What’s Wrong with Men?

Posted on May 9, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

Clearly something is wrong with men.

Clue #1: In some areas of Muslim culture men have come to understand themselves as so susceptible to the evils of lust that women must be so covered up that they are indistinguishable from moving piles of cloth. While many traditions – including my own – value modesty, some of these folks are clearly scared to death of women.

Clue #2: Well, they’re not scared of all women – only women who are not their own. When women are in their homes with the men to whom they belong, they are not required to be as completely draped.

Clue #3: Men in multiple cultures feel the need to be in charge, simply because they are men. If they’re not in charge they drop out. I see this in some segments of American Christian culture. There are several ways people approach the “man problem:”

  • Men are the only ones qualified to lead in church. Period. Jesus only chose male disciples. Masculine language is used to describe church leaders. Women are supposed to be silent in churches, and not supposed to exercise authority over men.
  • Ditto #1, except we have to make an exception since so many men have not responded to the call. Because the men are delinquent and disobedient, women have to step in and do the work “unnaturally.”
  • While men make up the greatest number of leaders mentioned in the New Testament, women have prominent roles as well. Junia (at least) is numbered among the apostles. Mary Magdalene is commissioned as the first witness of the resurrection (totally scandalous for their culture). Priscilla looks like the lead partner in the ministry team with husband Aquilla. At the least, she seems to be the main speaker and teacher.

Some men seem uncomfortable with this third option. If they find themselves under a woman, they feel like they need to quit and go home. While some of this is likely due to a cultural assignment of particular practices and modes of operating on a gender basis and a subsequent devaluation of practices and modes associated with men, I don’t think this is a fully adequate explanation.

So what do I suggest as a “fully adequate explanation?” I don’t have one. I’d guess that it has something to do with the way power (real and perceived) warps our relationships, both in our families and our churches. We need to feel like we’re in charge (even if we’re not). Jesus (who not only happened to be a human, but also a male human) is Lord of all. Even as he walked the earth, he was Lord. But he didn’t exercise that Lordship as domination. In Mark 10, he taught his followers to reject the domination model of leading/relating in favor of a servant/sacrificial model. Note that he did not reject the dominating model as a masculine (or feminine) model, but as a worldly model.

So we have a choice. When we find ourselves under leaders with whom we have differences, what will we do? Will we play the servant role like Jesus – remembering that he played the role neither as a doormat or mindless stooge? Or will we be like an Ahab – going off to sulk on our beds, angry and sullen because we don’t get our way? Or will we instigate a revolution, seeking to make an imprint of our (correct) personality on our world? I’d like to try Jesus’ way.

Update: Scot McKnight has a good most on the subject over at Jesus Creed.

Posted in Current events, Leadership, Spirituality, Theology | 3 Comments

Grace for Preachers & Leaders

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

Living in the boonies as I do, I frequently have to drive an hour or more to visit people in the hospital. Often I take the time to use my mp3 player. As I drove to Tyler today, Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle was up.  His message on Nehemiah 6 dealt with Diversion, Deception and Discouragement. Since he’s preaching through Nehemiah, such a message was to be expected. It sounded like he was living it himself.

Mark told of the huge amount of criticism he’s been getting throughout the years. Just recently he’s gotten  in trouble for talking exclusively of men in ministry. He feels like a ton of bricks has been dropped on his head for his position. He’s also heard that a whole denomination is investigating him – though he is not part of it or any other denomination.

When it comes to women in ministry, I think that’s one of the things my United Methodist Church has read the bible correctly on. When Mark makes comments reflected male only leadership in the church it stands out like a sore thumb to me. But I still listen to Mark Driscoll, find most of his stuff of value, pray for  him, and thank God for putting him and his church on the front lines there in Seattle.  (Listen to him, I think you’ll him.)
If I only listened to people with whom I agree 100% I wouldn’t listen to much of anyone. I know that if 100% agreement – or being right on everything – were the criteria, no one would be listening to me. While discernment may be a lost art, it is essential for Christians, whether in leadership or not. We must be able to measure what we hear by the Bible (I even heard Mark Driscoll say that very thing today). I want my people measuring what I say by the bible. Now if they don’t read their bibles for themselves, or listen only to me, or don’t bring their bibles to church with them, that’ll be kind of difficult.

Pray for us preachers and church leaders. We’re out there trying to obey God. While we hopefully get it right more often than not, chances are pretty good we’ll get at least some things wrong. When you see us face to face, offer us some grace. We need it.

Posted in Current events, Leadership, Spirituality, Theology, United Methodism | 1 Comment

Anxiety and Care

Posted on May 2, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

One of the books I’m reading now is M. Robert Mulholland’s Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation. It’s an excellent little book. On page 86-87, in the midst of his discussion of the peace and rejoicing Paul teaches (and exemplifies) in Philippians 4, he say:

“Care arises when we are driven by the need to order and control our own lives. In a world where such order and control are partial at best, anxious care can become a consuming passion that misshapes all relationships, all events and all activities of one’s life. When this happens, anxiety-driven persons tend to become manipulative and dehmanizing in their relationships with others. Others must conform to their pathological attempts to order the world and maintain control of their lives. Anxiety-driven persons are also compelled to impose their own order upon the events of their lives. Layer upon layer of defenses and securities are constructed to keep the unpredictable and unexpected from intruding into their carefully ordered world.”

“Such persons cannot be the persons God intends them to be. They are imprisoned by the need to maintain control of their existence. Such persons cannot be God’s persons for others. They are captive to the need to protect themselves against others and manipulate others for their own purposes. Such persons cannot be agents of God’s grace to a broken and hurting world. They ar ein bondage to the need to impose their order upon the world.”

“The most tragic aspect of this carefuly constructed matrix of relationships and activities is that it also insulated one from God. In fact, in such lives God most often becomes one more element in the attempt to coerce the world to conform to protective patterns. God becomes not only the defender of the status quo but also, and usually, its reputed author. Anyone or anything that threatens the fragile order and control of life is obviously an enemy of God.”

This struck me as not only relevant to our lives as Christians, but also to relations between America and Islamic countries.  Pressed by the forces of modernization and westernization, some Muslims have become insecure. Lacking security in themselves they are trying to impose that security, using God as a big stick to control their world, whether through imposition of stricter versions of Sharia law, or through conquest of new territories and subjugation of infidels. Being insecure is bad. Being insecure and having weapons, money, and the willingness to use them is dangerous.

But the US isn’t acting much (if any) more secure than some of these folks in the Muslim world. we’re dead set against knowing ourselves, against having a stable identity. Our quest for greater authenticity has resulted in greater and greater fragmentation. In the midst of this confusion we hunger for security. So we seek to tighten up our laws (not Sharia, but equally controlling), and impose our will on the rest of the world.

Maybe someday we’ll actually learn how to trust God.

Posted in Current events, Islam, Politics, Spirituality | Leave a comment

Looking for Youth Workers

Posted on May 1, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

We’re losing our longtime youth director in June as he makes the transition to pastoring. Here are some of the thoughts I’ve had as we figure out what comes next.

Thinking about Youth Ministry

Why churches hire youth leaders:

  • Availability: Volunteers only have so much availability. They have to make a living and support their families. Churches hire people to free them up to spend more time in ministry.
  • Skills – Sometimes a church needs to acquire skills it does not currently have in the membership. This is another common reason to hire someone. We look for someone who brings skills and abilities we lack.

What we require of youth leaders, whether paid or volunteer:

  • Testimony – Do they know Christ? Are they walking with Jesus?

  • Character – Do they exhibit the virtues we look for in a Christian leader?

  • Accountability – Youth ministry is not done in isolation. Those who lead are accountable to the whole church.

WHAT WE NEED:

Knowledge & Skills: Certain knowledge and skills need to be present in the youth leadership team. In some cases all these might reside in a single person. In other cases different people with different skill sets will work to complement each other.

  • Bible & theology: We’re not merely about entertaining or serving youth. Our youth ministry aims to fulfill Jesus’ command to make disciples. Our youth need leaders who know the bible well and can teach it in a way that connects with youth. They must also have a basic grasp of Christian theology, not only so they can teach it, but so they can guide the youth in learning to use theological discernment. A youth leader needs to be able to clearly articulate the basics of the Christian faith and the features of Christian experience. The kids will profit greatly from hearing the leader (or leaders) articulate their own journey to and with Christ.

  • Youth Culture: Because American youth are a multi-billion dollar market, business continues to differentiate them from older generations. Thus youth culture is constantly changing. A Christian youth worker must be willing and able to engage intelligently, sympathetically and Christianly with this culture. In some ways this aspect of youth ministry is akin to being a missionary. This is not a ministry for people who don’t like youth.

  • Programming: Youth ministry has a structure, both an organization of people and a coherent set of activities and events that accomplish the work of disciple making and group building. A person with programming skills helps fit together the other components of youth ministry in way that helps draw youth in, holds their attention, coordinates resources (time, space, money, etc.), so that ministry goals can be met. An additional effect of good programming is that parents know what is happening and feel confident about the ministry.

  • Leadership: “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” When this maxim is combined with the general difficulty of finding volunteers, its not surprising that many youth ministry people are lone rangers. We need a key leader with the ability to draw other adults into the ministry, and equip them with the needed skills. The leader does not need to have all these skills or do all the training personally, but needs to know what is available and connect recruits with learning tools and opportunities. Leadership in youth ministry includes more than running youth meetings and going places. It includes building a team of adults and youth who will join in the ministry. The ministry is too big, too important, to taxing for any one person, however gifted, to do alone. Team building includes the elements of Recruiting leaders, Training leaders, Deploying leaders, and Evaluating leaders.

  • Counseling: The teenage years are times of great change, opportunity and confusion. Our current infatuation with moral relativism does not help. We need youth leaders who are wise and able to give godly counsel to youth. In the vast majority of cases this counseling will not be on the level of requiring professional training. The leader’s lifestyle must exhibit moral integrity and Christian character so the counsel they give will have credibility.

  • Communications: Youth ministry requires frequent and redundant communication with youth, parents and the church. Leaders will need to be able to use phone, email, snail mail, newsletters, etc. to communicate. Good parents really like to know where their kids are and what they’re doing.

These practices are required for a healthy youth ministry:

  • Coordination. Whether the ministry is led by a hired staff person or a group of volunteers, multiple adults will be needed to pull it off. At the very least our Safe Sanctuary Policy mandates two adults with every group. For the sake of effectiveness, we need a variety of adults who will live Christ before the kids so they can see what the Christian life looks like in a variety of personality types. The work of coordination asks questions like: Who will be teaching Sunday school (for the next term, and this Sunday)? Who will be driving to this event? How will we get the supplies we need?

  • Communication: Leaders will need to communicate vision, plans, and news to youth, parents, the church, and the community. This communication lets people know what is happening and also raises support for the ministry.

  • Spiritual Disciplines: By their own lifestyle leaders will model spiritual disciplines. They will each (this cannot be divvied up) engage in bible study, prayer, worship, and other disciplines, training youth in using them also. One consequence of practicing spiritual disciplines will be spiritual discipline – the ability to say Yes and No in accordance with Jesus.

  • Planning: Youth ministry requires both short term and long term planning. Do we know where we’re going? Do we know how we’re going to get there? Planning also includes evaluation – answering the age old question, “Are we there yet?”

  • Teaching: Youth need teaching. They need not only the teaching of details and facts from the bible and the Christian faith, but also practical training in leading a Christian life: How to pray, How to love people like Jesus loved, How to study the bible, How to witness, etc.. Forty minutes of Sunday school a week is not sufficient to teach youth what they need.

  • Wise use of resources: There are never enough resources to do everything we can think of doing in youth ministry. We need leaders who understand how a church budget works and who have the ability to identify and deploy other resources from within the congregation and community. Youth events often happen off site. Your leaders need to be able to plan and coordinate appropriate transportation, food and accommodation. Providing these things is surely beyond the capacity of an individual.

  • Evangelism: A big part of youth ministry is helping kids become followers of Jesus. We cannot assume that just because a kid comes from a Christian family or is in church every Sunday (or is a Church member) that he or she has become a follower of Jesus. They need to learn enough of the faith to respond to God’s invitation. They need loving provocation to take steps of faith. They need role models who will show them what a life of faith looks like. They need people who will answer their questions intelligently, honestly, and in accord with the Christian tradition. Since youth are highly skilled at asking questions we’ve never considered, youth leaders must always be learning. Knowing everything is not a requirement for being a youth leader. Being willing to learn is. The work of evangelism in youth ministry extends beyond the church. We want a youth ministry that will reach beyond our church kids to kids in the community who are not now attached to a church. This requires time spent where the kids are.

  • Punctuality: Timeliness sometimes seems to be out of favor in our culture. Nonetheless, we need leaders who are on time, whether in their attendance at meetings and events, but also in their communication.

  • Dependability: We need leaders that can be counted on. We need people who will keep their word and do their job. While expected of people in paid positions, this is not too much to expect of volunteers.

  • Resourcefulness and Flexibility: Youth ministry is hard work – harder now than it was ten years ago. Leaders need to stay deep in prayer, keep a sense of humor, and surround themselves with support.

Leaders of youth ministry, just as leaders in any other area, need certain general qualifications, particularly with relation to the church.

  • Loyalty: We need leaders who have demonstrated their commitment to the church by regular attendance and participation in worship and other ministries. Youth ministry is part of the general ministry of the church and not something that simply exists on its own.

  • Ability to work with people: Because youth ministry is part of the total ministry of the church, youth leaders must be able to work well with others in the church, including both the staff and volunteer leaders.

  • Commitment to the church’s mission: We want leaders who are committed to the mission of the church. While they will stamp the ministry with the flavor of their own personality and style, the goals they pursue will fit with the mission of bringing people to faith in Christ, helping them grow as disciples, and equipping them for ministry.

  • Attitude: We need leaders with a healthy attitude. While having a positive attitude – toward the church, youth, and life in general – is essential, this does not mean that we want people with fake smiles pasted on their faces. The kind of positive attitude we look for is rooted in faith in Jesus, not mere optimism or positive thinking. The Christian life and ministry can be very difficult. We follow a crucified savior who calls us to take up our crosses and follow him. Yet we also read in scripture that he did it for the joy set before him. A person with a truly positive Christian attitude will not shy away from the truth, but will continually speak the truth in love, with a goal of building people up and forwarding the ministry of the church.

 

Posted in Leadership, Local church, Spirituality, Youth Ministry | 4 Comments

Churches that “Get it”

Posted on April 29, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

Todd Rhoades at Monday Morning Insight did a post early in April on “10 Observations from Churches Who ‘Get It.'” As a pastor who would like to describe my congregation’s as “getting it,” I’m afraid we don’t always measure up very well. Here are his observations with my commentary

“Each church has a pastor with a vision.” The vision of the church starts with the vision of the pastor. The pastor models attentiveness to God for the congregation. The congregation desires nothing more than connecting with what God is doing.

I like this. I’ve found that the biggest thing that drags me away from this is the large amount of institutional stuff I have to be concerned with. As a 150 year old congregation with a hundred year old sanctuary, our old buildings and church plant require constant maintenance and finances. Our trustees have worked hard over the years and deserve far more credit than I do in making that aspect of what we do go well thus far. I do worry that our need to take care of the buildings has, through sheer necessity (at least our traditional church perceives it as necessity), let maintenance become part of our vision. And this kind of vision, however good it is, will always crowd out the scarier parts – like evangelism. I have to work hard to stay fresh and clear on the vision for the sake of my people.

“Each church hires almost exclusively from within.” I like the sound of this idea. We hire from within our own membership because these people have come to Christ and been discipled and equipped for ministry here. We’ve seen them at work and know they are a fit with our ministry style and vision.

But that’s not the case in most of our old traditional churches. The prevailing vision in most traditional churches is to “do the same thing we’ve always done.” In the effort to transform a church from a status quo church to a missional church that impacts its community and draws people to Christ, this kind of church will often have to hire from without. That is, they will need someone to stir the pot and bring new ideas and new ways of doing things. Of course, they will need to have particular strengths – including the ability to be stubborn in the face of opposition from the old vision. If the pastor has a strong enough vision – and enough toughness – to seek to change the congregational culture, chances are good that at least some hiring will need to be from outside. (But then in small traditional churches there’s not too much hiring to worry about.)

“Speaking of staff, the staff of these churches ‘get it’ too.” Well, yeah. Staff unity is great. An essential. Too few traditional churches have it – or value it.

“A larger percentage of their staff (or staff wives) are pregnant.” Here we’re seeing that the churches Todd saw that were getting it are predominantly young, newly established churches.

“These churches and pastors don’t have a clue what they’re doing.” I’m not quite that ignorant, but nearly so. Pray for me to make the final progress to this goal.

Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But we moderns severely overrate knowledge. What we need more than knowledge (especially knowledge of method) is trust in God and obedience to him.

“Since they don’t have it all figured out, these pastors all shared with me their desire to connect with other leaders who can help mentor them.” It’d be nice to find more pastors in small town traditional churches to connect with and share with and learn from.

“These churches are not shy about sharing resources.” Sounds good to me. Some folks think that since we’re a small church with huge needs (remember those old buildings?), we can’t afford to be generous. I think we need to be generous whether we can afford it or not. If we’re trying to attract people, that is. If I were looking for a church to attend I’d much rather attend a generous church than one known for it’s financial soundness.

“Most all of these pastors are bloggers.” Yep. We like to through our ideas out there.

“These churches are not afraid to make tough calls.” This is my biggest weakness. I’m too nice. Of course, I feel the need to balance “making the tough call” (church speak for”firing people”) with the Christian notion of helping weaker brothers & sisters. But we don’t yet have excellence as one of our core values – or if we do, it’s still way behind niceness.

“Numbers are important to them.” Absolutely. There are an awful lot of numbers in the bible. They count people over and over again. Check the Book of Acts sometimes. It pains me on days like today when the worship attendance is down. It pains me that people aren’t coming to Christ. It pains me that there’s people out there that we’re (I’m) not connecting with. I’m not happy with “good enough” – or “better than many other churches.”

Posted in church growth, Evangelism, Leadership, Local church | Leave a comment

Wesley Fellowship at NTCC

Posted on April 25, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

I’m certainly not as good a movie maker as my son, but here’s a short promotional video I made for the campus ministry at Northeast Texas Community College.

Posted in Current events, Higher Education, United Methodism | Leave a comment

Spiritual Maturity

Posted on April 18, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

Some folks think maturity is a simple function of age: the older you are, the more mature you are. A quick read of any newspaper would disabuse us of that notion. We find countless accounts of people of all ages acting in a manner easily characterizable as immature.

When it comes to spiritual maturity, it’s easy to proceed in the same (mistaken) way we do in other areas. Has a person been a church member for a good while? Has he or she held offices or positions of influence in the church? Is he or she a pastor or teacher? If the answer to these questions is Yes, then we assume he or she must be spiritually mature. But if the bible is our guide, we’ll have to set aside this way of thinking.

If tenure and office aren’t the best clues, what might we look for? While it might not be best to go around judging the spiritual maturity of others (though this is useful when we figure out who we can learn the most from), such criteria will have their greatest usefulness in our own quest for spiritual maturity.

To the end that we might grow in our spiritual maturity, here are some things to look for in yourselves or in others:

  1. Do I pursue growth in my relationship with God in an active way or merely in a passive way? If all I do is sit in church on Sunday morning, I’m being pretty passive. The crowd is big enough (more than 15-20 is a crowd!) that I can be functionally anonymous. I don’t need to be challenged by anything I see or hear. I don’t even have to pay attention – just appear to be paying attention. I speak as one with experience. I’ve tuned out many times and resorted to counting light bulbs or looking for patterns in ceiling tiles. If I were truly hungry for spiritual maturity, I would get into a smaller group – where hiding is more difficult – and allow myself to be subjected to challenges from the people around me. If I depend on myself for the evaluation of my spiritual condition I am likely to get it wrong – to be deceived. I need the insights and provocation of the people around me to waken me from my lethargy and sin. I would also engage with the bible and Christian literature on my own throughout the week as I hungered to know more of God.

  2. Do I live as a practical atheist or do I look for opportunities to trust God? When we talk about atheism we usually have theoretical atheism in mind: the belief that there is no god. Practical atheism is the stance we take when we live as if there is no God. I might believe in God all day long, but if I structure my life in such a way that I never actually trust him, or continually engineer my life so I don’t need him, I’m living like a practical atheist. When I pursue spiritual maturity I allow myself to get into situations where I have to trust God – or I will fail. Quite frequently these occasions come when God calls us to obey in some way that differs from our natural propensities, or when he takes us out of our comfort zones. You don’t have to read much bible to know that God does that habitually.

  3. Do I seek to be a blessing to the people around me, to be and agent of God’s kingdom in their lives? You’ve probably heard me quote Jean Paul Sartre to the effect that “Hell is other people.” Ignorant of Jesus, and without God in your life, you might easily come to such a conclusion. But that’s not God’s plan. God puts us together with people for our mutual benefit. Whether our spouses, children, parents, friends, fellow church members, or total strangers are in view, God gifts us with each other for our mutual good. When I pursue spiritual maturity, I come to the place where I not only take responsibility for myself, but also for the people around me. Cain’s answer, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” will no longer occur to us as a possible response. The questions boils down to, “Do I love people?” Not, “Do I love the people who love me?” or ‘Do I love the undemanding people?” but simply, “Do I love people?”

  4. A final (for the sake of brevity) thought: How do I handle things? Are things my reason for existing? Do I hang on to stuff with a death grip? Or am I generous – with my things and my resources? As I pursue spiritual maturity, I will increasingly entrust myself to God rely on his provision. I will share with people in need. I will invest my time, money and skills in advancing God’s kingdom.

Do you want to be spiritually mature? Do you recognize that there’s a gap between where you are and where God wants yo to be? Do you want to do something about that gap? If so, do you have an idea what your next step might be? If not, let’s talk about it.

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Humility

Posted on April 13, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

Humility is a Christian virtue. One good way to know what humility looks like is to look at Jesus.

When we look at Jesus we see someone who was confident and sure of himself. He did not wallow in self-doubt or pity. He did not count himself as a nobody. What he did was,

 though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross.

He knew he was chosen by God to achieve the salvation of the world. He knew he was divine. Yet he set aside his privileges. He counted himself nothing for our sakes.

If we had walked up to Jesus and asked, “Are you humble?” how would he have answered? I think he would have answered, “Yes.” How about us? If we are humble can we know it? If we can know it, can we say it? There is a common belief that anyone who says, “I am humble” immediately proves otherwise. Saying, “I am humble” is taken as an act of pride. What ought we to make of this?

When I look at my own life, my perception is that I appear more humble to other people than I do to myself. I’m too aware of my own pride and arrogance to count myself as very humble. Sure I do some humble things from time to time, but I have a long way to go.

If we want to improve our humility, i.e., become more humble, it would be good for us to be in a group of people who are close to us over an extended period time to whom we can tell the truth and from whom we can hear the truth. Most of us are good at deceiving ourselves. If we’re professional Christians, we may also be skilled at deceiving others. But since humility is a virtue worth pursuing, we need some way to do it. Doing it in the company of other sinners who are seeking to follow in the way of Jesus seems to be the best approach.

Posted in Bible, Spirituality | Leave a comment

Brinksmanship

Posted on April 13, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

How close to the edge of the cliff can I get before I fall off? That seems to be a popular attitude today. As one who has spent many years in youth ministry, I’ve heard many youth ask something like about their dating relationships, “How far can I go?” Or, “How close can I get to doing the wrong thing without quite doing it?”

Don Imus discovered this week that some of the guard rails on the cliff weren’t as secure has he had been led to believe. Previously his reputation for raunchiness had only increased his fame and wealth. Not only did he earn a job on the radio, but some cable station even decided to televise his radio show. (You know there’s a serious lack of imagination when they start televising radio shows.) The rich and famous flocked to him. I never listened to the fellow, but many seem to think that what he said this time wasn’t radically different from things he’d said before.

For a while some folks thought the Duke lacrosse guys had gone too far and fallen off the cliff. But then it turns out those Methodist boys hadn’t raped the stripper. They’d only thrown a party and wanted some harmess entertainment. What? Not everyone that attends a Methodist school is Methodist? Or even a Christian? Oh. Well, no wonder they pushed so close to the edge.

Our culture values being edgy. I even hear of church leaders that like being known as edgy. They want to get as close to the edge as they can without falling off – without running off the people they’re trying to win.

What would happen if we lost our fascination with the edge? What if, instead, we became fascinated with Jesus? Instead of asking, “How close to the cliff can I get without falling off?” we asked, “How can I get closer to Jesus?” or “What can I do that will bring me closer to Jesus?”

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Teaching Religion in Public School

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Richard Heyduck

How can our public schools teach about religion? Stephen Prothero has just written a book (Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t) examining our failure at educating people in religion and proposing some ways we can correct the deficiency. A brief summary of his case appears in today’s Dallas Morning News. Time Magazine has also covered the issue recently in David Van Biema’s, “The Case for Teaching the Bible.”

I’ve had to think about this issue because of my participation in a group faced with the possibility of developing standards for the teaching of religion. Here are some of my thoughts on the issue:

1. Increased knowledge and understanding is a good thing. Religion will intrude into the curriculum whether people like it or not. Not only has it been a major feature of human life in the past, but it remains so today. If it will be in the curriculum, it is better that it be there in the most accurate way possible. When you think of seeking accuracy in a given subject, one is inclined to look for experts. From one point of view, the scholars that inhabit the religion departments of the most highly respected universities would necessarily be the experts. From another point of view, however, those who inhabit a given religion, whether they have academic qualifications or not, would be the experts.

2. Unlike other areas of the curriculum, many students (and parents) perceive religion not merely as something “out there,” something to be dealt with objectively, but as something in which the individual (as well as the family and community) ought to be involved. As scholars, we have been trained to treat religion objectively – we can set our subjective involvement to the side if need be. A fair percentage of the US population would find this extremely difficult. While thinking of English, History, Math and Science objectively – as something “out there” – is common, practitioners of religion are used to thinking of religion foremost as something “in here” in addition to being “out there.” So while teachers work to create subjective involvement with areas of study students treat objectively, when it comes to religion we will be asking them to do the opposite. We all know religion is contested in more ways and by more people than any other academic subject. Since it’s difficult to teach it well and have it well received, it’s often easier to just avoid it.

3. But perhaps I’m wrong and teaching students to treat religion objectively will be much easier than I imagine. But if the majority of students can treat religion objectively during study hours, will those who are practitioners be able to hold on to their subjective involvement? A few might be uninfluenced. More will find their subjective involvement changed. Some will even find their subjective involvement ebbing away. In this final instance, the imposition of the religious studies model can be a force for secularization. While attitudes toward the desirability and extent of secularization vary, I think there is a significant segment of the population that would view an increase in secularization as a bad thing.

4. Standardization is frequently an act of power from above. While we live in a society that profits from standardization (it’s convenient that gas stations in all parts of the country sell a product my car can burn), students, schools and communities are not standardized. It would require excessive exercise of state power to standardize on these levels. While scholars – or practitioners – may be qualified to identify standards for the study of religion, we are doing so in a field that is prone to widely divergent evaluation with regard to appropriateness by communities and parents.

Religion often goes along with truth claims. While different religions, different communities, and different practitioners, envision and enact truth claims in different ways, those truth claims cannot be simply set aside as irrelevant. Stanley Fish has a good discussion of the inevitable truth dimension when it comes to religion (you might also be interested in Albert Mohler’s interview with Fish).

I’m afraid this is problem because we’ve decided that schools should be a arm of state power, with a uniform curriculum for a (supposedly) uniform student population. If true diversity were allowed in our communities schools, then our difficulty here would be much lessened. But I don’t see this changing any time soon. What else can we do?

Stop and think about Prothero’s claim for a moment.  He observes that “only one out of three U.S. citizens is able to name the four Gospels.” If national religious statistics are correct, more than 1 in 3 US citizens identify themselves as Christians. While we may be justified in complaining about the educational establishment for its failure to produce students knowledgeable about religion, the bigger difficulty – dare I use the word scandal? – that the church has failed to teach anything much more than “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so?” Church teachers, whether we consider Sunday school teachers, pastors, or parents, don’t seem to expect their students to learn anything.  We repeat the same thing over and over again. And few learn anything.

We lack the power to enforce our view of the proper teaching of religion on the public schools – whether we be speaking as Christians or religion scholars.  And that’s ok. We do have the power, however, to raise our sights and our expectations in our churches.

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