Spiritual Hiccups - Passing Down the Faith

A verse in Psalm 145 says to God, "One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts."  The psalmist seems to assume that those who have experienced God's grace and favor, who praise and worship God, will not be able to help sharing their enthusiasm for God with the next generation.  The psalmist clearly never met the modern, American Christian.

Anyone who has paid close attention to life in the Church has likely noticed large numbers of parents who are active in Church but whose children are absent.  I have heard some of these parents say that they think faith is a personal choice and they don't want to force it on their children.  And so I know of many children still in elementary school who decide for themselves whether or not to "go to church."

Now if this is starting to sound like the self-serving whining of a pastor who wants more children involved in church programing, that's not where I'm going with this.  I'm more interested in what this situation says about the faith of their parents.  Many of these same parents require their children to participate in sports and other "enrichment" activities.  They certainly require their children to attend school.  This would seem to suggest that these parents view education and enrichment activities as essential components to leading a productive, fulfilling life.  But Christian faith seems not to be so essential.

In her book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church, Kenda Dean notes that the vague, banal notions of Christianity uncovered in the "National Study of Youth and Religion" - something the study labeled "moralistic, therapeutic, deism" - were not invented by these young people.  They learned to be "almost Christian" in the Church.  They got their vague notions of faith from a Church that had watered down the faith over the years to the point that many parents understand it to be less important than youth soccer or piano lessons.

And I must confess that I both grew up in and - even as a pastor - too often still proclaim the message of this vague faith that has little to do with actual life, that matters less to real life than music lessons or Little League.  I have to admit that I've been quite comfortable with a faith that is not incarnated into daily living, that is no more than a set of beliefs and notions.  I have my own tendency to be "almost Christian," to believe but still be indistinguishable from the culture, with no discernible faith practices that embody the way of living Jesus taught.

A lot of Mainline Protestant congregations worry a lot about Christian Eduction programs for children.  We are forever trying out new curriculum and models for the Sunday School hour, as though 45 minutes a week on 2 or 3 Sundays a month for 9 months of the year is going to shape and form people into something other than almost Christians.  If anything, it seems that we adults are the ones who need to relearn what it means to be Christian.  Maybe then we would be able to sing with the psalmist about one generation lauding God's works to another.

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