What would the Christian church look like if they gave a student the grace and encouragement to explore? It would be during this time that they were forced to think of the role of Christian community, expressions of doubt, the need for the intersection of faith and life. While reading David Kinnaman’s profile of young adults in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church… and Rethinking Faith, I instantly thought of the period in Amish communities called Rumspringa.
In its simplest definition, Rumspringa is a period of exploration for Amish adolescents. On their sixteenth birthday, the adolescent is encouraged to enter the world to experiment and explore. The understanding, and hope, is that after a taste of modern culture, one will return to the Amish community. Although this time in the ‘modern’ world may be a trip to a mall or cable television, it can also be associated with sex, drugs and rebellion. It is a period in which the adolescent can doubt and explore. This is their opportunity to be in the world and discern if they are ready to re-enter the Amish faith. The decision is then theirs of whether they will return to the community and be baptized as a full member or continue to live in modern society. Discerning to stay in the modern world includes a complete disconnect to the Amish community, including their families.
Of course there is a disconnect to our mainstream Christian culture, but as I ready You Lost Me, Kinnaman’s descriptions of those who had left the church, I continued to think and associate this time with Rumspringa. Kinnaman describes the “dropouts” by three categories; Nomads, Prodigals and Exiles.
Nomads walk away from church engagement but still consider themselves Christians.
Prodigals lose their faith, describing themselves as “no longer Christian”
Exiles are still invested in their Christian faith but feel stuck (or lost) between the culture and the church.
All three of these groupings include a group of people that wondered or where lost in the Biblical narrative. Nomads, Prodigal and Exiles had the space to explore. They had their doubts. They had their periods of selfishness. And they had the space to embrace something different. Like Kinnaman, I agree that many of these characteristics are also occurring in the life of Mosaics.
It seems that Mosaics have created their own period of Rumspringa, yet many of them are not returning to the church like the culture once thought they would. The solution is not as simple as the church once thought. There must be the understanding and acceptance of this period of disconnect. What it has taught culture is that everyone as a story and a journey that is uniquely different. The disconnect will continue as generations continue to be disconnect with other generations in the congregation.
One of the six topics/issues that Kinnaman notes that the church must engage is relationships. The church needs to be ready to rethink what it means to be in relationship with one another. It is a modern idea to think of ministry in terms of age specific groups. Kinnaman wonders what it would look like if churches allowed themselves to make inter-generational relationships a priority. It will allow a connection between the past and the future.
Things that have traditionally attracted young people like religious programming, schools, stable family structures are not working; therefore, is there harm is trying to bridge the gap with inter-generational relationships.
The churches traditional mentor program may look like the following — young Confirmation age students receive a mentor as they begin the program. This mentor is typically an older member in the congregation that identities that they have a love of young people and are willing to accept this role. This relationship may continue, but traditionally ends at confirmation or high school graduation. Kinnaman suggests additional ways to look at these relationships. He wonders what it would like to have adolescents and teenagers mentoring those younger than themselves. Older generations should also be welcoming and inviting of the opportunity of being mentored by someone younger.
There has been numerous connections made between the life stages of Mosaics and recently retired individuals. Both sets of individuals are looking and wondering what comes next and have been faced with having to redefine their identity, as well as trying to define their new role in society. As I begin to wonder what this may look like, I instantly am drawn to the logistics, yet also allow myself to wonder with possibilities.
This seems like a natural way that the church can operate and should be operating. As I sit in one of my congregations on a Sunday morning, I see the divide amongst generations. The young adults seem to clump themselves together, just like those with young children, or large families. Yet as we gather to enter the worship space, in our modern narthex, there is not the space for the segregation I just noted. The complex nature of human relationships is upset as all people are forced to be next to one another, worshiping a God that allows for questions and doubts. As we proceed together as a community into the sanctuary, we again find ourselves segregated by that which we know.
Rumspringa gives an Amish sixteen-year-old the space to doubt, explore, wonder, dream in hopes to get it out of their system. They then are given a choice. Is the Christian church giving young people this space? They are. At a certain point in a student’s life they leave the church. The church allows for them to leave, even if this is not the congregations intention. The church lives in the understanding that their return will come, but that is no longer the reality. They don’t have the connection and community for the need to return. What is important to Mosaics does not always seem inline with the congregation.
The church may need to respond in a way that allows the period of Rumspringa to happen in the context of the congregation. The church must also understand that this is not a short period in Mosaic’s lives or any individual’s life. The hope is that the church may see more individual’s expressing thoughts like Steven Colbert by saying, “I’d be dumb not to reexamine this.”
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