. Yes, yes, we understand. I’m good at this.

Once our guests arrived we all crammed into a room and did several minutes of get-to-know-you icebreaker activities. That left about 20 minutes to present briefly about Presbyterian Christianity and our congregation’s history before entertaining a few questions, some of which I directed to our students. Because, you know, I’m good at this.

Here’s the best moment. An 8th grader responds to a question about prayer by asserting that Christians to pray to God as “Spirit,” too. I jumped in to expand on her answer. Christian faith trusts in God who is One, but three persons: Father, Son (that’s Jesus), and Holy Spirit. I’m so good at this.

Then a guest from the temple says to no one in particular but loud enough for all of us to hear, “Wait, Jesus is God?”

Silence.

I look pleadingly to the leaders of the temple group and joke, “I’ve done it now, haven’t I?” Heh. Heh.

I don’t think they think I’m very good at this.

Yesterday I wrote about the appendix in Brian McLaren’s latest book, with its image for Christian community of a table supported by four legs: a compelling story, inspiring saints, meaningful practice, and a vision for the future. I wondered how those four legs might support a curriculum template for youth ministry.

I also wonder how those legs might support another youth ministry staple, the Statement of Faith (SOF). For many youth workers, especially those in mainline Protestant churches that deploy some version of Confirmation, the SOF is an annual ritual in which the pastor and her team of leaders coax from 8th or 9th graders written statements of doctrinal belief that are then shared with the church session, or board, who receives the young people int active church membership.

As with any youth ministry habit, this one has pros and cons. For perhaps the first time in their lives, students producing a SOF are systematically reflecting upon and then articulating the beliefs they feel they actually hold. They’re doing it together, in community, accompanied by caring adults. That’s valuable. Flexibility is typically the rule rather than rigidity, authenticity rather than doctrinal conformity. Expressions of doubt are even encouraged.

This approach is validated, I believe, by the graduating seniors who preached in worship last week, more than one of whom told a story about their Confirmation SOF. They didn’t really know what they believed. They doubted some of the doctrinal specifics. Yet that posture of uncertainty did not disqualify them from church participation. They were welcomed, and four years on they are active church participants thinking seriously about how their faith will guide the next chapter of their life.

Yet the SOF has some drawbacks. We don’t ask adults joining the church to produce such a statement. We don’t even ask it of post-Confirmation youth. So there’s that. Also, how much do we care–how much do we think God cares–about an 8th grade young person’s ability to state what they believe in written propositional form?

I’ve never been high on it, so I’ve made a habit these past ten years of tinkering with the SOF, moving it away from propositional “I believe . . . ” statements toward more descriptive expressions of how their faith has changed since childhood and what they want it to be in the future. One year it looked like this. It changes almost every year.

So now McLaren and his four-legged table have me wanting to ask students to write statements expressing the parts of the Christian story they find compelling; the saints they find inspiring; the practice they find meaningful; the future they want to see.

Unless somebody talks me out of it, this is what I’m going with.

 

 

Brian McLaren has this interesting little appendix in his latest book in which he offers the image of a four-legged table as the thing that can convene Christians in today’s world. Rather than rely on, say, a single motto like Solo Scriptura to unify people of faith today, he’s suggesting the four legs as supports for a shared faith commitment.

The four legs are 1) a compelling story, 2) inspiring saints, 3) a meaningful practice, and 4) a vision of the future.

This is not a post about Brian McLaren’s appendix, though. This is a post about a curriculum template for youth ministry.

 

If a young person regularly participates in youth group from the time she’s in the 6th grade to the time she graduates high school, she should do a lot of work with the Bible. She should learn its core stories and grapple with the claim they make on her life. She should also encounter some theological constructs like grace and faith. Important people from the history of the church should be presented to her during those years at some point, too. She should learn how to pray and read the Bible. She should relate her religious belief to her peer relationships (including romantic ones) and a world filled with systemic injustice.

A curriculum template is about planning for all that stuff. There are mission trips and retreats and worship services to support all that youth group content, but my template isn’t worried about those other events. It only wants to organize youth group lessons.

Could McLaren’s appendix be a useful organizing principal for a seven year youth group curriculum template? From the 6th through the 12th grades, a teenager in our youth ministry is regularly invited to a table supported by 1) and inspiring story (the core Biblical narrative), 2) inspiring saints (men and women from the Bible, church history, and their own congregation, 3) a meaningful practice (prayer, Scripture study, service), and 4) a vision for the future (relationships, justice, social life).

Unless somebody talks me out of it, this is what I’m going with.

You did the work and nobody showed. Stomp your foot, make the angry call, swear “Never again.”

Then remember the work you did and the time you spent doing it. Remember what you learned. Remember the improvements you made and the clarity you achieved. Remember that just because nobody wants the thing you made today doesn’t mean they never will; you have a product in your pocket now. Who knows when it will come in handy?

Remember that work is a gift and its own reward, and that if it’s Deep Work then that’s true in spades. Maybe nobody wants it today, but nobody’s taking it away from you, either. You’re still free to do with it what you will, even if that means giving it away to see what might happen.

The message of the backhanded compliment could not be more clear: stay away.

 

“You’re my favorite.”

Turn and run. Seriously. Put no stock in that person’s appraisal of you and your abilities. Assume that his preference for you is based on whatever issue he has and not, as he would flatter you to believe, in some superior skill that you possess.

Also consider that the others who are not her favorite are very likely having an impact you’re not, giving that the likes of this person, who  traffics in backhanded compliments, doesn’t like those others as much. They’re probably pushing and challenging in a way you’re not. At least not yet.

There are few curses more serious than the backhanded compliment.

 

College students are a resource for youth ministry, and ministry with college students is critical leadership development work for the church. While I’ve never been super successful at utilizing undergraduates in weekly youth ministry programs, having them along as leaders on mission trips has provided some of the best opportunities for coaching and mentoring I’ve ever enjoyed.

For high school youth, a college student is what’s next. 18-23 year olds hold out for our junior and seniors what engaged faith looks like in the season of life that’s coming up. That is something that I can’t provide, being 40–nearly half my life removed from the exuberance and idealism of the university years. Whenever I can get a college student who cares about making the world better in front of my high schoolers, I do it.

Even if they’re rough around the edges or lacking in confidence, I can work with that. My own experience at that age convinces me that young adults pre-commencement are looking for adults outside their academic environment to give them grown up responsibility and to coach them in getting better. Those people, for me, were coffee shop managers and pastors, both roles that are uniquely positioned to make significant investments in the lives of growing college-age youth.

Here’s what’s prompted this collegiate reflection: we’ve hired our summer staff for Urban Youth Mission at Fourth, and we still have some weeks with openings for youth to come and experience them. As much as the service they’ll perform and the learning they’ll gather by being immersed in the urban Chicago experience, youth who spend a week with us this summer will get to experience our talented and growing college staff. There is real value in that.

Click here to find out how to bring a group this summer.