Validation of the Shema Initiatve

When I spoke to Dr. Dave Rahn, professor of youth ministry at Huntington University and staff member at the national Youth for Christ office he told me that in a ministry setting true quantitative research is not possible and that we have to focus on the qualitative.  So here is some qualitative evidence of the effectiveness of this Shema approach.  In my last post I mentioned a parent concerned about their sixth grade child.  This parent admitted that in spite of their spouses and their involvement in teaching Sunday school, no intentional action was taking place in their home for the purpose of faith formation and Christian education.  Armed with some new tools and some new motivation these parents committed themselves to making faith formation a daily focus in their home making Lenten commitments as a family and studying the gospel of John together.  In a few short weeks this parent has already seen the clear effects stating “I can definitely feel the power of the Holy Spirit in our home”. 

Consider it this way.  A sixth grade student at our church has the opportunity to attend church year round (52 hours) and Sunday school and middle school youth group during the school year (40 hours each).  That means that with %100 participation, which won’t happen, the church has 132 hours a year with a student.  If parents are intentional they can more than double that time formally, not to mention the countless informal hours a parent has to live out the good news for their children.  I’m biased, but I think it’s pretty clear how this Deuteronomy 6 way of thinking will radically improve that chances of a child becoming a lifelong follower of Jesus Christ.   Let’s be honest, I think it will have a profound effect on the discipleship of parents as well.

Explaining The Shema Initiative

⁴ "Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵ And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.⁶ And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.⁷ Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Deut 6:4-7 (NLT)

I had a phone conversation with a parent from my church a couple of weeks ago. This parent had some concerns about their soon to be teenage child. During this conversation I learned that though this parent, and their spouse are actively involved in our church's children's ministries, little or nothing is being done in their home throughout the week to reinforce their family's walk with God. I can't help but think that this fact plays some role in the struggles they are having with their child. I also think that many Christian families might tell a similar story if asked.

This individual case highlights a broader discovery from the National Study of Youth and Religion (http://youthandreligion.org/) as highlighted by Dr. Kendra Creasy Dean in her book Almost Christian and her presentation at the 2011 National Youth Workers Convention. According to these studies, to over simplify, youth (at least for the time being) are generally excepting the religious beliefs of their parents. While this is encouraging it presents a problem. The faith that these children are accepting is more of a consumerist, self-help, pseudo-Christianity as opposed to the discipleship that Jesus called his followers to. So, what is a possible answer to this quandary? While Dr. Dean points to an approach to Christian Education that places mission or purpose at its core, I propose a different Christian Education starting point, education to parents.
The above bible passage (the Shema) has long been a credo for advocates of family-centered ministry. The idea behind this movement is that the church should be equipping parents to be the number one spiritual influence in their children's lives. Though this movement was started decades ago, I see little evidence of its impact on families and churches today. So the question arises, how does this ministry idea become a fact of life in the church and among Christian families? How can I better equip parents to be the spiritual heads in their home?

I am convinced that the answer to this question brings the solutions to many of the youth and children's ministry problems plaguing the church today. I do not think the lack of success in this area is caused by a lack of resources (two words…Sticky Faith). I think, rather, that the church needs to do more to engage parents in the faith formation of their child(ren). Apparently offering the occasional parenting class in church is not going to draw parents in. But why are parents so disengaged? Is it because they don't care? I think the answer is more likely that they are scared. They are scared for the same reasons why youth directors are scared to do relational ministry. It's risky; it requires them to be vulnerable. I think that parents relize that their children's faith is "off the mark" because their own faith is. Perhaps parents feel that they need to be the household pastor, theologian and biblical scholar if they are going to be a part of their child's faith development. Perhaps parents feel inadequate.

Just as a good youth worker would assure both her youth group and her volunteers that they don't have to have all the answers to follow Jesus, and to impact others, so too does a good "minister to families" assure parents that they do not have to have all the answers. I think we need to reframe it this way; to be engaged in a child's faith development a parent must simply decide to begin their own faith journey and decide to take their children with them. This is what the Shema Initiative is all about. This is my passion…this is my obsession…this is my calling! I hope that eventually others involved in church ministry will also feel that call.

Feb 5, 2012 Sermon outline

Becoming the Church God Called Us to Be

Acts 2:42-47

1^st Reading: Colossians 3:12-14 (NLT)

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¹² Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.¹³ Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.¹⁴ Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

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2^nd Reading: Acts 2:42-47 (NLT)

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⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity —⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

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Consuming the Church...

I am seeing more and more that individuals are approaching church from a consumerist perspective.  I hear phrases like “What I need from a Church...” and “When I was Church shopping...”  Now I have heard this phrase from some amazing people.  People devoted to service and to this church.  They just don’t realize what they are doing...comparing God’s church to a pair of jeans.  Even the last few Sundays’ attendance speaks to this idea.  Pastor has been on vacation so many congregants have opted to miss church.  So then, worship is about hearing a phenomenal message from the pastor, instead of a mediocre message from that other person.  Is this what it means to be part of a Church?  Is it nothing more than a support group, or glorified country club? 

It’s my belief that these conceptions are, in reality misconceptions.  I believe that God expects something more from and for His Church and today’s scripture lesson supports that belief. 

The Church of Acts

Today’s scripture lesson is packed full with functions of the first Christian Church, but is being an ACTS 2 church as straight forward as that?  After all, many if not most American churches mimic much or all of the church functions described in this passage.  But let’s take a closer look.

Acts 2:42

·       It was a Learning Church: Christian Education – Apostles Teaching

·       It was a Church of Fellowship

·       It was a Church that broke bread together, Sharing of Meals and the Lord’s Supper

·       It was a Church of Prayer

Acts 2:43-

·       It was a reverent Church; they had a since of Awe over what God was doing. 

·       It was a Church where things happened; they witnessed miraculous signs and wonders performed by the Apostles.  Ya know, Jesus indicated on multiple occasions during his ministry on earth that the miracles he performed were due in part to the faith of the recipient.  I wonder if we could see signs and wonders today if we had more faith, and a since of Awe over what God is doing and has already done.  I wonder if we have already seen signs and wonders and have not even recognized them because we were too busy, or too quick to explain them away.

Acts 2:44&45 –

·       It was a Sharing Church.  Those who had access shared with those who were struggling to provide for themselves.  I have witnessed this and it is such an amazing thing to see

Acts 2:46 -

·       It was a worshiping Church

·       It was a happy Church

Acts 2:47-

·       It was a church of people whom others could not help liking. It is clear that the Church was visible, that those who were not a part of the church were aware of and even impacted by what the Church did.

·       The Result: The Lord worked through what the Church was doing to add new believers every day. 

It’s natural when we look at the first Christian Church to hone in on the regular public practices of the Church but in doing so we miss a lot about what this passage has to say about the Church.  As I alluded to before, there are many churches that are doing these regular public practices without the miraculous results.

For this reason, I want to begin with the result of what the Church was doing; The Lord was adding new believers daily! 

Why and how was the Lord adding to their numbers daily?

Was it because of the functions of the church?

Was it because it was learning, praying church of fellowship that broke bread together?  Was it because it was a reverent, sharing, worshiping church?

Certainly all these reasons were in part why God was moving in such a powerful way through this church but they don’t seem to guarantee the miraculous results.  There was something more going on than that.  So, I am going to focus in on one of the characteristics of the church of Acts that was not a function of the church and I believe the one characteristic that gets the least attention.  This church was a church of people whom others liked and were drawn to. 

What does that mean?  What does that look like?  Well I think it was a church of people that could not go unnoticed by the community around them because of their positive uniqueness.  It was a group of people who were living examples of the good news of Christ. 

Now we need to pause here a second, there are plenty of churches today who cannot go unnoticed, but for all the wrong reasons, right? As a result these churches are not liked, and sometimes even detested by those looking into their community from the outside.  It’s sad isn’t it, when the gospel is reduced to a scare tactic or a message of hate. 

But that is clearly not what is going on here.  Rather, living the gospel means that this group of people and the church they made up were so radically different from the culture’s status quo that the people outside of the movement couldn’t  help but notice what was going on and be drawn to it.    

There are several examples in the history of the Christian church of followers who fit this description:

Celtic Missionaries

One such group was missionaries led by St. Patrick who brought the gospel of Christ to the Celtic world in the 5^th Century A.D.  These missionaries created communities similar to monastic communities, that is communities of Christian monks.  The difference was that these communities were not for the primary purpose of deepening ones spiritual disciplines, like the communities of monks, but rather were for the primary purpose of evangelism.  These communities were formed within a village rather than in some secluded place and were constantly welcoming the surrounding village to come and witness what was going on.  The community was visible and available to the village thus making the gospel real to them.  

Wesley’s Societies

For those who have studied John Wesley and his societies you might be thinking that there are some similarities between the Celtic evangelists’ communities and Wesley’s societies, and you’d be right.  To be sure, Wesley had high demands on those who were part of his societies, but there were no initial restrictions or exclusions for those who wanted to experience and join the societies. 

Wesley was so convinced of the transforming power of experiencing the societies that he even went to far as to offer communion to non-Christians.  Wesley believed that the act of communion would be evangelistic within the setting of the societies.

The Point

It is clear from these examples that the Gospel of Jesus is spread when His church immerses itself in the unbelieving world not to assimilate but to create a sub-culture.  The Church and its congregants are called to be a counter-cultural beacon amidst the surrounding culture beckoning the world around to come and experience something different.  The Church is called to be a living example of the Good News to the community around it. 

If Christ’s church and His followers are engaged with the world around them seeking to show the community something completely different, to show them the Love of God and His good news, then the people of the world can’t help but be drawn to the church and its way of life

When I was thinking about this reflection and its concept several months ago my lovely wife said to me “that’s great Chad, but what does THAT look like?”  So, what does that look like in 2012 in Rockford Michigan? 

I think I have an idea what it looks like, because I’ve seen several examples of it in resent months.  I think it looks like a freshman girl, who upon learning that separation of church and state does not mean that she is unable to pray and talk about God at school, started a prayer group and bible study that takes place before school once a week at the freshman center. 

I think maybe It looks like a college student who decided to share the hope God had given him during the worse year of his life on YouTube sharing the good news of Christ in a very real way to literally thousands upon thousands of young people.  To date that video has been viewed more than 1.2 million times and has about 11,000 comments about it, not taking into account additional comments referring to it on other social media sites, like facebook, which undoubtedly must number in the thousands.   Amazing!

Perhaps it looks like a family from this church who brings the children of their neighbors or family friends to church activities with the hopes that eventually the entire family will accept the good news of Christ and become a part of this church family.

Now, I’m going to switch gears for a second here.  Let me tell you something that I am very proud of.   Did you know that our church has a vision committee?  Well RUMC’s vision committee has realized that there are thousands of people in need of Christ’s good news within walking distance of this Church, this building.

The vision committee is asking, no, they are demanding that this church begin to do something to reach those people.  They are requiring this church to do what it takes to reach the outside world and add them to our number daily.

So again, how do we do that?  Well, this Acts 2 vision has to start with each of us as individuals.   We must begin to see the lost people of this community as God does. 

This church as individuals and as a collective body must decide that they will engage with the world, not to be like it, but to draw it to us by being something completely different.  We must be the revelation of God and his good news the way the church of Acts was, and the way Christ was during his ministry on earth.  We must call these individuals to a new way of life!  We must show them God’s love.  Did you catch that?  The church is called to be the revelation of God to this world the way Christ was when he was on earth…Wow!  That's heavy!

How?  Well, what if a couple of congregants from this church who lived in the same neighborhood decided that they were going to show a fellow neighbor the unconditional love of God in concrete ways.  Do you think that would get their attention?  What if students from RUMC’s youth ministries decided together that they would befriend a peer who has been labeled as an outcast and invite them to youth events?  Do you think that teenager might consider becoming a part of this church?  I’ve got more ideas, but I think you are starting to get the picture. 

I can tell you what it doesn’t look like; it doesn’t look like a group of people sitting idly by waiting for someone else to do it.  So will you make the decision today, as congregants of Rockford United Methodist Church, to become an active part of a body of Christ that impacts this world in a way that can’t be ignored and can’t be looked at any other way than favorably?  Are you willing to do what it takes to draw the lost into our fold on a daily basis? 

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