Theology After Google

So I've been talking with friends and colleagues about the future of the church (that sounds ominous and heavy and dark, but hey - asking tough questions makes life worth living!) and there is a theme that keeps coming up in about five different projects/ongoing conversations/jobs I am involved in. It is the theme that young adults are not interested in traditional pulpit ministry. That is NOT to say that young adults do not feel called to leadership roles and ordination within mainline denominations, nor is it to say that young adults are not interested in serving the church and/or serving within a church. But there little or no interest to simply slip into the role or job that existed before without making any changes.

I'm not talking about simple updates of how we lead within our local churches - I am talking about an awareness of what it means to be church - and what we need in our leaders who want to move the church forward.

Read this article. It is long, and substantial, and relevant, and worth reflecting upon: 
Theology and Church After Google | The Progressive Christian. 

And don't get hung up on the word "progressive." If you don't self-identify as liberal or progressive, don't simply dismiss this article as irrelevant to you and your ministry. This article is about the relevance of the church and how we are recruiting and developing leaders for work in the church and in the world. This article is about how we think about theology, discuss theology, and do theological reflection in the world.

A block quote...for illumination:

To pursue “theology after Google” does not mean to gleefully destroy all traditional Christian beliefs, to abandon the church, or to advocate a post-Christian worldview. On the contrary, it does, however, mean entering in good conscience into a new kind of open and exploratory discourse—a discourse in which one’s conversation partners are not committed in advance to landing where past theologians have landed. Many of them do end up with a vibrant Christian identity, but that’s no longer a pre-condition for theological dialogue. Theology after Google means navigating the treacherous waters of contemporary culture, religion, science, and philosophy—without knowing in advance that the harbor in which one finally drops anchor will be the same theological port from which the ships of old set sail. For those of us who live, work, and think in a Google-shaped world, such certainties about the outcome of the adventure are just not to be had in advance.

There. Thoughts?

On an unrelated note, this weekend includes presiding over a wedding (hooray! I love weddings!). Monday kicks off three solid weeks of major travel for several different projects and service for the school...and an admissions deadline. A bit apprehensive, but it should be a blast. An exhausting, whirlwind, life-affirming blast.

Update: another conversation about the same article, and what it means to think about vocation.

College Students and Vocation

We were in class listening to Dean Lombardi (Twitter) share about his experiences as the Dean of Students. In response to a student question, he started to share about what a typical day would look like. It doesn't sound like there is a typical day...but what sucked me in is some of the stories he shared about individual students and the things they are struggling with as they are working on getting an education.

It brings to mind the fact that being an 18 to 22 year old college student is hard. It's an age when you have a lot of responsibility (whether you are in a college setting or not), and this is the season of one's life when challenges from childhood and adolescence just really can come to a head. He shared about students that are working very, very hard to stay sober. Young adults who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and/or assault, and are dealing with the ramifications now. College students who are caught in a culture that glorifies pulling all-nighters, whether it is to study or to party, and high achievers with the general challenges of academic work while worrying about their prospects for the future.

There is a great article from Inside Higher Ed called The Myth of the College as a Fairy Tale - it is worth a read. The article pushes back against the view that college students have a life isolated from trial and tribulation:

Young Americans don’t go to college to avoid work. They work hard in college so they have a shot at earning a modestly rewarding living...The students I teach are professional jugglers who make a Cirque du Soleil show look like a barn dance. Among them they’re balancing academic course loads, community service, part-time or even full-time jobs, loan debt, athletic training and competition, transient housing situations, along with some of life’s other gems like a sick parent, a sibling in Afghanistan, or an unplanned pregnancy.

Yes, being a traditional age college student implies access to a lot of privilege (did you know only about 27% of Americans have a college degree, and the traditional, straight-out-of-high-school, residential college student is just one model of who may be sitting in a classroom or on a computer). But within the life of a college student, there is a lot of anxiety:

• How is my academic performance?
• Will financial aid and/or scholarships keep working out so I can keep attending?
• Am in in the right program? The right school?
• What should I do with my life?
• What is going on with my family right now? 
• How do I handle all of this transition?
• What are my job prospects?
• I'm an Engineering/Accounting/English major, but what I *really* want to do is...

I think these topics hit home because a lot of the people I know tend to care deeply about young adults, and oftentimes those young adults are in college settings. There is so much free-floating stuff floating around in their lives, and oftentimes the best way we can help care for them is to be present with them, and to offer services and reflection on how to make meaning out of their experiences, while supporting them as they move into an authentic expression of self that is integrated with vocation and professional and academic identity. It is a counter cultural view, and one that is embraced by campus ministry, student services staff, and those who work directly with these young adults.