I often tell people that I’m a progressive Christian pastor – but I’m never exactly certain what that means. I grew up in the youth ministries of mainline Methodist churches and served for eleven years as a youth pastor in a mainline Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregation before finally taking the leap to attend a United Church of Christ seminary. Each of these experiences has certainly influenced how I approach ministry with youth and in some way has formed my identity as a “progressive” Christian. So for the sake of offering a definition, let me suggest what it means to approach youth ministry from that identity.
The Christian Church (DOC) has a long tradition of encouraging biblical scholarship and resisting a literal reading of scripture. As a result, we are open to multiple (and sometimes contradictory) interpretations of the same biblical texts. We do not codify one understanding of a text and often find that scriptures have multiple meanings. We believe the scriptures to be divine in the sense that those who wrote them were fallible human beings attempting to share in limited human language their personal experiences with God and the Holy Spirit. So, when I invite youth to share in Bible study, I do not present one particular understanding of scripture or one right interpretation. Rather, I encourage teens to wrestle together with the texts, to ask questions, challenge traditional understandings, and seek not only what the texts may have meant to ancient Christians but what they might mean for us today, living in a very different culture. To do this, we read scripture through the lenses of history, tradition, and experience and consider how those lenses influenced both the original writers and our own modern take on the narratives.
This is not to say that we do not have teens (and adults) in our denomination who read the texts literally, but because we run the entire theological continuum we are more apt to meet somewhere in the middle and ask “What does the text mean?” rather than “Did this really happen historically?” The impact of this approach for youth ministry, I hope, is that our teens learn to explore the scriptures critically, honestly, and that they “own” their understanding of the text rather than just accommodating whatever I or some other adult tell them that it means.
Perhaps it is because of this theological approach to scripture that we do not put a heavy emphasis on the doctrine of salvation in our youth ministries. It’s not that we don’t believe in the saving grace of God through Christ – it’s just that we think about it in so many varied ways that it would be out of character for us to focus on just one understanding. For example, some of our youth may believe salvation to refer to the need to accept Jesus as savior with the ultimate reward of heaven at the end of the life. A more likely understanding amongst our teens would be of the salvation that happens in this life through the waters of baptism and a new way of living and being in the present world. This may be one of the more distinctive differences between a progressive approach to youth ministry and a broad evangelical approach. Our mission emphasis in youth ministry is not on evangelism but rather on service – living out our faith by practicing justice, peace, and compassion. We are more likely to believe that we witness to our faith through our actions rather than our words or stated belief systems.
This approach to mission can most often be seen in the ways that progressive Disciples churches live out the spiritual practice of hospitality. Our fluid understanding of scripture and our desire to live out our faith often results in what we term “radical hospitality.” For my youth ministry, this means that we welcome and affirm the participation of youth from other denominations and religions (ecumenism being a strong value in our denomination), various sexual orientations, home settings, and understandings of God and Christianity. Our goal is not to convert these teens to one homogenous expression of the life of faith, but rather to help them to discern God’s call for their lives, whatever that may look like.
This brings me to another distinction of my denomination: our view of ministry. Here we likely find commonality with some of our evangelical friends as we lean heavily on the notion of the “priesthood of all believers.” Simply put, we see all Christians as called to ministry. Ordained ministers in our denomination are thus “ministers among ministers,” called to lead the Church but with no inherent hierarchical power or special claim to biblical authority (hence my reluctance to impose any particular biblical interpretation upon youth). We lead by helping the laity to find their ministry and mission within the wider Church. For youth ministry, this means nurturing spiritual gifts we might discern in our teenagers, looking for multiple ways for them to engage in leadership within our youth groups and within the congregation, and challenging them to develop an authentic faith which they can call their own.
Ultimately, what I’ve described here is the progressive Church and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from my own particular viewpoint and experience. We are certainly not a cookie-cutter denomination and our youth ministries come in all sorts of theological shapes and forms. Perhaps this is one gift that progressive churches have to offer to others. We are able to engage in dialogue and communion with those who starkly disagree with us (and vice versa) -- with those who read the Bible differently and understand the Church differently -- because we believe that Christians can honestly disagree about even the most fundamental aspects of the faith and still live together in the community of the Holy Spirit because of our mutual trust in the love and grace of God as shown to us in the life of Christ.
Brian Kirk is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and has been active in youth ministry for over twenty years. He serves an inner city St. Louis church, teaches on the adjunct faculty at Eden Theological Seminary, and co-authors the blog Rethinking Youth Ministry. His text Missional Youth Ministry: Moving from Gathering Teenagers to Scattering Disciples will be published by Youth Specialities/Zondervan in April of 2011.
10 comments:
Brian, great post, thanks for the rundown, as a Catholic there's always a "mystery" about how each denomination approaches ministry, scripture and faith. I'll say one thing that Progressive Christians have helped me when it comes to youth ministry is to dig deeper into text and preventing our guidelines from being a crutch.
Thanks Chris. It's probably hard to sum up any protestant denomination in a few paragraphs but the DOC are particularly tricky as we are so varied theologically and have no central doctrine to which all are expected to subscribe (We even have a long history of avoiding creeds dating back to a time when they were used a litmus test for true faith. It's not that we don't use them, but we are careful to put them in their historical and theological context).
Looking forward to the rest of this series.
Thanks for the post, Brian. I appreciate your contribution to Jesus and Teenagers, and I'm looking forward to your book this spring.
Brian, thanks for a clear and concise definition/explanation of who we are as Disciples ... and what that actually looks like in real, lived practice! Blessings on your ministry (and publication!).
Thank you so much for posting this. I am a youth pastor at a progressive non-denominational church, and one of my biggest struggles is figuring out how to operate with kids (and parents) coming from all over the theological map. So much of what you said rang true to me and put words to what we are trying to do.
I find it encouraging that your faith community witnesses to the reality of diversity in the world.
Random question: How much does eschatology inform your practices? I recognize you can't speak for your whole faith community but it would be interesting to hear your local churches practices and perspective.
Courtney and Brandi - glad you found the essay useful. The very fact that the progressive church embraces so many varied theologies makes it difficult to define, but I tried my best.
Paul, as to your question regarding eschatology -- that's a tricky one. There is certainly a traditional line of theology in teh DOC that maintains that Jesus will come again at the end of the present age and usher in God's Kingdom. I've heard this theology shared in my own church. Those who share this understanding tend to think of Revelation as a portent of something yet to come. However, I think the dominant view is more likely an understanding of what I call existential eschatology, meaning that the Kingdom of God is breaking into our world all the time and we are constantly offered opportunities to become part of it. Each time we seize a moment to serve others in God's name or open our lives to God's presence, the Kingdom becomes a reality in the here and now. That is how I tend to think about it and this certainly informs how I work with youth, encouraging them to seize those "kingdom moments" that happen every day. This understanding would suggest that we are not waiting for Christ to return -- rather he is already here, waiting for us to follow the Spirit's leading.
Does this help? What does eschatology look like from your perspective?
The question on eschatology reminds me of a question during an interview for my current position. It was with the current pastors (I believe seven people), and our lead pastor asked me: "What do you believe about Jesus' second coming, and why does it matter for ministry with high school students?"
Without going to deep into what should be reserved for another post for another time, I think part of separates evangelical and progressive theology and philosophy of ministry is eschatology; not just what will happen, but what it means about the purpose of the time we live in now and the role the Church is to play. It's definitely one of the areas of theology that doesn't get much "airtime" so to speak, but our presuppositions (which we are often unaware of) about eschatology influences what we teach students.
Great stuff!
Benjer, inviting youth ministers to reflect on this one aspect of theology could make an interesting companion to this series sometime in the future (no pun intended).
Brian
It seems from your comment that your eschatology has a lot to do with your service to, for, and with youth. Acts of justice, love of other, care for creation are the existential eschatological activities of kingdom people.
The Nazarene denomination recognizes multiple eschatological teachings as being present in our denomination. We have a generous articulation in the official stance on eschatology by restating the creed. However, I tend to lean into Miraslov Volf's articulation of eschatology which leads me to confess the already/not-yet reality of the eschaton. Thus, the hope of the return of Christ is witnessed to in the already in-breaking activities of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection and continued activity amongst his people. Therefore, the faith communities actions of justice, love of neighbor, enemy love, and creation care are appearances of the kingdom of God and participate in the consummation of the eschaton.
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