You Are What You Love – July 7th, 2019
Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well”
You are what you love. 1. To Worship is Human: (June 9th) 2. You Might Not Love What You Think: (June 16th) 3. The Spirit Meets You Where You Are: (June 23rd) 4. What Story Are You In? (June 30th)
5. Guard Your Heart: (July 7th) 6. Teach Your Children Well: (July 21st) 7. Worship changes everything. (July 28th)
You Are What You Love: Chapter 6 • • • •
The story so far A word of caution Spectators or inhabitants Ministry for liturgical animals • Ancient wisdom for a modern world
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “The story so far”
The story so far: Thinker, Believer, or Lover
The Real Story: Creation Established (Shalom) F
S
Son
Creation
Humankind
Creation
The Real Story: The Story Line of the Bible “1st coming of Christ”
“2nd coming of Christ”
“The Age to Come”
“Eden”
“This Age” “Fall” “The Already but Not Yet”
“New Jerusalem”
The Real Story: Creation Regained (Shalom) F
S
Son
Industry, Law, & Film
Humankind
Education, Medicine, & Fashion
Creation Regained “What has been formed in creation has been historically deformed by sin and must be reformed in Christ” …..
Al Wolters, “Creation Regained”
Learning to love: A dynamic system needing care
The story so far - Learning to Love Rightly • As “desiring beings” what do you desire? • We think we know our loves but in reality, we decide much beneath in the subconscious.
• Often, in our spiritual hunger, we have been trained to accept food that will never satisfy • Worship is the process that (re)forms our loves and satisfies our hunger for God. • The form of Christian worship and comes with its own story of redemption imbedded within it. • The home – our little church - and its rhythm of worship is a place where we taught how to love.
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “A word of caution”
Proverbs of Solomon “Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it”. St. Paul – Velazquez (c. 1650)
James K. A. Smith: You are what you love “we need to face a sobering reality: keeping young people entertained in our church buildings is not at all synonymous with forming them as dynamic members of the body of Christ. What passes as youth ministry is often not serious modes of Christian formation but instead pragmatic, last ditch efforts to keep young people as card-carrying members of our evangelical club. We have confused keeping young people in the building with keeping them ‘in Christ’ “. James K. A. Smith
You are what you love ….. a word of caution This week’s chapter is on youth ministry and formation of the young. However, it is best to see this chapter (I think) as a worked-out example of the many temptations which lead to the mistakes and missteps in Christian formation of every cohort within our modern church. Every word of caution (or rebuke!) here for youth ministry is a word of caution for the wider church. How we teach our youth is a focus group on how we teach ourselves.
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “Spectators or inhabitants”
James K. A. Smith: You are what you love “Map knowledge is the knowledge of the spectator, not an inhabitant; it is how an outsider sees, not a native. …..
….. What if learning to have the “mind of Christ” was less like memorizing a map and more like learning how to live and move and have our being in Christ? ….. What if education weren’t first and foremost about what we know but about what we love?”. James K. A. Smith
Spectators or inhabitants? • So what outcome do we want in our youth ministries and young adult community …...? • To form and shape our next generation into fully fledged Christian people. • To form a people who know what to love and how to love (St. Augustine). • We want to create native inhabitants of God’s Kingdom.
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “Ministry for liturgical animals”
Ministry for liturgical animals (what’s gone wrong) • “Segmentation”: separating the generations into small para churches. • “Thinking thing-ism”: assume more info = more Christianity = more discipleship. • “Extrovert for Jesus”: the only form of legitimate Christian life. • “Expressionism”: a culture built around the expression of “personal” faith. • “The worship performance”: worship as entertainment not formation. • “Where is the transcendent?”: if it looks like a concert, maybe its just a concert
What are we really teaching and communicating? “Segmentation”: separating the generations into small para churches.
“The worship performance”: worship as entertainment not formation.
Ministry for liturgical animals (what should we do) “Formative ministry will be ministry by youth rather than just ministry to youth” James K. A. Smith
• Church: establish the whole church as the primary community of formation. • Worship: enfold children and youth into a multigenerational gathering. • Worship: bring the young into a wider set of Christian disciplines (prayer and scripture). • Service: a way of life for the Christian and a cultural and economic leveler for all. • Transcendence: God is not like us
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “Table Questions”
Table Questions • Read Proverbs 9:10 • “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight”. In 2019, (or 2020, etc.) what does this mean?
• Schooling the Imagination • In the bible Jesus often says, “come follow me”. How does the book help us see the power and wisdom of “follow me” vs. “think like me”? • Vision 2020 • Do you recognize the issues of youth ministry Smith lists? Based on what you have read what would you do at FPCH to rethink ministry?
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well” “Takeaways”
You Are What You Love 6: Key Takeaways • “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight”. This is the beginning of all Christian formation. • The goal is to create native inhabitants of God’s Kingdom – i.e. not visitors but natives who speak the language & culture of God’s place. • Especially among the young we choose modes of communication and formation which can teach a story antithetical to the Christian vision. • Church & Worship: establish the whole church across generations as the primary community of formation.
You Are What You Love Chapter 6 “Teach Your Children Well”
You make what you want “The biblical doctrine of creation is not just about where we came from; it’s about where we are. It’s not just about who we are, but about whose we are. Its not just a statement about our past, it’s a calling to a future.
We are not just dawdling around in some anonymous cosmos; we are home”. James K A Smith
St. Augustine Pastor & Preacher “our nature has God as its author; and so without doubt we must have him as our teacher, if we are to attain true wisdom; and for our happiness we require him as the bestower of the delight in our hearts which only he can give”. Augustine, City of God, Book 11:25
