So what do we make of the fact that 19% of the people polled are skeptical or engaged? It seems to me that the reality of a "post-Christian" culture is becoming more and more clear. It is our duty to engage this culture shift. One of my favorite professors at Luther Seminary, Christian Scharen, recently posted on his Facebook page a response to these findings:
"Especially interesting to see how Pew Research findings on Millenials regarding lack of religious affiliation directly connects with viewing the Bible as irrelevant. Just another bit of evidence supporting the case of cultural disestablishment of Christianity and the need for Christians to be able to tell the stories of faith in ways that 'ring true' to the lives of those who are disconnected from faith...If newcomers 'think' we in the church have all the answers, and they are the only people with questions, they'll be less likely to ask them and we'll be less likely to engage in good conversation about what really matters in their spiritual lives."
Truer words could not have been written.
The church often takes on the persona of being a spiritual feeding station, used by people weekly or when convenient. It has been given the identity of a place to find answers by a culture that once was Christian. But what has happened since our world has become less and less influenced by the Christian faith? People have questioned the "norms" of various congregations and denominations. And then the numbers decline, involvement drops, funds dry up, faith falters. This is our fault. This growing number of disenchanted people has been growing because we have ignored their spiritual needs, failed to discern responses with them to their questions, have ignored the changing culture, and have forgotten what it is to imagine a different way of being.
It is our task to rethink what it means to be church. Does that mean worshiping in a certain way? Does it mean doing certain ministries? Or does it mean discovering what God is up to in the world and participating with God in those ventures no matter where they may lead us?
One such way that Scharen mentions is embracing and encouraging questions. Since when does God shy away from questions? Throughout the Bible we see people questioning God and God interacting with them! Moses did it. Job did it. The disciples did it. They all had questions because they didn't get it, and neither do we! How dare we assume that we have a monopoly on faith because we identify as a Christian or "engaged" with the Bible. If anything, the Bible encourages us to ask questions and to wrestle with God over paramount matters. Just because we may be steeped within a tradition does not mean that such a way is the way, rather that it is an interpretation of the way Jesus set before us in his ministry.
If we can think about who we are called to be as a church in new ways, then we are starting to ask questions about ourselves and that is good. But the next step is to live in the messiness of questions from people who do not identify as "churched" or active in their faith. We need to express that we may not have answers, but instead have responses to their wonderings. We need to welcome questions, we need to welcome doubt, we need to welcome all people. In doing so we radically live out the Lord's Table where all are invited to the feast of God as the body of Christ.
Asking questions and discerning responses directly ties in with the ELCA’s mission model of accompaniment. Briefly, accompaniment can be defined as emphasizing mutual respect, mutual decision making, and mutual support, building each other’s capacity to participate in God’s mission, and recognizing gifts that each party has in God’s mission (ELCA, The Accompaniment Model). Because the act of asking questions is open to all people regardless of ideas, opinions, or worldviews, this engagement with people does not set out to convert the "unchurched." Rather discussing questions seeks to build up community and relationships through talking about God. A natural byproduct of such discussion is a deepened faith through the vehicle of exploring new and different takes on faith. While the ELCA Global Mission unit has taken on this relationship model of mission, we can use it in the post-Christian culture as well. The Global Mission unit states, “When a good relationship is nurtured first, companion church bodies can more freely discuss priorities and make decisions” (“Accompaniment is Relationship,” ELCA Global Mission). It seems to me that accompaniment via living in questions can be used to build relationships here at home to cross the secular, religious, and ideological divides that exist in our culture.
Questions can be the seeds of our faith. When we let them be still in stagnant soil they will not grow nor will they establish deep roots. When we till the soil with questions we allow the seeds of faith the opportunity to blossom into whatever they may be. That is what we are called to do. We as a church need to assist in that process by welcoming questions with the hopeful outcome of a more engaged, though still post-Christian population.
We live in a reality that loves questions. From instant replay in sporting events, to testing knowledge, to finding answers to questions. It's a brave new world for ministry, we just need to catch up to what God is already doing by embracing and living in the questions.
Peace,
Tom
