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.