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"Will you continue in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the Breaking of the Bread and in the Prayers?"
(Book of Common Prayer pg. 304)
by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
As I write these words, we are preparing to celebrate the end of the academic school year in the Sunday School. It is an appropriate time to acknowledge and reflect upon the great sea changes that have occurred in the church's thinking about the purpose of Christian Education. Indeed, increasingly that very language - "Christian Education" - is being abandoned for a new term (and yet very ancient concept): "Christian Formation." A simple story will illustrate the difference. A generation or so ago, adolescents had to go through the Rite of Confirmation in order to be admitted to the Holy Communion. Generally, this "rite of passage" occurred about the age of 12 or 14 (known collegially as the "age of reason"). In preparing for this sacrament, young people were expected to have mastered the Catechism; a series of lessons that were studied, often memorized, and then regurgitated to the satisfaction of the Catechist (usually the parish Rector). I recall well going to Saturday mornings to be tested by Father Mills, on a good day intimidating in his demeanor. Lesson 8: the Lord's Prayer. Members of the class were invited in, one by one, for an audience: "recite our Lord's Prayer." Having grown up in the church and in a Christian culture in which, in schools, the Lord's Prayer was recited along with the Pledge of Allegiance, I hadn't bothered to more than glance at the lesson and with confidence recited: "…but deliver us from evil, for thine is..." Wham! (Sound of fist slamming on oak desk top.) "Wrong, go and study it again!" For some reason, the Catechism's Lord's Prayer stopped abruptly with: "…evil." Fortunately, the other young people, waiting in the hall on stiff wooden chairs, were too intimidated to laugh at me as I slinked out of the Rector's office as he bellowed loudly: "Next!" Catechetical instruction in preparation for confirmation was the norm for generations and there are still basics of the faith all believers should know by heart (e.g. the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer etc.). But contrast my sad and somewhat pathetic story with an experience I had at a workshop a few short years ago on a new adolescent curriculum entitled, provocatively, "J2A" (or "Journey to Adulthood"). The question given for discussion for junior high girls was this: "Scripture tells us that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Who do you choose to share your body with sexually and how many people do you choose to admit sexually to your body?" (Scary, huh?) Under the Christian Education model, the goal was to appropriate a group of facts about the Christian faith. Information was memorized, tested and in some cases surely forgotten fairly quickly, but kids were confirmed, admitted to the Holy Communion and in a sense "completed." Studies have shown that 50% of those who were confirmed, within a relatively short period of time, had left the church. Confirmation had become functionally the same as graduation. Statistics were so demoralizing that when the present Prayer Book was drafted, confirmation was initially omitted. The purpose of Christian formation, conversely, is not about learning facts or appropriating Christian trivia but rather aims at forming in Christians - adults and children - the "mind of Christ." To put it more simply: to learn the discipline of thinking theologically. This is increasingly important for young people as they mature. Young children need to know the story and know it well. The biblical tradition is the firm foundation all disciples need to grow into Christian maturity. But by junior and senior high, our young people should be able to use the resources of scripture, prayer, self-reflection and piety (i.e. study) to make appropriate moral choices in their daily lives; to be, in some measure, a self conscious ambassador for Christ not by proselytizing but by witnesses by their behavior. (What St. Paul called living into "the full stature of Christ.") What this all means is that church and home need to enter into a covenant by which we conspire to work together to achieve the goal of implanting Christian values and thinking into our young people. That covenant means that we, as church, will do our best to provide a format and curriculum and structure that will challenge our children to think more and more critically. (The Survey of Faiths curriculum for junior and senior high was intended to expose a breadth of experience of other faith traditions we, as Christians, need to be in dialogue with in this most diverse region of the world). Your part of the covenant is to bring them here and then engage the conversation at home. The conflict arises when young people have a myriad of choices of things to do that consume their time. Rebellious pre-teens are quick to inform their parents that on Sundays they'd rather sleep in, engage in school activities including sporting events and that church (and church school) is boring. This question must be asked: If your son or daughter told you that they didn't want to go to school this Monday because they'd rather sleep in or hang out with their friends or play sports `cause "school is boring," you'd quickly tell them how important school is as a stepping stone to ensure their future and that missing is not an option. And yet, I have heard parents say that their children should not be forced to come to church because to do so would just turn them off religion. If one goes to school to prepare for taking their place in the workforce as an American citizen, children go to church and Sunday School to prepare to take their place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Schools teach kids how to learn and to think analytically and to be disciplined in order to function as a productive member of American (and world) culture. Church and Church school forms people into individuals who think theologically, to be disciplined (a "disciple") in life's choices in order to be a fruitful member of Christian (and Kingdom) culture. Both are important; only one has eternal ramifications. Ultimately, it's a question of "family values." When I was a child, I knew children in Sunday School whose parent (usually a father) would drop the kids off at the parish house door and sit in the car and smoke cigars and read the Sunday paper. Regardless of what curriculum we were using, the parents' actions clearly indicated that this stuff wasn't particularly important. (I have a relative whose father wanted his daughter to be a professional concert pianist and who diligently took her to piano lessons but never to piano concerts, nor was classical piano music played on the home stereo. Why was he disappointed that after a valiant and compliant effort, his daughter moved in another direction in life?) Kids value what we value as adults. So, here's a radical and yet reasonable notion: when the parish weekend comes up in the fall (Oct. 3-5), take off from work early and take your child out of school early. If they have a test that day, negotiate on behalf of your child for a make up later. When he or she asks "why," tell them this: "There's something more important than school in life. School will be here on Monday and you will spend a good portion of your life in school and later in working; but something you have to remember in life is that there's something much more important: Christian fellowship and companionship, mutual support in the Body of Christ and spending concentrated and consecrated quality time with other disciples." That you are willing to take off from work (and likely have to do "extra homework" later for the privilege, teaches a valuable lesson by example). To think that this is an outrageous and presumptuous suggestion reveals something about the priority that materiality has over the spiritual right now in your lives. This discussion encourages you to enter into a dialogue - internal and among your family - about what sort of person we hope our son or daughter will grow up to be. We routinely ask our kids the precisely wrong question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" What we mean is, of course, what will you do to provide security for yourself and your family when we, your parents, can no longer provide for you; how are you going to be safe in the world? A reasonable question. But the "being question," honestly asked, is also crucial: will our son or daughter be selfish or compassionate, sacrificial or superficial, merciful or cynical; and when tested by adversity, will she or he be a person of faith or a person of fear; will his life be one grounded in ultimate meaning or one that seeks value through an accumulation of material things? Should, heaven forbid, their lives be marked with more adversity than prosperity, will they possess the spiritual resources to find meaning and value in the midst of tragedy, or loss, or pain? And how and where will this spiritual power be made manifest in your children without your nurture, support and involvement? Thank you to Elissa Tognozzi, our Children's Ministries Director and to Kim Calvert, our Nursery and Acolytes Support Staff, and all our wonderful Sunday School teachers who week by week engage our children and young adults in the Apostles Teaching and Fellowship and show, by their own example, their delight in the things of God. We encourage and invite other adults to share their faith and values with our children by volunteering to teach in our Summer Sunday School program. Teachers find that their reward is the joy of working with some exceptional and delightful young people; in making new (young) friends in Christ.
Copyright © 2003 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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