Thought Projects
I’ve been gifted sabbatical time during 2019. For those unfamiliar with that term, it means that for three months I have the opportunity to be away from work, on leave so to speak, and continue to be paid my salary. Sabbatical is something familiar to those in academic settings where colleges or universities offer six month or year long sabbatical time to professors that are completing research projects, writing books, or pursuing other academic endeavors that need more attention than can be given while carrying a full teaching load.
For clergy, this is a relatively new practice. Sabbatical has become more normative in compensation packages for clergy and within congregational or institutional policies over the last twenty-five years. Ministry is a vocation, profession, and a lifestyle one willfully accepts, or not, through the experience of call. Most congregations want the clergy person to renew their spiritual batteries, so to speak, for the tasks of ministry and the lifestyle that can become overwhelming, isolating, and heartbreaking as much as life-giving or hopeful or meaningful. I like to say it is a time for the minister to rediscover the “why” of her or his call to the vocation of ministry. There is a desire for the clergy person to participate in continuing education that will benefit both, the clergy and her or his congregation or institution, when sabbatical ends. Sabbatical is a time to completely disengage from the routines, relationships, and responsibilities.
I will not be ‘on sabbatical’ in the traditional way. Rather than be away from three full months in a row, I have designed three time periods where I will disengage from my ministry responsibilities. This is not the way to do it, but how I am doing it. My first bit of time is most of January 2019. I have a couple of projects I want to complete and overall I’ll be working on a couple of thought projects. I’m not sure what the outcome of these though projects will be, but these two thoughts have nagged at me for quite some time. They are specific to my brand of Christian witness, but can be applied broadly with a change in terms. These thoughts need space and conversation partners. And, these thought projects represent my baggage with what has become of public Christianity. Yes, I’ll be posting more actively during sabbatical time.
Generic Christian
The pace of social, economic, and technological change cannot be overstated as mainline Christianity continues to struggle against an undertow of “when everything matters nothing matters most.” I think this struggle is connected with “generic Christian evangelicalism and generic Christianity” that has, in many Disciples of Christ congregations, transformed our unique liberal frontier movement into a season of Survivor; and, it is also affecting Regions and General Units. What kind of lifeline, or two, can a Region or covenantal Christian community create to help clergy and congregations better identify what matters most in their context and in the covenantal relationships that guide being the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)? What is the best way to throw a lifeline? What is the best way to throw a lifeline to Disciples of Christ clergy or congregations that do not recognize the undertow or don’t think they are being pulled out to the sea of generic Christianity?
Orthodoxy v Orthopraxy
I would argue that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism(1) is one byproduct of generic Christianity that is centered in what I call “me and my Jesus” youth ministry. Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” offers the best glimpse of this kind of youth ministry, and Christian ministry in general, that is practiced throughout Christendom today. Christian education, from a Disciples of Christ perspective, must become vital again in our denomination through an investment of dollars, time, and human resources, if the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) seeks to remain an effective, alternative Christian witness to what passes as generic Christianity in the 21st century. Ethical deism must become a focus for a generation rather than “me and my Jesus” Christianity. Said another way, living and loving like Jesus must be more important than believing in the Christ of faith for salvation professed by creedal Christianity or generic Christian evangelicalism. If MTD is the best we can do in this century, then how does the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) teach the outcomes of being a “Micah 6:8 or Greatest Commandment or Golden Rule” people as the primary way of living as a follower of Jesus? Or is it that the faithful know what Jesus of Nazareth asks of his followers and we, myself included, are just not up to that challenge or that kind of kindom ministry anymore?
Note
(1) A term created by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton as a summation for their research in Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press, Inc. 2005). MTD has these five characteristics: 1) A God exists that created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth. 2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. 3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 4) God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he [sic] is needed to resolve a problem. 5) Good people go to heaven when they die.