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Does the Church Have a Future?

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What’s NEXT for Youth Ministry?

paper dolls

By John Vest

Over the past few years one of the most talked about religious news stories has been the so-called “rise of the nones.” According to surveys and studies, one fifth of the United States now claims no religious affiliation. It’s not necessarily the case that they aren’t spiritual or don’t believe in God, but our society is increasingly uninterested in participating in organized religious institutions. This is especially true among young Americans—a third of adults under 30 fit this category.

This trend is not exactly news for mainline Protestants who have been declining in membership for decades. But now that the decline narrative has reached evangelicals, the most vocal representatives of American Christianity are starting to take notice and talk about it. While much of the evangelical handwringing has to do with a perceived image problem—if we’d only seem less judgmental, homophobic, power hungry, and hypocritical young people would stop leaving—the mainline response still seems muted, apathetic, and resigned. We need more voices—like those in the NEXT Church conversation—interested in moving beyond denominational politics and institutional maintenance and committed instead to paying attention to what God is doing in the world and envisioning how we can be a part of it.

If there is anything worth preserving in the Christian witness of mainline Protestantism—and I believe that there is—then we need to be more proactive in our response to the rise of the nones. It seems to me that there are two basic strategies: 1) reform existing expressions of church in ways that captivate the imaginations and passions of young people and others who are leaving our churches for, well, nothing in particular; 2) work with the youth and young people we still have with the clear intention of long-term sustainability. While I have the opportunity to dabble in the first of these strategies (BBQ Church is my pet project in this regard), most of my time and energy is devoted to the second.

Long gone are the days of thinking about youth ministry as “passing on the faith” to emerging generations. The last thing we want to do is simply replicate among young people forms of church that are on the decline and are clearly not compelling for growing numbers of their peers. Instead, youth ministry in the church that is becoming is more about empowering young people to do the work of ecclesial reformation for themselves. It’s about helping them catch God’s vision of a missional church making a difference in the world and deploying their own passions and creativity to figure out what that looks like in the rapidly changing world they live in and are actively shaping. This is going to look different in each context and there are no one-size-fits-all ideas or models for 21st century post-Christendom youth ministry. But there is an important conversation to be had and perhaps some common themes and approaches to better understand and engage.

I’m excited to be a guest editor on the NEXT Church blog during the month of January, curating a conversation about what is next in youth ministry. I’ll share some of what I’m doing in Chicago and a new conversation about progressive youth ministry that I’m hosting this spring. But I’m most looking forward to assembling a diverse collection of voices from around the PC(USA) that will bear witness to our hopes and dreams for youth ministry that matters and makes a difference in the world we live in.


John VestJohn Vest is the Associate Pastor for Youth Ministry at Fourth Presbyterian Church and blogs at johnvest.com. He is completing a DMin thesis on post-Christendom confirmation at McCormick Theological Seminary. He lives with his wife and two young sons on the north side of Chicago and in his spare time dreams of one day achieving the mystical union of BBQ and church.

Accounting for Hope

Each month we ask a different person from the NEXT Church community to assemble a series of posts around a particular theme. This month, Lee Hinson-Hasty is curating a conversation around theological education. Have ideas or reflections to share? Offer your thoughts in comments, on our Facebook page, or contact us here.

By Edwin David Aponte

Slide1When I told someone that I was asked to reflect on the future of theological education, I was asked, “Is there a future for theological education?” That is a reasonable question given that theological education in the United States is at a crossroads of relevancy and effectiveness to church and society. We are in a time of major cultural changes, demographic shifts, and competing visions.

Most theological education can be traced back to a model from the early 19th century and the short-lived cultural ascendancy of the historic Protestant mainline denominations of the 1950s and early 1960s. But huge social and cultural changes have taken place in which many Americans do not identify with any religion, let alone 1950s Protestantism. The Pew Research Center reports that one-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated, including more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as the so-called “Nones” roughly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation. Younger people who had some connection to church are leaving in droves, concurrent with generations who never had the experience of any faith community. But this doesn’t mean that there is a decline of spirituality as many in these same groups work for the common good drawing on their own concepts of spirituality and meaning.

In addition to shifts in spirituality and social involvement there are new models and experiences of learning. Computers and tablets are used in many schools. Prominent universities are experimenting with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offering free unlimited worldwide participation in the same course via lectures, videos, and interactive forums. Other types of online distance learning are common as people earn degrees or selectively choose from a buffet of short-term opportunities via the Internet.

People are exploring new ways to be church, whether it is called emergent, or missional, a combination, or something different all together. Various types of social media show that vibrant virtual communities are possible. There are worldwide congregations whose life is mostly online as they push the boundaries of time and place. Other congregations are intentionally multicultural across racial, ethnic, and class lines, something still rare in the United States. Increasingly it is recognized that the locus of Christianity shifts from the “West” to places like South America, Africa, and East Asia.

Some seminaries are only just beginning to get caught up with the digital revolution. Certain seminaries are accused of preparing graduates for a church and society of the past. Add to these challenges that many seminaries enrollments have declined since the 1990s, while budget deficits grow. In such a context what is the mission and vision of theological education? One passage of Scripture that helps my thinking is 1 Peter 3:15, “make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you” (NRSV).  One mission of theological education for the present and the future is to help people called to ministry to articulate Christian hope for these times and places. Excellent seminaries of the future will need to embrace what always has been true, namely that people pursue theological education for a variety of reasons. Some come to theological education with hope well defined, and yet are still “surprised by joy” through deeper understandings of that hope. Others come as searcher and discover reasons for hope, meaning, and undreamt of avenues for service. Some are called to congregational ministry, but seminaries should acknowledge what God has affirmed that the church and the world also need excellent counselors, teachers, and those called to specialized ministries.

Future theological education will embrace gifts of time, space, and community to consider the hope of what we have experienced of God in Christ. Theological education can explore how that hope impacts our society and our life together as we realize we should work toward the common good. At our best in theological education we engage the traditions, but in ways that are relevant for this moment in time, as we deepen our emphasis on ministry and the formation of leaders who develop the contextual capacity to respond to shifting situations.  As theological education produces excellent leaders for contextual ministry, seminaries will be more nimble, offering education in a multiple formats and not just for those pursuing degrees.  Seminaries will be engaged in ongoing dialogue with the communities and contexts they serve.


Aponte-2012.jpgEdwin David Aponte is Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of the Faculty, and Professor of Christianity and Culture at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN. He is a member of Whitewater Valley Presbytery and earned the PhD in religion and culture from Temple University. Aponte’s most recent book is ¡Santo! Varieties of Latino/a Spirituality (Orbis Books 2012). edaponte@cts.edu

No Buts…

conjunction junctionBy Kim Losee Justice

I’ve said it thousands of times: The church’s favorite word is “But.” (Yes, with a capital “B.”) “But we don’t have the money.” “But it’s risky.” “But I’m not sure that’s really related to our mission.” “But we don’t have enough volunteers.” Or, my personal favorite: “But we’ve never done it that way before.” It seems there’s always a gigantic but in every conversation.

Yet, until recently, I didn’t know that my favorite word is also But. I would’ve sworn it was something much more positive and affirming, much more forward thinking. And I would’ve happily continued in my ignorance had it not been for a gifted outside-the-box thinker, an unapologetic “none.” He gives me  wonderful ideas about the church, and all I can do is stammer that word. “But, polity says I can’t do that.” “But the session won’t approve it.” “But that’s not my job as pastor.” “But I’ll make people mad.”

How is it that three letters have become so powerful in not only the life of the church, but also in the life of one who longs for and believes in what’s NEXT? But is, at best, a word with its feet in the past. But does not know how to dream of a future or imagine possibilities. All “But” knows is limitation.

A few weeks ago, the lectionary stepped on my toes. Peter was all “Nuhuh, not me, Lord. I’d never touch anything that was unclean.” And the Lord easily countered that Peter didn’t get the deciding vote on what was clean and unclean. I’d never heard the story this way before, but suddenly I realized that maybe the church still shouts “unclean” not just at people, but at ideas. We decide that something is “unclean” if we don’t have all the answers or if it requires too much stepping out in faith. It’s unclean if its a little bit radical or if it necessitates the use of scarce and precious resources. The thing that really grabbed ahold of me in that passage was Peter’s rhetorical question as he’s trying to defend himself: “Who am I to hinder the Lord?”

What else could “But” ever be except a hindrance to the Lord? Jeremiah said it: “But I’m too young.” Moses said it: “But I stutter and I killed a guy.” Sarah said it: “But I’m too old.” Mary said it: “But I took the ‘stay away from boys’ lecture to heart!” Somehow, the Lord transformed “But” into something more. The Lord gave them three new letters — Y.E.S.

I want new letters too. If I want them, though, I recognize I’m going to have to give up my old ones. Whether the church always knows it or not, it too is longing to embrace something other than “But.” The church yearns for new language that gives it promises to cling to. The church is praying for the courage to be able to say yes and needs leaders who will help them try out the word.

If I’m going to be that leader, then I’m going to have to go on a “But” diet. (Which might just be harder that the butt diet I’ve been on the last few months.) I will no longer start sentences with “But.” I will not let “But” be a defining part of who I am or what I’m doing as a pastor. I will lovingly challenge my congregation to fast their “Buts” off too.

Maybe that’s at the heart of NEXT: a community of people who face boldly into an uncertain future, not because we are any braver than the rest, but because we have embraced a different word. Our word also only has three letters, and they seem to be even more powerful than snarly and limited “But.” Our word is yes. Conveniently enough, the God who calls us to be reformed according to the Word specializes in transforming “But” into YES!


Kim Justice is the pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Franklin, NC, where she’s been since last September.  She’s a graduate of Columbia Seminary and of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.  When she’s not wearing her pastor hat, she writes and take pictures and knits and quilts and tries to pretend she enjoys time at the gym.  She’s a mom to four furry children: 2 dogs and 2 cats. She blogs at thepudgyparson.blogspot.com and at stillgoingtograceland.blogspot.com