{"id":2201,"date":"2010-09-06T05:51:04","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T10:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:01:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:01:04","slug":"almost-christian-hanging-loose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2010\/09\/06\/almost-christian-hanging-loose\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost Christian: Hanging Loose"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean\u2019s new book, <\/a><\/em>Almost Christian<\/a><\/a><\/em>, a theological follow up to Christian Smith\u2019s <\/em>Soul Searching<\/a>. I hope you\u2019ll join me. Find all the posts here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In chapter 8, \u201cHanging Loose: The Art of Detachment,\u201d<\/strong> Kenda uses the youth group short-term mission trips as the backbone of chapter.\u00a0 She writes,<\/p>\n

Every year, youth ministers immerse teenagers in cross-cultural encounters, cajole them into unasked for leadership roles, and confront them with Bible studies on cultural and theological sticking points.\u00a0 In doing the daily work of ministry, these church leaders eject young people from their comfort zones and catapult them into disorienting dilemmas\u2013thereby introducing them to a larger story in which God has given them a part to play.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She primarily relies upon the journal of a just-returned teenager to exemplify just how discombobulating a short-term mission experience can be.<\/p>\n

It all reminds me of a story that was popular among Southern California youth pastors when I was one, in the early 1990s.\u00a0 A girl steps out of the church van, having just arrived back in the church parking lot from a week in Tijuana, when she sees her dad drive up in a BMW.\u00a0 Upon experiencing the dramatic juxtaposition, she pukes.<\/p>\n

While this story is likely hagiographic, it exemplifies Kenda\u2019s point: \u201cDecentering practices like mission trips and prayer pave the way for epiphanies, conversions, and other threshold experiences where youth glimpse who Christ really is, and what loving him really costs.\u201d\u00a0 This happens, she writes, because teenagers learn \u201creflexivity\u201d by engaging in these practices.<\/p>\n

Kenda does admit that this flies in the face of adolescent development theory, most of which argues that adolescents should encounter stable environments.\u00a0 But the NSYR shows this doesn\u2019t work, at least in religious upbringing.\u00a0 Survey respondents reported a belief in God\u2019s activity in the world but were almost completely incapable of saying anything substantive about that work.\u00a0 In other words, it seemed that the teens were simply repeating what they\u2019d been taught by parents and Sunday school teachers \u2014 that God still does stuff, answers prayer, etc. \u2014 but they had very little experience of those things.\u00a0 And even those who had such experiences lacked the tools to translate that experience into their daily existence.<\/p>\n

In this last point, I heartily agree with Kenda.\u00a0 I have very little faith that the apocryphal girl who puked in the church parking lot, or Gabrielle, the teen from whose journal Kenda extensively quotes, are any stronger Christians today because they went on a short-term mission trip.\u00a0 While those jarring experiences do kindle the fire of faith in some youth, in my experience the vast majority go right back to life-as-usual.\u00a0 It is, indeed, as Kenda says, inculcating Christian practices like contemplative prayer that gives adolescents the tools to let these decentering experiences filter down into their workaday lives.<\/p>\n

My question for you: Do short-term mission trips, and other decentering experiences, do anything substantive in the spiritual lives of teenagers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean\u2019s new book, Almost Christian, a theological follow up to Christian Smith\u2019s Soul Searching. I hope you\u2019ll join me. Find all the posts here. In chapter 8, \u201cHanging Loose: The Art of Detachment,\u201d Kenda uses the youth group short-term mission trips as the backbone of chapter.\u00a0 She writes, Every year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,41],"tags":[52,375],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-youth-ministry","tag-almost-christian","tag-kenda-creasy-dean"],"yoast_head":"\nAlmost Christian: Hanging Loose<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm blogging through Kenda Creasy Dean's new book, Almost Christian, a theological follow up to Christian Smith's Soul Searching. 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