Transition Year Conversation - October 2006 - Responses ...

 

Passing on the Faith

 

The question:

 

As we seek to discern where God is calling and leading us as a synod in the next six years, what should be our strategy for "passing on the faith" to the next generations and to the young persons who’ve not yet reached the age of 40?

 

Responses:

 

Congregational Responses (click on the congregation to go to their response)

 

Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire, TX

Hosanna Lutheran Church, Mandeville, LA

Park Place Lutheran Church, Houston, TX

Christ Lutheran Church, Brenham, TX

 

Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire, TX

1. Youth are asking difficult questions that relate to their life experiences, living in a global community, and understanding international political issues. Their questions are not often the questions that are being asked by the church, which often seems too parochial and too soon to have answers.

 

If the church is to be relevant with the next generations we must be in conversation with them about what is of concern to them and explore with them why, if at all, faith matters.

 

Some of what youth are asking is how can we, as a community of faith, appreciate and affirm the races, cultures, and religions of people who live in our global community?

 

Youth want to have people of faith to talk through the tough issues in life with them; such issues, like the killings of Amish children in Pennsylvania. How can you make sense of this? Where is God? How does faith matter? Does faith matter? Why are innocent children hurt?

 

2. For the sake of the next generations, parents need help to prepare their children to live in a complex world as a person of faith. The church must plan to assist parents in the important and often difficult role the have.

 

3. Alternative ways of learning must be explored. The church must move away from learning as a program and move away from the "clinical" settings that are all too common in churches. Learning environments must not only be creative but they need to have the freedom to throw away the lesson plan and open the lessons the youth bring.

 

Hosanna Lutheran, Mandeville, LA

1st, assuming that the primary instrument to help this to happen is the local congregation, then the primary focus of resources must be for the local congregation and its leadership.

 

2nd, assuming that there are resources available, then it would seem that there is a breakdown in the use of the resources or the quality of the resources aren't getting the job done. Depending where one sees the breakdown will depend on where one will focus their attention - on developing better resources or on finding ways to empower congregations to implement the resources.

 

3rd, don’t believe there is a shortage of quality resources, but there is a breakdown in their implementation for a variety of reasons. If our synod office is going to influence the outcome it will be by motivating and assisting one congregation to implement a strategy in much the same way that lives are influenced and changed one at a time. Don’t believe providing more resources in the hope that congregations and leaders will implement them will bring about the change desired. Think that has been our past strategy.

 

4th, renew and strengthen the faith of the parents of the children to whom you wish to pass on the faith is a key component for any congregation.

 

5th, the components of congregational life that passes on the faith to youth are multifaceted, and not simply focused on youth.

 

Any strategy that can make a difference it is one that focuses staff and energy in congregations which seem most receptive to the kind of change necessary in congregational life to effectively pass the faith on to youth. Need to sense the things that need to be encouraged and continue to cultivate them.

 

Park Place Lutheran Church, Houston, TX

In an era when the churches:

  • Strive to get them in the front door.

  • Strive to get people in with “Jesutainment” like the mega-churches, then maybe we should do the same. One council member states that It is repugnant to do it, but we need to do whatever we can to get people in the door. Another council member adds that when they are in the door, then we can go to sharing the most important mission of the Church.

  • Adults and young adults were kept entertained when they were children, and now that these kids are older, they feel that they are entitled to entertainment. The attitude has become that they work hard all week, the reward is to cut loose on the weekend; therefore going to church would be losing an hour on Sunday morning.

  • Another issue is that of young people’s short attention span. Current technology has shortened the attention span of young people to two-minute sound bites instead of using imagination when playing outside.

  • Kids today who have so much to do. Sporting and/or scholastic events are scheduled on Sunday morning, which motivates the parent to take their kids to those things instead of taking their kids to church. If parents could band together and tell the coordinators of these secular activities that they will not bring their children on Sunday, then the coordinators will have no choice but to change their schedules.


The Synod needs to:

  • Promote confirmation classes more, that gets everybody on the same foundation.

  • Go back to the basics of Sunday School. The old formula was to do a Bible story that actually is in the Bible then tried to make it a life application connection. Today’s Sunday School programs seem to be vague and reverses the direction.

  • Parents make the promise at baptism to bring their child to God’s house and teach them the faith. However, the secular life has made the parent decide that college prep is more important than faithful prep.

 

Christ Lutheran Church, Brenham, TX

At its October 2006 meeting the Council of Christ Lutheran Church, Brenham, TX, discussed the question of what should be our strategy on the faith to the next generation of believers. There was broad support for the work that’s been done through the Youth and Family emphasis of our synod.  Both national and regional youth gatherings were given high marks as effective venues for passing on the faith.  The camping ministry of our synod was likewise singled out for its very effective ministry with both middle and senior high students.  There was consensus that campus ministry is also a vital element in developing new leaders for churches, and there was agreement that the church needs to place a higher priority on campus ministry than it has in recent years.

 

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