In this sermon, Pastor Brooks discusses how churches can successfully confront the problem of young people drifting away from communities of faith. You can listen to it now or read the text below.
Scripture Reading—Jeremiah 1: 4-8
Today, brothers and sisters, we are going to solve what some say is the biggest problem facing the larger church today. Well, we might not solve it, but I think we will get to the place we need to be right now. The problem to which I am referring is the steady stream of young people drifting away from the church. Scholars now have a fairly good handle on certain aspects of this phenomenon. They will tell us that the problem isn’t that teenagers fail to be religious. They are. In fact, three out of four teenagers in our country “claim to be Christian, and most are affiliated with a religious organization.” The problem goes deeper than surface level identification. The faith of many teens today is simply not compelling enough and robust enough to lay the foundation for a profound and lasting commitment to the church. Only about half of teens consider their faith to be very important, “and fewer than half actually practice their faith as a regular part of their lives.”
Before we go bemoaning all these wayward teens, we should also listen when these same scholars tell us that “parents matter most when it comes to the religious formation of their children.” Despite whatever we might think about the teenage years being a time of rebellion, studies show that teens from the age of 13 to 17 largely mirror the faith of their parents. When it comes to religion, nothing comes close to the influence of parents. If you are parent, however, I am not here today to shame you for failing your children. Besides, simply being here is a sign that you are likely role-modeling a more robust faith.
Instead of pointing fingers today, what I intend to do is to talk about the great opportunity this church and its members have. I will confess to previously being somewhat oblivious to this opportunity. For months, Kristina Martin has been the voice in the wilderness telling everyone who will listen that there is this great book that each of us should read. It is called Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. I finally picked up a copy of the book this past week, and I did indeed find it to be highly recommendable.
For those of us concerned about the future generations of our church, the good news is that there are teenagers out there who have what the author of this book regards as the marks of a compelling, durable, and robust faith. These teenagers excel at articulating their faith. They also have a strong sense of belonging with regard to their church community. Moreover, they have strong sense of calling. They feel like they have a purpose in their lives. Lastly, these teens additionally have a strong sense of hope, a hope onto which they believe they can hold during life’s ups and downs.
Studies show that such teens not only feel close to God they generally get all of the side benefits of having a robust and compelling faith. They “do well in school, have positive relationships with their families, [and] have a positive outlook on life.” They are also less likely to drink, smoke, or engage in risky social behavior. Now, there are some complexities to all of this. Perhaps, these teens are simply more subservient and docile than other teens, and maybe those aren’t necessarily the best of traits if we want to raise children and youth to change the world for the better. As a father who is envisioning a future life with teenage girls, I have thought through this issue carefully. I want daughters who are ready and willing to challenge the status quo when it comes to injustice and oppression. At the same time, I don’t want to find myself staying up all night as my daughters party with everyone I don’t approve of. In short, I don’t want docile and submissive daughters, but I do want sensible daughters.
So, if you are a parent like me, you might have listened to my earlier description of these healthy and thriving teens of deep faith and thought to yourself, “What do I need to do to raise kids like that? Let’s make sure our church is doing whatever their churches are doing.” As it happens, there are a group of Christians who studies show excel at raising teenagers with a strong sense of faith. They are called Mormons. Now I know some of you might be thinking, “Uh, Brooks, people in the UCC generally have a different set of beliefs than people in the Church of the Latter-day Saints.” I am well aware of that. Believe me.
Yet, think about what Mormons are aiming to do. They are aiming to pass along a Mormon faith that will be robust and compelling enough to withstand a non-Mormon world when their youth become adults. Mormons are very intentional about this. I am not so sure other Christians are as intentional in preparing their youth for later life. While some non-Mormon Christians may have an intellectual understanding that our faith is countercultural and goes against the individualistic consumer culture of the broader world and so on, I believe this intellectual understanding generally has not yet become fully translated into corresponding faith formation practices for our children and youth. It has not yet led to practices that will create the kind of durable faith we want for our younger members, the kind of faith that will lead to them sticking with the church in the long run. With that said, here is the hopeful part: It can be done. This is where our church has tremendous potential. We can be that progressive-minded church that supports parents, children, grandparents, and teenagers in having a robust and compelling faith. I believe we are in the right place at the right time to be having this conversation. We might not have all the answers, but I am confident we will get the right answers if we simply have a serious conversation and then do some serious planning.
One place to begin the conversation is to imagine what our church would be like if we continued to hold all of the beliefs we currently hold but we took on some of the faith formation practices of the Mormons. I am not saying we should necessarily do this, but I do believe it is a useful thought experiment to get the ball rolling. After we do this thought experiment, I will also share with you the place where it left me in thinking about what bare essentials are needed for helping our children and youth develop a robust and compelling faith.
Now, one of the first things our hypothetical UCC church would do to in instituting new faith formation practices for our young people is to create a seminary. Those of you on Property and Finance don’t need to worry about having to buy a new piece of property for this seminary. You don’t even need to pay salaries for the professors. This four-year seminary would operate out of our classrooms, and the teachers would be our parents or others in the church who feel called to teach. On every school day, parents, teachers, and youth would get up early in the morning, so that they could attend seminary before attending school. (This seminary reminds me of something I once heard the local rabbi say. In effect, she tells the children at Kol Ami who are going through an intensive study of Hebrew and the Jewish faith that what they are doing is more important and a higher priority, than their homework for school. Something to think about.) Now, with these envisioned seminary classes, one of the activities would be to journal “about one’s life and spiritual growth.” Another activity would be to impart the practical advice necessary for our teens to later serve the larger community for a period of two years as part of a rite of passage into adulthood.
For two years, these teens would later seek to love and serve their neighbors. Some might work at homeless shelters. Some might do community organizing in low-income neighborhoods. Some might become PeaceCorp volunteers in other countries. Regardless of the aspiration, the teens would work with their seminary teachers to come up with a practical plan. This plan would include any financial saving necessary to make the two years of service happen. While this seminary might sound like a huge commitment on the part of all those involved, think about the rewards. Through activities such as journaling, the teens learn to articulate their faith in a way that arises out of their own life experiences. In crafting plans for the future, they develop a deep sense of calling to be of service to the world. Moreover, this process of envisioning becomes a very real and concrete conception of what it means to be a Christian. Finally, at the seminary, the teens see and experience a community in which adults tangibly express their care and interest in them almost everyday.
Another core component of our new hypothetical UCC church’s ministry to teens is a helpful program of faith practices for families. Every Monday evening families would be encouraged to spend time together in their respective homes for devotions, faith conversations, and various activities that nurture loving and joyful family relationships. Every family would be given a curriculum to help them do this. Again, like the seminary, the rewards of this program would be many. Because parents are the number one factor in the faith development of their children, it ensures that parents are well-equipped for the task. Because having a strong and durable faith reflects an ongoing commitment of time that goes beyond Sunday morning, this program effectively brings faith into the weekday lives of children and youth. At the same time, it helps strengthen bonds within the family.
I will stop here with this thought experiment. At this point, I suppose one person might say, “That sounds fanciful. How would we ever get people to be that committed to their church?” Another person might say, “That sounds like it would require churches and families to completely revolutionize how they do things.” Here’s another way of looking at it: A church that helps children and youth develop a robust and compelling faith may or may not do the things I just described, but such a church would have a serious conversation about what is needed, because ultimately, we care about the future of our church, and we care about the future lives of our children and grandchildren. We care enough to do what is necessary to ensure that the future we see is a bright future. The care and the love that is in all of us is what can turn conversations into thoughtful planning and action.
Such steps may not seem radical or earth-shattering in the moment, but over time, they could very well revolutionize the church in a way that is very much needed. The point, however, isn’t to change things for the sake of changing things. The point is to become vessels for the kind of divine love seen in our scripture for today. At the beginning of the book of Jeremiah, this future giant among prophets doesn’t look like a very promising prospect. By his own assessment, he is not very good at articulating his faith. He says, “Ah, Yahweh God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” In response, God says, “Don’t say you are only a youth. You can do this. I will be with you. I will see you through this.” In other words, God is invested in the outcome. God is invested in a youth named Jeremiah. God is invested enough to stick by Jeremiah’s side. In essence, God is saying, “I will love you every step of the way.”
Ultimately, what we are talking about here isn’t so much about revolutionizing how we do church. It is more about becoming invested in the lives of our children and youth. It is about becoming invested in their future. It is about being with them and loving them every step of the way, because that is ultimately how God’s love can work through us if we just allow ourselves to be vessels of something greater than ourselves. This is the incredible opportunity that is before us. May we make the most of it. Amen.