Faith Formation 24/7

Someone or some group will soon be reviewing and revising your congregation’s adult faith formation opportunities for the fall. Even if you use that language, what it usually becomes is planning for fall courses, forums, and retreats. It really becomes a list for the old Adult Christian Education offerings.

Wrong paradigm! Keep or adopt the language of faith formation or, better yet, Christian formation, to make it clear you are not endorsing just any religious formation. Work to promote the concept that everything we do in our congregations and in our daily life is part of our Christian formation. Worship is adult Christian/faith formation. So is a vestry or board meeting. So is a mission trip, a pot luck supper, or fixing a flat tire along the highway. All of our life experiences are part of Christian formation as we use these moments or any moment for caring conversation, devotions, service, and rituals and traditions. Yes, adult Christian formation is all about practicing the faith in and through a community of believers.

The critical ingredient is to have others walking alongside in one’s Christian formation, people who are mentors, sojourners, or, what I like to reference, prayer and action partners. A prayer and action partner is simply someone who says, “I hear your desire to do [this or that]; I pledge to pray for you as you do it, and I will check in with you later to see how your Christian formation was touched by it.”

Your governing board members can have or rotate prayer and action partners. At the end of the meeting, people can say what they want to do as a consequence of the meeting. The prayer and action partner chimes in and commits to pray for the other person and to check in with that person later for a bit of caring conversation (reflection). This can happen at Bible studies, too. At the end of a session or a course, people can say what they will do because of the discussion and learning that took place. Others step forward to walk alongside as a prayer and action partner. No matter what the occasion, people can enhance one another’s Christian formation with prayer, reflection, and accountability. This is the adult Christian formation that will make a difference and touch more lives. 

Pastor Mark Asleson and Deaconal Minister Tara Ulrich have had family and youth together in confirmation classes for years at Dilworth Lutheran in Dilworth, MN. They have been tracking the success of this model by asking confirmands at the end of their confirmation instruction if the current method of having a parent, grandparent, or other mentor present with them is preferred or should the confirmation program go back to the old standard of students only in class. Together, Mark and Tara have asked over 400 students their preferences. Only three have said they would prefer students only in class–only three!

Mark and Tara get written testimonials and classroom evidence as well. Students write about favorite confirmation memories that include sitting at a restaurant on a Saturday morning with a grandparent and learning about the grandparent’s life and faith over the years. Students respond with intense interest at learning about what their mom or dad believe or what another adult thought and did when he or she was a teen. These are all important insights that shape a youth’s core values and faith for a lifetime.

I read a quote from James Frazier regarding Christian formation, and it made me think about what Tara and Mark are doing with their cross+generational confirmation program: “The best way to be formed in Christ is to sit among the elders, listen to their stories, break bread with them, and drink from the same cup, observing how these earlier generations of saints ran the race, fought the fight, and survived in grace” (Across the Generations: Incorpirating All Ages in Ministry).

In your Christian formation ministry in the home and in the congregation, what is working for you? How are the elders part of the faith formation of children and youth?

Here is a post penned by Paul Hill, executive director of Vibrant Faith Ministries that I would like to make available to you all.

Over the past year Dr. Scott Magnuson-Martinson  has been studying us at Vibrant Faith Ministries. Dr. Scott has 30 years experience on the faculty at Normandale Community College.

While on his sabbatical Dr. Scott did an extensive analysis of whether what we teach at VFM actually makes a difference.  Specifically, does the Vibrant Faith Frame (Five Principles for Effective Faith Formation, Four Key Faith Practices, leading to three characteristics of discipleship) transform congregations by deepening the faith life of the members and leaders.

Here’s one of the things he learned: CONGREGATIONS RECEPTIVE TO USING MULTIPLE FORMS OF LEARNING ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE IN FORMING FAITH AND MAXIMIZING THE WISDOM OF THE VIBRANT FAITH FRAME.

In other words, God speaks to us in many ways and the Spirit works faith in us in many ways.  Multiple intelligence learning, developed by Howard Gardner in 1983, states that we learn in many modalities including:

• Interpersonal: God connects through the relationships coming from community interaction (think Oprah).  VFM resource for this would be FAITHTALK CARDS.
• Spatial: God connects through visualizing ideas, concepts and images in our minds eye (think Picasso). VFM resource for this would be SOULARIUM CARDS or PRAYING IN COLOR.
• Kinesthetic: God connects through our bodily movement and activity (think most any male child or church camp). VFM resource for this would be MISSION TRIP RESOURCES.
• Musical: God speaks through our sensitivity to sound, tones and rhythms (think Mozart, or Justin Bieber).  VFM resource for this would be our theme song LOOSE IN THE WORLD by Peter Mayer.
• Logical-mathematical: God connects through our processing of abstractions and connecting the dots (think Bill Gates). VFM resource for this would be VIBRANT FAITH IN THE CONGREGATION by David Anderson, or the FAITH FORMATION LEARNING EXCHANGE.
• Linguistic: God speaks to us through words, language, verbal cues, and reading (think Shakespeare).  VFM resource for this would be all the tips, tools and resources on VIBRANT FAITH @ HOME, or all the research studies on the FAITH FORMATION LEARNING EXCHANGE.
• Intrapersonal: God engages us through internal reflection and thought (think praying nuns, contemplative faith practices).  VIBRANT FAITH @ HOME offers hundreds of these kinds of activities for the individual and the household.
• Naturalistic: God provides  information, inspiration and personal organization vie our surroundings, especially nature (think Chef Rachel Ray, or John Muir). Contact me and I’ll walk you through all my classes I teach titled WHY CAN’T CHURCH BE MORE LIKE CAMP?
• Existential/spiritual: (Gardner was more ambiguous on this one) God speaks through our inner spiritual and existential lives, struggles and insights. VFM’s MILESTONES MINISTRY covers a wide range of life events and stages.

This research is so important, notes Dr. Scott, that he suggested we ask one question of prospective leaders and congregations with whom we would work: “Are you open to sharing faith in multiple ways?”  If they are then we should extend our services, if not….walk away.

How would you answer this question for yourself and your congregation?

A congregation might be good at putting a congregational program together, but without linking the faith journey activity back to our daily lives and relationships, what good is it? Farmers know that planting seeds is not the only thing needed to grow a productive crop. The seeds may take root on their own, but without ongoing moisture and nutrients, those emerging plants get stunted and die. When the droughts come—and they do come in our fields and in our lives—a plant without deeper roots has little chance of survival.

I was talking to a pastor yesterday who was noting that his congregation is good at putting together congregational programs related to the Christian faith, but without any real connection back to the home and one’s daily life. The congregational events live and die in the fellowship hall.

 There is a vital partnership between congregation and home. If we want people to practice the faith in their daily lives, we do need to engage in faith practices together in the congregation as kind of a “jump start” to get people to continue to live and practice the faith in daily life. However, without ongoing attention to what is happening in the home, little of what is done in the congregation tends to stick. A support system is needed that provides resources and follow up contact with people once they have left the congregational setting.

 What “successful” congregational program that you know of could be strengthened with a congregational support system for the home and daily life? What follow up activities for the home would you recommend?

 My next blogs will look at what gets in the way of real support for our homes and what we can do about it.

I am continuing my emphasis on mentoring as a primary goal for congregational life (in other words, emphasizing human development more than program development).

One occasion to experience a valuable mentoring relationship is when a person completes her/his term on a board, council, committee, or any other leadership team in the congregation, including a position on staff. The suggestion is to offer an exit interview when a person finishes a leadership position in the congregation. Have a one-on-one spiritual care conversation. Ask questions like, “What had originally motivated you to serve?” Explore with that person what his/her expectations and assumptions were about the congregation and the leadership team. What did he/she experience? What were the joys and challenges? What were the personal regrets and achievements? All of those conversations can lead to a time of prayer and new beginnings for a leader.

Such questions and conversations joined with prayer can help people finish their leadership terms with a sense of wellbeing and an ability to start anew within the life of the congregation and larger church. It is well known, for example, that former council (or vestry or governing board) members are more likely to become inactive members of a congregation. A good exit interview can thwart such trends and can help people let go of disappointments in others and themselves.

This process makes it easier to reenter the life of the congregation freed from the burdens of past leadership experiences. It can also help leaders assess accomplishments with a spirit of thanksgiving for the larger work of the church. Both agendas of letting go of disappointments and celebrating accomplishments are important to address in an exit interview. Combined with a time of reflection and prayer, both agendas will help people experience a fresh start in the life of the congregation.

Have you been given such an exit interview? Have you offered an exit interview to others? What has been the impact of this kind of mentoring?

Because of some personal life review as of late, I have become aware of the critical importance of having a mentor at different stages of life—or the implications of not having one. Mentoring relationships in the congregation (both formal and informal) are vital and express well the first of the Five Principles: “Faith is formed by the power of the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships—often in our own homes.” Mentors are especially helpful as a complement to what may or may not be happening in other settings of personal relationships.

My recent epiphany is that the church needs to move from being a programmatic organization that might support the role of mentors to a mentoring organization supported by programs and other congregational experiences. A foundational goal of congregational life is to give people the vision, encouragement, and tools to be effective mentors to others. For example, this can mean teaching a fifth grader how to mentor a third grader or encouraging a former council member to mentor a new council member. In a congregation focusing on programs without attention to the importance of mentoring, the result can be having effective programs (focus is on the number of people attending and the number of programs offered) and still miss the goal of nurturing disciples who live their lives for their neighbors and in praise and thanksgiving to God.

The best example I can think of for the importance of encouraging mentors in a congregation is from Jim LaDoux in his book Surface to Soul: Coaching Spiritual Vitality in Congregations (VFP, 2012). He tells the story of visiting a congregation and being welcomed by an official greeter. The next Sunday Jim came back to that same congregation and went up to that person again, only to be told that that person was not the official greeter this week! How tragic. This person fulfilled a congregational and programmatic need of providing Sunday greeters without being touched by the goal of Christian hospitality that lies behind the Sunday greeters program. A mentor just might have helped this sometime-official greeter see the larger ministry of hospitality.

It’s time we make mentoring a real focus of Christian disciple through the life of the congregation.

Can you give examples of how congregations can provide “successful” programs that do not really impact the discipleship of the individuals involved?

Give examples of how congregations use mentors as an opportunity to truly impact the lives of disciples 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Recently a pastor recounted how two men who had responsibility for the property and grounds at the congregation just seemed not to be able to get much done. They saw things differently and the tension was at times palpable. The result: not much work got done caring for the congregation’s facilities.

But something happened. The two men began to have lunch together occasionally. They listened to each other’s experiences and interests. The lunches were not about problem solving, just relating. Soon one of the men told the pastor that past issues just seemed to disappear, and critical work at the church was getting done. 

It sometimes happens that congregational leaders want to “get down to business” instead of starting their meetings with a check-in time and devotions. The men’s luncheon meetings give example of how important it is to develop relationships before making important decisions.

Nationally known church consultant Roy Oswald states that meetings that start with checking in with each other provide more efficiently run meetings with better decision making. Roy also noted that the Four Keys provide a check-in process that works. Caring conversations create personal bonds. Devotions place God’s word and will in the middle of any congregational decision. Service reminds leaders that their decisions and actions serve the the work of God. Rituals and traditions unite individuals into a common group with a common passion and cause. The Four Keys promote healthier relationships that, in turn, result in better meetings and decision making.

The next time someone wants to bypass team building in order to get down to the “business of the church,” remind them of the power of building a faith bond before any decisions are made. When have you seen a meeting go awry because a community spirit and sense of good will was not established? Give an example of how better decisions were made by a congregational team that took time for people to care for and pray for each other.