Category: DOC Thoughts
In Defense of Young Adults
My friend and peer in ministry, Julie Richardson Brown, writes a blog, Under the Ginkgo Tree. Here is a couple of paragraphs of her latest post, In Defense of Young Adults.
In Defense of Young Adults
Julie Richardson Brown | June 28, 2012 | click here to read more.As of late, and for a variety of reasons, I’ve had cause to hear a lot of talk about the elusive category “young adults.” However it might be defined in other places, I’m going to define it—roughly—as ages 18-35. It is an age bracket I know a good bit about (through study, work and experience), and one I’ve only been out of myself for a couple of years. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do know some things that I fear a large portion of our society forgets.
And the truth is—and just go ahead and protect your toes here—the truth, I believe, is that the heart of struggle lies in our failure (our—as in yours and mine) to show the way. To point them toward what really matters, to put aside our own stuff long enough to admit that we haven’t gotten it right, and so perhaps instead of denouncing the sometimes misguided efforts of those coming behind us to leave their mark on the world, we could say, “Ok. So, you want to change the world? Great. How can I help you?”
Breaking the Bubble Wrap
I’m not a huge Brian McLaren fan, but this article in the July issues of Sojourners is worth spending some time digesting. It asks questions that many of us working with k-35 year olds within mainline Christian denominations have been wondering. Since the demise of “Christian education” in seminary curriculum many congregations have turned to evangelical or fundamentalist publishing houses that have continued to publish materials that persons use for teaching. Is it any wonder that “personal salvation” has become the norm rather than reconciliation of community? This article highlights the necessity for a new paradigm within Christianity and the need to make the biblical stories alive, wonder-filled, and not sanitize the complexity of human existence nor the search for the divine. A few paragraphs and a link.
Breaking the Bubble Wrap
by David M. Csinos and Brian McLaren | July 2012Clearly, we need another perspective of childhood, one that acknowledges children’s full humanity and recognizes their capacity to do wrong and to do good, including seeking justice. While we want to keep kids safe, we also want them to follow the way of Jesus, which is sometimes downright dangerous. While we want our kids to be good, true goodness only develops through a struggle against what’s wrong—both inside them and around them. This perspective helps us affirm children’s inherent agency, their ability to make sense of the world around them and to express themselves.
CHRISTIAN PARENTS, grandparents, and educators today need to ask what we and our churches are showing emerging generations about what it means to be followers of Christ. Many of us, whether Catholic, Protestant, or from other backgrounds, live within traditional paradigms that increasingly don’t fit.
In both pietistic and institutional paradigms, traditional churches have worked hard to teach children Bible stories and Christian virtues; many of us wouldn’t be the adults we are today if it weren’t for the great start we got in the churches of our childhood. But in today’s world we need to rethink what it means to, in Paul’s words, raise new generations “in the nurture and instruction of the Lord,” including the social, economic, and political dimensions of that instruction. How can we shape our kids’ characters to help them become Christ-followers who are both contemplative and activist? As we imagine what this might look like, a few questions come to mind. Click here to read more.