Being Old Again: New Practices in Youth Ministry
I found out last week that my parents observe Lent. This was somewhat of a surprise to me since they never observed the holy seasons during my childhood. That’s not to say I wasn’t taught important Christian practices: prayer, Bible reading, giving, Communion, going to church. Though we certainly had rituals, the only one we’d admit was taking Communion once a month. Anything more than that was for “cold” churches, and we had the fire of Pentecost.
This idea is still deeply ingrained many Pentecostal communities, where the “best” kind of worship is Spirit-led (read: spontaneous) and faith is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Despite 1000s of church services with such experiences, I felt lacking and ignorant. I needed something, not to replace my Pentecostal roots, but something to supplement them. I needed something more than spiritual ecstasy at the altar at summer camp. Richard Foster’s book, “Celebration of Discipline,” provided me with new-old ways to ground my faith, and I’ve been sort of a liturgical-Pentecostal since.
This, of course, makes me something of an oddity, but I have set my course and shepherd those whom I minister with and to down that road. We started celebrating Advent with liturgy and, while I’ve encouraged Lenten fasts in the past, this year I imposed ashes and will observe a Lent similar to our mainline sisters and brothers. What makes this a challenge is the context: youth ministry.
Let’s be honest, big numbers in youth ministry don’t come by rubbing soot on someone’s face or by beginning the service with 5 minutes of meditative silence. But it provides a much needed counter-weight to a religious tradition full of ecstatic experiences like dancing, shouting at the altars, full-body shaking under the power of God. Those experiences are powerful, but they should/must be augmented with deeper rituals.
The struggle is grounding these practices contextually. This, of course, means which translations of Scripture are used, but it also means more than that. What do these ancient practices look like today? How do we fast in a time of unjust hunger? How are we reconciled in an age of two wars? How do we repent in a culture of narcissism? But the struggle of answering these questions is what makes liturgy so powerful. As Stanley Hauerwas might say, a youth ministry with a liturgy is a youth ministry which is not only the bearer of Christ’s message but is itself the message.
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