Kicking Tables

As my time at the APCE (Association of Presbyterian Christian Educators) 2016 conference is coming to a close, I'm reflecting on all of the wonderful knowledge I've gained, the excitement that has been stirred in me, and the love and pride I feel for my school (Union Presbyterian Seminary) and all of the educators surrounding me.

There's a lot I could say about all of the workshops I've attended and the people I've met, but I think the most important information I can share here are the top three lessons I've learned (these are going to be very brief synopses):

1. We need to start kicking over some tables

Rev. Otis Moss III is a fabulous preacher. I truly hope that everyone in their lifetime can hear a preacher like him. He is funny, engaging, passionate, and it is simply impossible for you not to believe in God when listening to him speak, because you know that he possesses a divine gift. But my point here, is that Moss preached about Matthew 21:12.    *Go read it in your Bible*    He explained how this short verse packed layers upon layers of socio-political and economic commentary into its words. People were being exploited. Jesus was mad. So mad that he "overturned the tables"! He said he had seen enough and sometimes the best way to make change is to literally turn the tables. We — in our present communities — need to stop being afraid of kicking over tables. We need to start recognizing when change needs to occur (in our churches and our societies) and ACT.

2. We need to re-engage the family

Dr. Rodger Nishioka spoke about the most definitive factor for young adults remaining committed followers of religion. This may come as no surprise to some, but it's family. Children who had parents or caregivers that demonstrated the importance of faith and frequently pray and/or read the Bible were more likely to stay connected with their own faith. If this is something you already knew, good job, but do you practice it with your own families? Do you help demonstrate how other families can keep faith active in their everyday lives? This is our job as educators and servants of the church. How effective will trying to foster faith in a child be if that child's parents do not continue the faith formation at home? Or perhaps they just don't know how to continue at home. Education needs to go beyond the Sunday School classroom. It needs to reach our families.

Bolstering this concept, I attended a workshop by Dr. Karen-Marie Yust (my CE advisor) on faith formation in young children. I will definitely not do her research and intelligence justice in this short space, but Yust explained how babies as young as three months of age will demonstrate morality. Their concepts of compassion, empathy, morality only grow as they age and their way of making sense of it all is through “trusted informants” — people the children trust to give them reliable information. We as parents and educators of young children should recognize their questions as complex reasoning and allow them to observe as well as ask to understand what they cannot see (God). Most shockingly, it was expressed that children do not learn to trust a pastor simply from hearing them speak during “children’s time” on Sunday mornings. The pastor would have to visit that child in Sunday school regularly, etc. to establish a truly trusting relationship with the child. So, not only do we need to re-think how we’re doing faith at home, but we need to extend that same mentality to our church staff and volunteers.

3. We need to stop checking our experience at the door

I am incredibly privileged to have access to Rev. Dr. John Vest. I've heard him speak three times at this conference and I took his Intro to Evangelism class at Union last semester and I can honestly say that I always learn something new when he speaks. During a presentation in front of the entire gathering os APCE, Vest urged us as Presbyterians to move beyond viewing God as an idea — a concept to be intelligently analyzed — and remind ourselves why we care about God in the first place.  How do we know God is real? Validate the experiences in your life that have formed your faith. And then evangelize! It works best if we can articulate our experiences. I originally come from a faith background that is highly concerned with relationships. I was constantly told that Jesus wants to talk with me and I should talk to Jesus like a friend. Moving into the Presbyterian church, I immediately got the sense that this kind of "emotional Jesus-talk" was not gonna fly. No one seemed to want to talk about their friendship with Jesus or the last time they felt God's presence. How we talk about God needs to change. And how we talk about CE needs to change too — our job isn't just to feed information, our job is to help form and direct spiritual growth within our youth.
Lillian Daniel —author and preacher — also gave a plenary on this topic. She compared church to high school and challenged us to face our fears. If we heard someone describe the hurt and challenges they faced in high school, the teachers that abused their students, and that they were offended by our choice to attend high school, wouldn't that sound a little crazy? (It's hard to paraphrase this whole analogy) Now, their feelings may be very valid and it's ok to empathize, but we as Christians have been hearing this about the church for too long without saying anything back. The loudest voices concerning Christianity are all one-sided. But that's no surprise, because the rest haven't tried to add their voices. It's no wonder people have a radical view of what "Christianity" looks like. We apologize for everyone else's negative experiences, we apologize for history in which we played no part. And we're afraid to share our good experiences for fear of offending someone else. There is good in the church and good in faith and we need to start speaking up.

So, I came across this collection of videos out together by a church called Vintage in Raleigh, NC. The series is definitely a few years old (I remember watching them when I was in middle school), but I still find them funny to this day, although for a different reason. They were originally created for use in a Sunday School class on the topic of Jesus. In the video descriptions on YouTube, Vintage Church says,

"This is a satirical look at what some people think Jesus is like. Thank goodness He's not."

When I first saw these videos I was not religious; I saw them as funny because they seemed to be making a mockery of Christianity. But seeing them again as a seminary student and understanding the purpose of the videos brings a new appreciation to them. In middle school, I found the videos funny, because this is what I truly thought of when I imagined Christianity. Today, I find them funny because it's so ridiculous and contrary to the "real" Jesus. But of course this is what some people think; this is what I thought! That number of "some people" who believe Jesus is this way is actually growing (or at least the number of people who truly care about the real message of Jesus is shrinking). I know that this depiction of Jesus is farce, but now, how can I use this to help explain who Jesus really is? How does this challenge me to stand up for who I know Jesus to be? And, most importantly, how do I know who Jesus is and his relevance in my life? How. How is experience.

I invite you to watch the compilation of all four videos below and share your thoughts in the comments! I hope it also makes you chuckle ;)

P.S. — Video #4 is also cool because it includes the scene where Jesus is turning over tables in the temple, which is what lesson 1 is about!