This is a new edition of the classic 1976 critique of Christian education by John H. Westerhoff. Westerhoff argues that for too long Christian education has modeled itself on the instructional model that exists in schools and that has been a major reason for the failure of Christian education. He argues for a paradigm shift towards a model that sees faith formation happening in a variety of contexts – family, church community, school, church school. In the book, he argues that it because Christian education has been relegated to Sunday morning classes, Christian education has become focused on learning facts about religion rather than experiencing and learning faith. The book provides some answers to the questions around how we can be faith communities that can nourish and nurture faith development, instead of just teaching facts.
“I am convinced that the very foundations upon which we engage in Christian education are shaking. And while a host of builders attempt with varying degrees of success to shore them up, there is a dearth of architects engaged in designing new structures. The church’s educational problems rests not in its educational programs, but in the paradigm or model which undergirds its educational ministry – the agreed-upon frame of reference which guides its educational efforts.” Pg. 5
This new edition includes a new foreword, updates at the end of each chapter and an afterword that provides some insight into where Westerhoff’s thinking stands at present and how it continues to develop.
This book is highly recommended, it raises some interesting and important questions around how and why we communicate our faith to children and young people.
I’ve been re-reading a book I read a couple of years ago called Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and Culture. The book is by Spencer Burke, founder of TheOoze. The book is basically about postmodernism and the church, Spencer Burke’s own personal journey in ministry and extracts of conversations from TheOoze message boards.
Making Sense of Church is one of the best I have read on the whole emerging church movement, and the reason it works is because it doesn’t have a whole lot of theory but consists of many, many stories and journeys that help us identify and discover our own journeys and stories as we attempt to make sense of church. Burke tries to provide some brand new metaphors for what it means to be church in this postmodern age.
Some quotes and extracts that got me thinking and reflecting:
Metaphor #2: Teacher to Facilitator
“Somehow, over the centuries, knowledge has become king. We’ve effectively said that knowing about God will ultimately help us know God. As a result, we often focused more on the Word, then on the Word become flesh. And yet as A.W. Tozer pointed out, God cannot be contained in any object or that object will become out god. Cold it be that we’ve created an idol and have actually begun to worship Christian education or the Bible?
Churches today have been expressly designed for passing on knowledge. Objects that appeal to the senses have been removed, Ironically, this switch to a “user-friendly” environment is problematic for many postmodern people—the very people churches say they want to reach. While there is something to be said for comfortable chairs and trouble free parking, slick worship services seem exactly that—slick. It’s Amway with a thin spiritual veneer.
Thom S. Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, told The Washington Times that the main reason people leave church is it’s too similar to their everyday lives. Could it be the seeker-sensitive movement has actually backfired?” – Page 53-54
Metaphor #1: Tour Guide to Traveller
“For centuries, the tour guide metaphor has dominated our religious experience. We’ve defined evangelism and spiritual leadership in terms of a hierarchical relationship: one person finds the way and tells someone else how to get there. By controls, the church of the future-the emerging church-would seem to embrace a more collaborative leadership model. The metaphor is that of a traveler-someone who is “one the way,” journeying with us. They still may have more experience and expertise than we do, but they don’t need the security of their position/title. They can lead a group without having to know absolutely everything about the final destination.
How many leaders in the Bible would actually live up to our contemporary expectations for leaders?” – Page 37
Metaphor #6: Retailer to Wholesaler
“Target markets, strategic plans, statistical research-they’re all part of what it means to do church in the modern world. How can we reach certain segments of the population? How can we be “relevant” to our culture? How can we get brand recognition in a crowded spiritual marketplace? The answer is almost always a cool new program or some kind of image overhaul. In many ways, we function like retailers-branding our goods, fending off the competition, and always trying to increase sales. We’re photographers desperately trying to take the pictures we know people will buy. ...
...we start thinking that Jesus needs to be dressed up a little-maybe surfer shorts and a pair of Oakley sunglasses. The truth is that we need to strip that stuff off him and get back to the basics of our faith.
When we have a wholesaler mindset, we’re more inclined to trust that the story of Jesus Christ is powerful enough on its own. We tend to focus, not on how we can make ourselves look relevant, but how we can be relevant-through authentic life change. We live out the gospel in front of people and then let go, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide them into truth. As wholesalers, we share, “the raw materials,” and then give people the freedom to embrace them in their own way.” –
Page 109 – 119
For me it is so refreshing to read a book like this when churches everywhere seem to be jumping from one church growth fad to another – from
The Purpose Driven Church to
Alpha to the Willow Creek model. The book raises some interesting and challenging questions about what it means to be church.
“The theological challenge youth pose to the church is blunt: Are we who we say we are? Do we practice passion, transformed by a Love who never disappoints, and live by a faith so convincing that we stake our lives on it? Or are we just another sagging social convention, like Dracula, that needs young blood to survive?”
The first thing to say is that this book is definitely NOT a step-by-step how-to-manual for starting or leading youth groups. If that is what you are looking for I suggest you look elsewhere. The author, Kenda Creasy Dean, is profesor of youth ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. As the quote above points out, the problem that Dean sees in the church and in the practice of youth ministry these days is the lack of passion. She argues that most of our mainline churches don’t live out what it means to be passionate and we need to offer something for our adolescents who are searching for something worth dying for which would then provide them something to live for.
She argues that when the church does not practice its passion, youth take their passions somewhere else often filling the void left by being unable to live passionate lives with fleeting attraction to other causes, addictions and the like. Dean proposes that youth ministry must be grounded in young people’s participation in the practices of a passionate church.
Dean uses some colourful metaphors and lively turns of phrase throughout. I think my favorite metaphor is that of youth ministry taking place in the “shallow end of the theological swimming pool.”
Dean offers a theological prescription both for youth ministry and also for the whole church. Her thesis is that “a passionless church will never address passionate youth.” Come to think of it, one could argue that it will never address passionate adults either.
This book is well worth a read. It raises some interesting questions and challenges for what it means to be church today, as well as a much-needed critique of the practice of youth ministry.
