Almost Christian <\/em>is a response to a longitudinal study by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton at Notre Dame University.\u00a0 Dean helped with this National Study of Youth and Religion, and being a youth minister herself (in the Methodist Church), she was given the task of putting the vast amount of information into laymen\u2019s terms, for the benefit of parents and pastors of teens.\u00a0 Being a parent of two teens myself, I was both looking forward to and dreading what I might find in its pages.<\/p>\nI am a wife and homeschooling mother to 3 children, ages 15, 13, and 8.\u00a0 I am a voracious reader but I will admit to a hesitation about picking up this book. A homeschooling mother of 3 doesn\u2019t have a lot of time to go looking for new things to worry about or implement or check off.\u00a0 Parental guilt is never ending.\u00a0 I wondered how I would feel when I closed the book for the last time.\u00a0 Heavy?\u00a0 Motivated?\u00a0 Confused?\u00a0 Like any other parent, what I need daily is a dose of hope.\u00a0 What Kenda Dean does in this book is take us to hope the long way around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I am also a Christian, a member of the Presbyterian Church of America.\u00a0 We are a \u201creformed\u201d people, by which we mean to say that we follow the teachings of the Reformation, a time when the gospel was retrieved from the teachings of Scripture out of a corrupted Church where Law and moral code was used like a weapon. Here is my only caveat to the book: For me the word \u201cmissional\u201d carries with it the connotation of people who think the church is dispensable \u2013 people who \u201cdo church\u201d but don\u2019t \u201cgo to church.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t lump Kenda Dean there but she undoubtedly is \u201cmissional-minded\u201d and I struggled sometimes to grasp how to be gospel-driven & missional-minded at the same time.<\/p>\n
I will admit right here I tend to favor law over grace. I always find it easier to pick up a \u201chow-to\u201d book with 12 steps to guarantee success than I do a book like Almost Christian<\/em> (or the only other \u201cparenting\u201d book on my shelf, Age of Opportunity<\/em> by Paul David Tripp). It\u2019s always easier to me to \u201cdo something\u201d than to \u201cbe something.\u00a0 But Almost Christian<\/em> is not a book with any sort of easy answers. Nobody likes to be needy, but Dean points out that if we fail to recognize our need, we will also fail to recognize our hope.\u00a0 And it is Jesus Christ that is our only sure hope as parents \u2013 or people.\u00a0 This goes much deeper than a 12 step program:\u00a0 it requires honesty, discernment, and most of all, humility on the part of the parent or youth worker.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nThe title, Almost Christian<\/em>, comes from a sermon by John Wesley who once preached a message about how easy it is for any of us to wear the garments of a Christian \u2013 to talk like Christians \u2013 to experience the blessings of a church family \u2013 and yet never b<\/em>e <\/em>a true Christian.\u00a0 To be an \u201calmost Christian\u201d is to not be a Christian at all, and the task of a discipler is to study your disciple (be that a youth ministry member or a child) and lead them into the process of being \u201creflexive,\u201d as Dean says \u2013 helping them to see their own need of Christ as we are open about our own. This requires all of us to be honest about why <\/em>we do what we do.\u00a0 It requires intentionality.\u00a0 <\/em>I think for many Americans, this has become a lost art, because we often live in the tyranny of the urgent, with no \u201cmargins\u201d of time to think through important matters such as our faith and how we pass down our values to those we love most.\u00a0 Dean makes the point that we send our kids to algebra class and piano lessons because we know that these things don\u2019t get \u201ccaught,\u201d they get \u201ctaught\u2026\u201d yet we fail to see that the same holds true for faith matters.\u00a0 It is the only subject that we feel free to assume that \u201cempty space\u201d will get filled up with the right information, and our children will somehow stumble upon vibrant, passionate faith.<\/p>\nThis is where it gets sticky because when we study our children in order to intentionally teach, there is always a temptation to measure <\/em>them as well.\u00a0 And who can measure hearts or maturity or spiritual progress?\u00a0 I thought Dean was very careful with this problem, very hospitable and gracious towards these young people who for the most part have had no opportunities yet, no \u201ccrises of faith,\u201d to catapult them into a living faith of their own.\u00a0 Her critiques are not critiques of THE TEENS themselves, but rather of the people who are supposed to be leading them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cMoralistic Therapeutic Deism\u201d is the name that the NSYR gives to the form of religion that has taken hold in America in recent years.\u00a0 Moralistic:\u00a0 God wants us to BE good.\u00a0 Therapeutic:\u00a0 God wants us to FEEL good.\u00a0 Deism:\u00a0 God is distantly watching, not directly involved in our lives.\u00a0 It is up to us to make it or break it.\u00a0\u00a0 This type of religion is empty of the good news of the gospel, and it is nothing like orthodox Christianity, but\u2026<\/p>\n
Nobody seems to notice.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cworking for us,\u201d or so the church has been lulled into thinking.\u00a0 And yet we see chinks in the wall and wonder, \u201cwhat\u2019s going on?\u00a0 And how can we fix it?\u201d\u00a0 Many of the attempts to \u201cfix\u201d the problem only address the symptoms.\u00a0 The cancer underneath, according to the NSYR, is not that our kids have become detached from the faith of their parents and elders, but rather they are swallowing it whole.\u00a0 Dean goes a long way to clarify this assertion.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dean believes that especially in America, our churches (as well as the parents in these churches) have found a way to use Christianity to promote behaviors that help people function better in society \u2013 Christians are nice, they obey, the don\u2019t lie cheat or steal.\u00a0 They make good citizens.\u00a0 But Dean\u2019s point is this:\u00a0 That is not the definition of a Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201calmost Christian.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 But this is only part of the story, and it ignores the part about being \u201csalty\u201d and \u201cfull of light\u201d in a dark world.\u00a0 That means conspicuousness, not blandness.\u00a0 It\u2019s also more law without gospel, lacking the power of real Christianity.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a caricature of a Christian, an idea that has somehow taken hold in this comfortable society of ours, one that would probably be unrecognizable in countries where faith in Christ is still a death sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even a quick look at the New Testament is enough to convince us that Christianity is something altogether different than a way to create well-liked, useful citizens.\u00a0 In fact, it often ends up creating the opposite \u2013 people that operate on the fringe, with passion and unpopular opinions.\u00a0 People that speak the truth with conviction are rarely received with open arms by a society that promotes \u201ctolerance\u201d as its highest virtue.\u00a0 As a parent, to instill in my children a living faith like this is a risky move. Do I truly believe that to be a Christ-follower really does bring all the blessing that God promises \u2013 or am I afraid?\u00a0 Am I aiming for \u201ca bird in the hand?\u201d\u00a0 Something safe, something \u201cnormal?\u201d\u00a0 Or am I willing to go out on the limb \u2013 and allow my children to go out on a limb of their own \u2013 for the double portion?\u00a0<\/p>\n
To add to the \u201cfear factor\u201d there is the question:\u00a0 Do I trust God to do this for my children?\u00a0 Dean ends her book with the big black arrow pointing to God Himself, the One who \u201cbegan the work, and also will complete it.\u201d\u00a0 We as parents and youth workers learn to trust God as we are faced with the impossible task of raising Christians for the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 Can we measure hearts and progress and judge the maturity level (or even the faith of) our teens?\u00a0 Can we guarantee outcomes?\u00a0 NO.\u00a0 We are never responsible for the harvest, we are only responsible for the sowing.\u00a0 We have to do this with loving care \u2013 fertilizing the soil, watering it in, and observing carefully.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My spiritual life before God matters, and it matters generationally.\u00a0 It is not a private thing, and I take the call of Deuteronomy to heart, especially after reading this book. Faith must be talked about constantly, with daily casual references and a willingness to be engaged. It must be lived out within community, it depends upon the sacraments and the grace of God.\u00a0 I have to live my life with Christ with<\/em> my children.\u00a0 This is how they learn \u2013 from us.\u00a0 The question is, will they learn Moralistic Therapeutic Deism:\u00a0 another form of law?\u00a0 Or will they learn the incredible grace of an unpredictable God?\u00a0<\/p>\nThis book is not an indictment against teenagers in the church.\u00a0 It is a warning to \u201ccomfortable\u201d adults who are failing to give teenagers what they apparently desire, according to the NSYR:\u00a0 a living, vibrant, informed faith. Specifically, a faith in Jesus Christ that is based not upon any of the good works any of us do, but rather on the final act of God Himself on our behalf in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son.<\/p>\n
My favorite quote in the book was found in the last chapter: \u201cIf American churches are thinking small, there is a reason:\u00a0 Moralistic Therapeutic Deism sets our sights on ourselves, not the stars.\u00a0 Yet a missional imagination inspired by the gospel requires the church, above all, to think big, to lash our ambitions to the cross, and set our hopes on Jesus Christ, who established the church for the world, and nothing less\u2026 which means that we are not here, any of us, for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
An ancient king once wrote these words before facing an enemy horde: \u201cLord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes look to you.\u201d\u00a0 (2 Chron. 20:12) \u00a0I think this is exactly the stance Kenda Creasy Dean leaves us in with her book, as she exposes reality and offers us a hope that is unlike anything the world has to offer.\u00a0 It has left me feeling like Jesus\u2019 own mother, \u201cpondering these things\u201d in my heart.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editor\u2019s note: I asked a gal who is raising teens to review Kenda Dean\u2019s Almost Christian book. Jennifer\u2019s review folos. Almost Christian, by Kenda Creasy Dean Reviewed by Jennifer Pursley Kenda Creasy Dean\u2019s Almost Christian is a response to a longitudinal study by Christian Smith and Melinda Denton at Notre Dame University.\u00a0 Dean helped with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[48,204,309,760,938,1133,1431,1698],"class_list":["post-502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-almost-christian","tag-book-review","tag-christianity","tag-homeschool","tag-kenda-kersey-dean","tag-moralistic-deism","tag-reformed","tag-teens"],"yoast_head":"\n
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