Today - our midweek dip into the wisdom of those early Christian ascetics continues. Today we are guided to look at our appetites - what do we find ourselves hungry for? What do we crave?

“Abbot Palladius said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”

(from Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert pp. 44-45)

O Lord open our lips, and we shall declare Your praise.

Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Opening Prayer The United Methodist Hymnal 1989 p. 6)

Today I want to continue to interact with Chris Folmsbee over at A New Kind of Youth Ministry on the topic of Five Dangerous Things. Here is how Chris introduced it,

So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…

1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”

Today Chris and I are going to look at the second dangerous thing… helping students discover truth for themselves. Often when I talk with youth workers about their goals for students - they will talk about grand schemes of what they would like kids to accomplish and know before leaving (graduating from) the youth ministry program. They will speak of things like knowledge of the flow of the Bible, about wanting students to know how to “feed themselves” from the Bible, about how to share and defend their faith, and the list goes on - it sounds great! When I push further in this discussion and ask how they are accomplishing this, often the response is some curriculum used on Sunday mornings or Sunday nights where the main delivery of the information is a lecture (okay sermon or message).

I love to speak. I love to prepare and deliver a message. That being said, I know that it is a poor way to help another person come to own and obtain personal knowledge. A spoken message may be a great way to introduce new information. It may be good to survey lots of things - history, theory, interpretations of significant events; but if we want a person to go beyond “book knowledge” to a personal encounter where they know something from first hand experience - a lecture isn’t going to get us there.

Few people learn how to carve wood or play an instrument or paint or quilt or build a fire from reading a book or hearing a lecture (and few people learn to pray or learn to trust by hearing a sermon). These things are passed down from person to person (one to one) in a you watch me, now you do it kind of fashion. We discover by watching and doing it in an apprentice/master kind of experience. I discovered how to muck a horse stall - not by reading a book; but by watching my wife do it and then following her expert example. I had learned in a book and from common folklore - “to never walk behind a horse.” I also discovered in owning a horse that it is nearly impossible to get much work done in a barn full of horses if you never walk behind them! I learned from personal experience how to work with prey animals and come up behind them or walk around them without catching them off guard.

Those things learned in a book or heard in a lecture - I may know. I may understand or be able to sound intelligent talking about them. Those things I have a “personal knowledge” of - these are things I do, I wrestle with, I see shades and nuances about this, I continue to discover variations and subtleties, I experience and live out these subjects and topics. In youth ministry (and throughout the Church) I believe what we are aiming at is that individuals would wrestle with their Faith at the level of personal knowledge. To get to such a place demands that what we know or understand about Christ, God, the World, the Bible and our calling and identity will be truths that we have acquired through “personal knowledge” - not merely a second hand hear-say. That means, no, demands that we must help adolescents discover truth for themselves.

So how do we get teenagers out of circles of chairs or off the rows of couch’s and on the way to discovering truth for themselves? I believe one simple way is helping teens go out and find a mentor who will accompany them through life. The mentor’s job is to help their charge notice various truths and God’s presence when they are together. In the midst of this natural relationship as life happens it will highlight how the Christian faith operates and counters the struggles, inconveniences, celebrations, and mundane occurrences of everyday life. It is one way to help our young people move from a second hand faith to a personal knowledge by discovering truth for themselves in an apprenticeship (if you will).

Not a radical idea. Nothing we all probably don’t know. Yet for some reason there are still a lot of lectures and messages being given as the primary way for “learning” in our churches. I believe God uses sermons. I know that is true. It is interesting to me though that Jesus called the disciples to be with Him (Mark 3:13-14). I think we could help the teenagers in our church have a more independent and personal faith (personal knowledge), if we followed Jesus’ approach.

This weeks wisdom is from Abbot Theodore of Pherme (paraphrased by Thomas Merton from The Wisdom of the Desert p. 35).

“Another brother asked the same elder, Abbot Theodore, and began to question him and to inquire about things which he had never yet put into practice himself. The elder said to him: As yet you have not found the ship, and you have not put your baggage aboard, and you have not started to cross the sea: can you talk as if you had already arrived in that city to which you planned to go? When you have put into practice the thing you are talking about, then speak from the knowledge of the the thing itself!”

The question of “what is missional” I believe is more correctly answered by re-framing the question, “what is the mission of God?” For as I understand it - this is not about what is my vision, purpose or mission or our church’s vision, purpose or mission - but instead it is about joining up with God and what has been termed the missio dei (the mission of God). Making this a question that is more about theology proper (the study of God) than about ecclesiology (the study of the Church).

What is the mission of God?

The mission of God is only discovered when we understand who God is and what the Mystery is doing in our midst. When we join up with God reflecting the character and activity of the King of the Universe - this is when the people of God are being missional. So just looking at one story - the creation as related in Genesis 1 - what does this tell us about the mission of God? In Genesis one we see that God relates within the various parts of the Trinity. We observe that God creates. Finally God rests.

God is social. God is in essence a being who takes great care to relate. We see later that this relationship is one of unconditional love. God is committed to relationship and acts in creation with the intention of being in a meaningful relationship with creation.

God creates. In creation we see God forming a world of relationship and interdependence; reflecting the relationship and interdependence of the God-head. It also should not be skimmed over that God made all things good. Creation reflects not only that God is relational but that God is also benevolent. God made good works of art.

God rests. God establishes a pattern or a rhythm of work and rest. God took time out after speaking the universe into being to be silent and enjoy all that was made.

In light of this - does this call us to the priorities of being a social and relational community? Does this call us to focus on restoring the goodness of creation? Are we as a people to establish and observe a pattern or rhythm of work and rest? Is this the mission of God (or at least a part of it) as revealed in the work of Creation? Is this the work of God’s people: to carefully review God’s mission as revealed in Scripture and then reflect God’s character and God’s priorities in our everyday life?

To each of these questions I would reply yes. That is my understanding of being missional. It begins with who God is and appreciates what God has done and is doing; and attempts to reflect and join up in the same endeavor.

That is my 2 copper pieces on the topic… check out others - probably far more instructive and insightful!

Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson
Thom Turner

So three weeks in and I missed a Wednesday already! Today’s offering is short but sweet from St. Evagrios of Pontus (345-399 AD). His writings have been passed on to us through the Eastern Church’s principal text The Philokalia. [I will post on the significance of this text in the very near future.]

Today’s wisdom:

“If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly you are a theologian.”

As I mentioned in the last post - over the next few days or weeks I want to interact with Chris Folmsbee over at A New Kind of Youth Ministry on the topic of Five Dangerous Things. Here is how Chris introduced it,

So, here are five dangerous things I suggest we should let our students do (feel free to comment and add to the list!) Like Gever, I really have 6 but I think that 4 and 4.5 go hand in hand…

1. Dance with doubt
2. Discover truth for themselves
3. Disengage from reality every now and then
4. Dispatch their story, not someone elses
4.5 Determine their own future
5. Deconstruct what they are told, see and come to “know”

So today I would like to explore why I think, dancing with doubt - is a necessary and important risky behavior for adolescents and adults alike to engage in.

It seems to me to be self-evident that to “live by faith” is to also “live by doubt.”

No?

In my limited experience as I look at the topic of faith - the shadow side of faith is doubt. Doubt comes with a healthy dose of faith. For to live by faith is not a life of certainty - but a life where we step into the dark (see Paul - “we live by faith not by sight”). To live by faith is to live a life of hope; a life of trusting that despite where I see things now - I choose to trust in a positive future. A life where we bank on what is to come; not what is. To live in such a way that we trust in what we “see” and believe if only in part; not completely known or clearly perceived.

To live such a life is one where questions, riddles and doubt are surely to arise. For faith is not fact. Facts are hard, provable, testable true-isms. Faith is not necessary in light of such evidence. God, on the other hand, demands faith - for without it we hear, it is impossible to please the Almighty. So it seems that with the life of faith we are destined to encounter moments, seasons or even years of doubt. I would assert though that doubt doesn’t need to be an enemy or foe to our faith.

Those who live a faith-full and authentic life seem to learn how to “befriend” their doubts. They seem to “dance with their doubts” in a sense. They see doubt as a necessary part of growing in their faith. For doubts can:

1. Test us and help us ask questions that lead us to see our own faults or misconceptions, and limitations.
2. Lead us up new pathways to new vistas from where we can see reality a bit more clearly.
3. Show us that our once dearly held values were actually wrong - that some questions are just not that important in the grand scheme of things.
4. Reveal that God’s ways are often hidden to us; but ultimately God’s Character reveals He is worth following.

As we explore our doubts our faith matures. Moving us from a childish faith to an adolescent faith to a young adult faith to a middle-aged faith and so on. It is often our doubts and “faith crises” that serves as the impetus to open our ears, hearts and hands to receive a greater and more vital trust in the Mystery.

Dancing with Doubt calls young people to risk befriending their doubts, to cooperate and even “follow” their quandaries rather than running from an imagined foe. Dancing with Doubt helps adolescents become familiar with the process of interacting with their questions and conundrums; not seeing them as fatal but as opportunities to face doubts faith-fully. For doubt is something that honest and maturing Christ-followers must engage in not just once; but often as they walk after the Master. If you have ever watched “dancing with stars” you can also appreciate that for the “non-dancer” - it ain’t easy; it is a lot of hard work. We need to help folks as soon as they are able to get used to the process and the disorienting feeling of living with and struggling with doubt, as people of faith. It demands that parents, youth workers, and caring adults are honest, reassuring, patient and not too quick to provide 3 steps to overcoming doubts kind of messages. I have found often with kids - listening and “being there” is often a wonderful remedy to helping young people be able to begin to befriend their doubt and realize that the issue isn’t as scary or as paralyzing as it first appeared (the dance begins!).

Let us consider how we can make such a dangerous activity a part of our ministry with adolescents. Let us model how we as adults have faced times of doubting. Let’s take the stigma away from doubting in our communities and let’s celebrate the value of the shadow side of our faith. Crank up the tunes and let’s dance with our doubts (I am doing the “how’d I get here hustle” as I write this!).

Last week I began this series I so innovatively (a doug-ism, apparently) entitled, “wisdom for wednesday” - if you haven’t a clue - you can catch up by reading last weeks post, here.

This week our wisdom is again taken from The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton (p. 25-26).

“A brother asked one of the elders: ‘What good thing shall I do, and have life thereby?’

The older man replied: ‘God alone knows what is good. However, I have heard it said that someone inquired of Father Abbot Nisteros the great, the friend of Abbot Anthony, asking: what good work shall I do? and that he replied:

Not all works are alike. For Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable and God was with him. Elias loved solitary prayer, and God was with him. And David was humble, and God was with him.

Therefore, whatever you see your soul to desire according to God, do that thing, and you shall keep your heart safe.’”

from the sayings of the Desert Mothers and Fathers (a paraphrase by Merton)…

The Desert Mothers and Fathers sayings have been gathered in numerous anthologies by the Orthodox and Roman church. These hermits of the Egyptian desert formed the basis for the formation of formal monasticism and give us a glimpse at a literal following of Jesus’ teaching. The sayings of our spiritual ancestors which I will share on Wednesdays for the for-seeable future are primarily taken from the hermits of Scete who fled the “worldly” habitation of the Roman Empire during the 3rd and 4th century.

————————————————

“Once two brothers were sitting with Abbot Poemen and one praised the other brother saying: ‘He is a good brother, he hates evil.’

The old man said, ‘What do you mean, he hates evil?’

And the brother did not know what to reply. So he said, ‘Tell me, Father, what it is to hate evil?’

The Father said, ‘That man hates evil who hates his own sins, and looks upon every brother as a saint, and loves him as a saint.’”

[from The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton p. 70-71]

For many years I focused on believing. Throughout college and seminary and the ensuing 5 or so years of “full-time” ministry I was enamored with and focused on presenting correct belief. What are the right ways to conceive of and discuss and comprehend the subject of Christianity.

I think this is pretty normal. No, I would say this is important and it is appropriate.

But the day comes when what we believe and the faith as understood in our head faces a crisis. Our faith diluted down to individual categories and systems looks great on paper but under the scrutiny of a full-blown crisis sometimes our beliefs can ring a bit hollow. The complexities and perplexities of life enter the picture forcing us to reconsider or even alter our belief system.

In my life it was at this point that a new realization hit. Christ came not only sharing a belief system (what I put my faith in) but also a way of life (priorities, practices and performance).

The Christian life is both a belief system and a way of life. I not only develop my faith by getting the “Story in order” but also by finding myself “in the story.” My faith is fed and tested and nurtured by both right believing and by right living. Both are needed. They feed each other and they stimulate one another growing us up into God’s image. (When I learned to live in congruence with my intellectual understanding of my Christian faith it moved me from a posture of arrogance about my rightness to a position of humility as I attempted to stumble forward in the way of Christ and his followers.) On this basis I propose it is not about believing as much as it is about be-living. The sense that we need to be concerned about who we are (being) and this is certainly understood as we ascertain our identity and our heritage. There is also an equal concern about how I am behaving and representing myself (living) and this comes into focus as I follow after Christ’s way of life. [Isn’t this the purpose of the final parable of the Sermon on the Mount? Doesn’t this twin focus capture the essence of James admonition, “be do-ers of the Word?” To be a do-er of the Word, necessitates a correct understanding of the Word (belief) and appropriate behavior (way of life)].

In youth ministry it seems that during the summer as we accompany kids through life and share experiences at camp or conferences or on a missions trip - it is a great time to remind ourselves and the students that the Christian faith is more than the acquisition of right thinking. The message of Jesus was one which affirmed both a belief system (Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is One) and a way of life (Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength… and your neighbor as yourself). As you go through this summer think of ways that you can call your students to nurture their faith as a way of life. Maybe even introduce a new word into their lexicon, be-live. Calling ourselves and those we lead and love to have a congruence between our beliefs and our way of living. Believing and following in the way of Jesus is finding that harmony between right thinking/believing and right living/priorities. I call that be-living.