I Don't Even Know What to Call This...

We are attending the 2011 Montreat Youth Conference, week V.  It's a youth conference.  Like any good Presbyterians, youth like their conferences done basically the same way.  Let's not get too far from our comfort zone...we like to know what to expect, at least in the big things.

The keynoter, David Ealy, has begun each day with an interesting exercise.  Every day, a word.  Every day, a request for definition.  This is not a rhetorical request.  Walk up and down the aisle.  Stick the mike in people's faces.  Ask for the definition.

And the daily words are significant, foundational to our faith.  These words represent cornerstones of who God is and who we are in relationship to God.  Incarnation.  Temptation.  Discernment.  Community.  Salvation.  The words beg the question of whether or not we can even be disciples of Jesus if we don't understand or can't define them.  (Note, I said "disciples," not children of God.  All people are children of God, regardless of what we understand.  God creates, loves, and works to redeem us all whether we are aware of it or not.)

But we are called out...into the body of Christ.  We are set apart to work for God in the world.  We are God's people charged with making disciples, sharing the good news of the Gospel, living as Jesus taught--in ways that reveal to the world who God is.

We choose, are called, to spend a week away from our jobs, our friends, our school, our families growing our discipleship...and when asked by David to define these words...We. literally. don't. know.

Most kids asked could find some understanding of temptation and community.  Not surprising given the importance of peers to adolescents and the importance of friends to adults.  But Incarnation yielded--silence...I don't know...a flower (in-carnation).  Temptation...doing something we shouldn't.  Discernment...not a clue.  Salvation...being saved by God.  OK, that's partly true.  But when we can't even understand salvation well enough to define it without circling around to the original word, how are we going to share the good news of God's saving work in the world.

We have failed to teach our children.  Perhaps, someone has failed to teach us.  Is that an explanation? an excuse?  Is the decline of interest in church membership due to something far more significant and far more frightening than disagreements over contemporary/traditional worship or whether we wear shorts or suits and ties to worship?  Might it be that we just don't know why we are there?  A nebulous "feeling" that we ought to be there...or an undefinable "good feeling" is not compelling to those who are not in the church...and only slightly more compelling to many in the church.

Our faith is a practice, a way of life...not fire insurance.  Our call is to obey God and help save the world...redeem it from selfishness, greed, hatred, loneliness, isolation, injustice...not insure it believes some correct doctrine that will earn streets of gold and a nice crown.

After the first day, the first question, "What is the incarnation?"  I kept saying to my youth...please tell me you know what the incarnation is.  Please.  Surely you know.  (They do now...)

I don't know where we go from here.  I don't even know what to call this.  I know I am going to be more deliberate about knowing and teaching clear, repeatable definitions--hopefully to folks who see a need to learn and speak those definitions to others.  So, for your edification:

• Incarnation: God in the flesh.  God comes to be with us, so we can see, feel, touch, hear, know what/who God really is in Jesus and what kind of life God expects us to lead.
• Temptation: the desire to do something...Ealy says we can be tempted to do good or bad.  I'm thinking about that one.
• Discernment: consideration of action...specifically, for disciples, a practice of prayer, study, conversation with other disciples, and trial actions to figure out what God wants us to do.
• Community: people in relationship with each other.  The disciples' community has a particular character that includes everyone and practices unconditional love and radical egalitarianism while serving God.
• Salvation:  God's work on our behalf to restore our relationships with God and with each other.  Shirley Guthrie suggests that when we are "saved" it is our recognition of God's work.  God's work happens with our knowledge or without.  

Learn one.  Practice one.  Teach one.  I feel sure God's church will continue with or without Americans, but what a significant part we could play in discipling the world with the resources God has provided us.    I'm going to be ready for that definition microphone.  Are you?