Sustainable Faith: Defining the Term (1)
March 1, 2008
I’ve noticed that the term “sustainable faith” has been gaining significant traction over the last year, popping up in blogdom and emergent circles like ours, so I’d like to explore the phrase. It was bound to emerge given the growing concern about humankind’s footprint on this planet and the consequent interest in renewable energy and sustainable living.
But what do we mean when we use the phrase? I’m wondering if so far it’s partially, if not primarily, a critique of “big church” as it has been practiced (or imagined to be practiced) in evangelical circles: a churning, goal-driven, program-based, weekend-centered, top-down ideated, bottom-line attentive, corporate-glitzy, professional-feeling life, one in which those who minister are swept along in a powerful current that eventually leaves them depleted, exhausted, spent and spit up on the shore.
I’ve spent lots of time with people who live or have lived in that current. Take, for instance, this young person who was on the paid staff of a growing church: “I’ve had a few conversations with my pastor regarding rest, work, solitude and prayer, and how these simultaneously work together to [increase love for God and people]. I guess you can say we still don’t see eye to eye. I’m responsible for leading the worship team, training worship leaders, leading a home group, trying to grow a coffee shop, stumbling through VLI (a 2-year, practical/academic training program), and taking care of the entire administrative side of the church. I’d like to have a day off [Monday], but in order to obtain this, I should in his opinion be taking on more work [italics mine]. I’ve made it clear that, while I believe in the mission and method of the Alpha Course, I don’t have the time to do it and I am drawing my boundaries there; I simply won’t be filling up another night each week. We’ve also disagreed on this, as he believes it’s God’s intention that I do Alpha. So though he hears what I’m saying, [he] doesn’t think I’m willing to ’step up to the plate and swing the bat.’ “He was married at the time and, thankfully, still is. And I’m happy that he removed himself from that work.
Maybe you think I’ve used an egregious and atypical example, that I’ve set up a straw man. No, and the problem is more common than we’d like to admit. Much of my work over the last few years has put me in touch with these people, and I’ve known senior leaders who have expected their associates to put in at least 70 hours of work per week. But we know not only the trajectory of this course but it’s outcome as well, and it’s not a good one. You can sustain it — at great cost — in your 20s and 30s and maybe into your early 40s, but it doesn’t carry you through the second half of life, and maybe it’s not such a good idea to churn through the young and naive as if they were commodities.
So perhaps the emergence of the term “sustainable faith” is in part a reaction to a mode of ministry that’s difficult over a lifetime.
Comments
Got something to say?