I spent my morning putting Shadow Rock back together again. Well, not literally or completely, but I did take the confirmation class's work on current events down from one bulletin board and moved it (with some editing) to another bulletin board. And I took our Technology of Participation sticky wall from the Chapel where it was used yesterday for an adult education workshop and took it back to the sanctuary where it is serving to highlight our community conversation about the hardest questions of a life of faith. As I was moving and carrying, I snapped some pictures of this work. This got me thinking about our community culture.
But let me back up first, and tell you about that stuff from the first paragraph.
In October, our senior pastor is delivering a sermon series called The Hardest Questions. The theme and logo are cribbed from a sparkhouse website that has some interesting short articles on the weekly lectionary reading, but we are using the sticky walls and some response cards to encourage folks in the pews to ponder their unanswerable queries. There's a meditation time in the worship service during which people can write a new question for the wall, respond to others' questions, or group the existing questions into themed clusters. Interactive services are really interesting to me. How can we design an hour long worship experience in which people are engaged? How can people in the pews get involved in the experience, rather than just observing or receiving? And, even more importantly, when a congregation is accustomed to interactive worship and the expectation of response and feedback before, during, and after a service... does this culture of participation spill over into other aspects of community life?
We could also think about the opposite corollary - have you ever been involved in a church or organiation and felt that you were mostly a spectator, that your presence and memberhip were window dressing for someone else's agenda?
Last night, for our confirmation gathering, I brought a copy of the New York Times and the Arizona Republic. Our topic was 'The Times In Which We Live.' We cut out headlines and articles from both papers, deemed them positive or negative, then posted them on a large bulletin board sorted by geography. We then discussed the following:
- Are there more positive stories or negative stories? why is that?
- Why are there so many stories about the U.S.?
- What stories are important to us, but are not reported in the paper? For these topics, we added notes to the board in the relevant geographic area.
- How do we feel about what's going on in the world?
The students were aware of several issues of interest to them that didn't make the paper, such as the outcome of the Kony 2012 campaign and the issue of blood minerals in developing nations. Other additions (Penguins are sliding on the ice AS WE SPEAK!) were not as serious. They were very aware of the upcoming elections. Many of the kids come from politically active families, and while they generally reflected their families' points of view, they seemed aware of that. I am attempting to make confirmation an interactive event - and not just in a "hey kids love technology - let's add some of that" sort of way. I'm asking a similar question - how can we make faith formation something that children shape themselves? And when confirmation becomes participative, what can we expect from the next generation of church leaders? When kids' voices are heard and their gifts discerned and explored, are they more likely to stay involved as they get older?
The negative corollary is relevant here as well. What happens when a children's program or youth program just feeds kids the right answers? How do young people respond when they get the feeling that the adults in the room are just talking to themselves?
We can also talk about a culture of participation one circle wider. Shadow Rock is a spiritual incubator of sorts. We have several distinct multi-faith groups sharing our campus - a Reform temple, a New Thought church start, and independent catholic congregation, and others. In one sense, these groups are tenants. In another sense, they are co-conspirators: sharing a common vision for a world with more peace and justice. What might it mean to be more fully participative with these adjacent communities?
Participative programs make my Monday mornings busy, but they are worth the effort. What else in our faith communities could use a little shaking up, a little messyness, a little questioning? Where else in society can we find this kind of culture?