Teaching Outside the Box - Chapter 5. Revisiting the Contemplative Approach

There are a few things that really annoy me about church. But perhaps the most significant one (at least today) is that we meet together for a short period of time in the week and allow almost no time for God to speak. Don't misunderstand me here. I believe that God speaks whenever we read the Bible together. And I believe that in the preaching of God's word, God is speaking, though sometimes we preachers do get in the way.

What I'm getting at is this - we fill the time with noise and activity. Our communal worship is now structured ahead of time so the musicians can practice the songs we are going to use, and so the presentation slides are all in order and ready to go. THIS IS A GOOD THING, but it can be a downfall. Have we allowed space for God to speak? Or are we so busy being talked to that God has to dramatically interrupt us before we even look for him?

Some of you who read this will no doubt respond, "Brian, we have only a short time together to sing and pray with each other. It is while we are alone during the week that we can spend time reading the scripture that we might expect God to speak to us." Fair enough. But do your youth know that? Or is the example of faith and worship they see on Sunday morning, or Friday evening, the only approach to worship that they know?

This is where using the Contemplative Approach can be really important. Zirschky titles this chapter 'Revisiting the Contemplative Approach' because there was a time in the late 90s and early 2000s that such an approach was fashionable amongst youth groups. It has since died out, and I'm not sure why. Probably because it wasn't well explained, possibly because some people thought it was too Catholic. (I once read an article where someone wrote, "When the candles come in, the gospel goes out." It's complete tosh of course, but easy for youth leaders to take on board.)

Using a Contemplative Approach amongst the youth doesn't mean lighting candles or walking a labyrinth. It is much more than that. It means both allowing space for God to act, and looking/listening to what God is doing. Youth leaders can do this in some simple yet meaningful ways.

Preparing

Ask questions to get the teenagers thinking. "How is God present?" or "Where have you noticed signs of God?" People in the New Testament experienced the presence of Jesus while they were doing the most normal of things. Maybe it still happens today.

Pointing

Your teenagers probably can't see what God is doing for them as clearly as you can. There's a few reasons for this, but I'll leave that to your thinking. You can help your teenagers by pointing out to them what they cannot see - God is working in their lives.

Naming

How do you help teenagers describe what has been happening in their lives? Let me encourage you to take the time to give them the words to use. Don't just let them say 'lucky' when you know it is God acting for them. Tell them that. Was it really a coincidence or was God bringing things together?

Nurturing

I'll just quote Zirschky here. "We nutrure the ability of teenagers to discern the voice and activity of God by providing opportuities for creative prayer and listening experiences. Leading students into contemplative practice in our formal teaching times nurtures their ability to listen for God in Scripture both individually and corporately."


Is such an approach to scripture dangerous? Yes, I believe it can be, and for much the same reasons that using the Liberation approach can be dangerous. Without a solid grounding our teenagers can become too introspective and too lost. But, when this approach backs up the Instructional approach, I think you're on to a good thing.

This book has been a good one to read - I even read it twice - and I'm pleased to share some of it with other youth leaders. Let me encourage you to add this to your list of books you might read this year. It will do you well. If you do, let me know. I'd love to talk with you about it. You can buy it at Koorong in both paperback and electronic versions.

I had the chance to meet Andrew Zirschky at a Youth Conference in Jan 2017.

I'm also a fan of his book "Beyond the Screen", also available at Koorong. Or you can read my thoughts about that here.

Teaching Outside the Box - Chapter 4. The Liberation Approach

This book is more than just a "How To . . ." kind of book. There are two main characters in the book. Jeremy is a local church youth pastor who is struggling to see any growth in his ministry. The youth come along, mostly, but they have become disinterested and disconnected. Jeremy knows this, and is trying to work out what to do but is at a roadblock.

Seymour is retired and in an aged care home. But in his younger days, Seymour had been a youth worker himself and had written a book on various approaches to teaching.

These two have no reason to meet, and wouldn't have, except for Jeremy's senior pastor who knew them both and created the meeting. Jeremy didn't arrive at Seymour's place with any enthusiasm, and while he enjoyed the first chapter of Seymour's book, he would have been pleased if that was the end of it and he didn't need to meet with Seymour again.

By the time we get to chapter four however, the relationship between these two men has deepened and Jeremy is beginning to learn some great things from this old man. (There's a lesson for youth workers here - the old guys know stuff you don't. Ask and listen.)

This fourth chapter is possibly the one chapter that would really make many evangelical pastors nervous. There's some good reasons for this, but let's actually read what Zirschky is saying before flying into a rage.

The teaching part of the chapter opens with the words of Jesus when he said:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” Luke 4:18-19

Zirschky then clarifies that the goal of the liberation approach is to bring awareness and consciousness of features of our social systems that are contrary to God's ideals (p104). As Christians in first world countries, we can become very concerned about the places in the world where Christians are persecuted. This is surely right. But we can be completely complacent about the people in our neighbourhoods who are starving and cold. This is wonderfully - and confrontingly - illustrated in Yancey's book 'What's So Amazing About Grace' where he describes the hidden hypocrisy of his childhood church. This was a church that would raise funds to support work in Africa to provide food and water to africans, while at the same time men would have baseball bats in their cars in case black african-americans tried to come into their church. (That's how I remember the story anyway.)

Many of our youth ministries work to protect our young people from some of the problems of the world around them, and in so doing we are suggesting that these young people couldn't possibly be involved in any solution. Our youth are some of the most creative and passionate people in our communities. Allow them to spread their wings and stretch their faith and you might be astonished at what they do.

Zirschky shows how this approach can challenge two assumptions made by other approaches. First, it critiques youth ministry that is more concerned with personal belief or knowledge than action. Here is where the liberation approach can become uncomfortable in evangelical churches. We always challenge youth about their personal belief, and we do this with good reason. We believe that people are saved by faith alone so what they believe is fundamentally important. However, the liberation approach can add a helpful balance that is, I believe, missing in a number of churches.

Youth ministry that lingers in the youth room must be replaced with learning that invades the world in the form of critically reflective action. p108

Second, it questions the tendency of youth ministry to treat teenagers as objects to be filled with Bible knowledge in order to produce and unquestioned, socialized 'faith'. If all we want is knowledge and an ability to answer the questions in a correct way, then we are really asking our youth to be nothing more than spectators. For sure, some might get a little more involved by becoming teachers and leaders, but what are they teaching? Is it in the end nothing more than a Christian version of "Trivial Pursuit" where you get a token for a correct answer, but it doesn't really change anything? We can do better.

Now, I believe that if the only approach you use in teaching is a Liberation approach, you will end up with a shallow perspective of scripture. You will probably end up with a group of teenagers who are determined to make the world a better place, but I'm not convinced they would fully understand why they are doing this. They might be able to quote some relevant passages of scripture, but miss the fullness of what the Bible is teaching. I have a similar concern about the fifth approach even while appreciating the strengths of the approach.

That being said, why not open the story of the prodigal son with your youth and ask them to consider why the older brother acted like he did; why the younger brother acted like he did in the first place; and what were the cultural norms that were guiding them both. Then look at the people in your own community who seem to be the oppressed and outcast and begin to ask what the kingdom of God might look like in their lives.

Teaching Outside the Box - Chapter 3. The Interpretive Approach

I still remember the feeling. I had been trying a budgeting system, and it started off really well and it was making sense to me. Then we got paid and trying to add this to the system left me feeling like the people who knew how it worked must be on another planet. It made no sense to me!

Now imagine being 15 and hearing that you can get to heaven because a carpenter who was also a teacher was crucified around 2,000 years ago on the other side of the world. Would it make sense to you just because someone told you? Probably not.

In Andrew Zirschky's book "Teaching Outside the Box" he writes about five different approaches to teaching. This is the third of the five, and one that gets the imagination involved.

The Interpretative Approach involves more than just talking and listening. This approach involves the student in seeking to interpret and understand what they are reading and/or hearing.

Teaching teenagers the facts and content of the Bible is very important. The Instructional Approach imparts knowledge and understanding that students apply to their lives. However, the Interpretive Approach is more concerned with seeing youth interpret their lives through the lens of God's story, and thereby come to live out of a different view of self. (p84)

This might seem a bit strange to those of us who believe in the value of preaching, but properly understood there is no conflict. Rather, adopting the interpretive approach will strengthen what you do with the instructional approach. What makes the difference? (Here's where it might get dangerous)

Imagination is the key.

This means that we as teachers want to encourage the youth in our groups to make the most of their imagination as they hear the stories in the Bible. Jesus is clearly the master story-teller, and even while some of his stories have no reference point for suburban teenagers, yet we can still imagine what it looks like when a shepherd goes looking for that one sheep that got lost, or when a woman is looking for a lost coin in a dark room, or a father looking out for his son and waiting for his return. Why not ask the teenagers about those images in their minds, and what they see as they place themselves in these stories of scripture.

Keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is the great teacher, and that what we are doing is to prepare the way for God to open the minds of these young people. Zirschky offers three essential steps to the interpretive approach - Accept; Imagine; Release.

Accept

Accept the students' individual experiences and ways of seeing the meaning of their lives and the world, and invite them to share their thoughts. I think many of us might be a little cautious of this step fearing that they will be on the wrong path. Maybe they will be. But they will also be the ones interpreting their own experiences, and it would be good for you to listen to that.

Imagine

Now we get to help them to imagine a world that can be different, a world that is informed by a Christian narrative, a world where they begin to see God's values being honoured and lived out. This can be confronting because the world around them in reality is probably very different, but maybe there are some places where those kingdom values shine. Highlight these ones.

Release

The world of the imagination is often a very comfortable place, but we can't stay there. So we release the teenagers back into their own world, but now they will be looking at that world with a different perspective.


I think the Interpretive Approach is brilliant, but I also recognise that if this is the only approach you use, your teenagers will potentially end up with an understanding of God which is based more on their own thoughts rather than God's own revelation. Used in conjunction with the Instructional and the Community of Faith approaches, it will greatly strengthen their understanding of the text and their experience of God.

Teaching Outside the Box - Chapter 2. The Community of Faith Approach

Chapter One of this book revealed an approach to teaching that me and my peers would be most comfortable with. This chapter will still resonate with most of us, but as we start to consider the implications of it, the discomfort will become more apparent.

Where chapter one focuses on what happened in a teacher - student setting, this chapter involves the whole community of faith, and reveals that we are all involved in youth ministry, because youth ministry happens youth observe and participate in the adult rhythms and practices of faith.

Think about that statement for a moment.

"Youth observe and particpate."

Do they? Well, if you're asking whether or not they observe, the answer is a very clear 'yes'. In fact, this should be a confronting thought. You see, teenagers have developed a kind of faith that has been called "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." It's a faith that is about being nice, feeling good, and expecting God to show up only when you need a god. How did we get here? How did teenagers end up with this kind of faith? By watching us. By observing the faith of the adults around them. And this should make us uncomfortable.

Do they participate? Well, that's a whole different question, isn't it. Do youth participate at your church? Why not? Is it because they don't want to or that they've not been given an opportunity.

(I could say a whole lot more about this, but that's not the purpose of this post.)

The key of this chapter is to consider how the whole church community is involved in teaching faith (it takes a whole village to raise a child) and to consider how the normal practices of faith can impact the youth and children of our families.

It makes sense that if we ask the adults to sing, read, pray, take communion, share faith etc, we are doing these things believing that God is using them to help us grow in faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. If God is using these things for adults, wouldn't he use them also for youth? And for children?

So, even while there might be some debate about whether children should share in communion, surely there should be no debate about the children witnessing what is happening in that part of the communal worship. Yet we have many churches where children have no idea what communion means, not because no one explains it - though that's probably not happening - but because they don't witness it every month.

Anyway, this chapter of Zirschky's book is tremendously helpful and makes me consider how youth can be involved better in the whole life of the church and not just left to themselves.