I just got back from a week long mission trip with 50+ teenagers. I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep. But I'm also reveling in the amazing conversations that I had at midnight that caused the lack of sleep.
Did you know that teenagers ask amazing questions? Seriously. Everything from LGBTQ questions to the realities of heaven and hell. And the answers from me are taken with a grain of salt (or two) and added to the mix of all the answers and information available at the moment. They weigh what they hear from religious "authorities" against what they experience in their daily lives, in and outside of a church building.
This is how our generation operates. We question. We discuss. The conclusions we draw are rarely case closed, period, end of sentence. We're open to ideas that might come to us years down the road. We've seen too many people so staunchly fixed to their beliefs that anytime those ideas are threatened, people get hurt.
The above is one of my favorite quotes. It's a line from the Kevin Smith movie, Dogma, which I love. (The movie is in my top 5, which, if you know me, means that it is wayyyy up there.) It seems to sum up the way my generation believes. At the end of the movie, the main character is asked if she believes. She says "No, but I've got a pretty good idea." God, as Alanis, smiles.
Which means that when we talk about faith, it is always a discussion. It is gathering information. And not drawing some tightly bound iron clad belief from it does not mean these ideas are weak. We act on them. If we talk about accepting all people, we're going to fight to include people we see being left out, whether that is the awkward person in our social group or the downtrodden of our society.
I had an older clergy person ask for one main piece of advice about my generation that he should know. I conferred with another young clergy and we told him "Don't tell us what to believe."
As a clergy person myself, this might sound confusing to you. Lemmesplain. I see my role as pastor as very much a spiritual advisor. I'll give you lots of things to think about and consider. Point you to scripture. Point you back to your own experiences. Point you towards the history of our church and the mistakes we've made and how we've worked through conflicts. I'll point you towards amazing books that I've read or people that I enjoy hearing.
I don't have the answers. But I've got a lot of things for you to contemplate. Ask away.
Did you know that teenagers ask amazing questions? Seriously. Everything from LGBTQ questions to the realities of heaven and hell. And the answers from me are taken with a grain of salt (or two) and added to the mix of all the answers and information available at the moment. They weigh what they hear from religious "authorities" against what they experience in their daily lives, in and outside of a church building.
This is how our generation operates. We question. We discuss. The conclusions we draw are rarely case closed, period, end of sentence. We're open to ideas that might come to us years down the road. We've seen too many people so staunchly fixed to their beliefs that anytime those ideas are threatened, people get hurt.
The above is one of my favorite quotes. It's a line from the Kevin Smith movie, Dogma, which I love. (The movie is in my top 5, which, if you know me, means that it is wayyyy up there.) It seems to sum up the way my generation believes. At the end of the movie, the main character is asked if she believes. She says "No, but I've got a pretty good idea." God, as Alanis, smiles.
I had an older clergy person ask for one main piece of advice about my generation that he should know. I conferred with another young clergy and we told him "Don't tell us what to believe."
As a clergy person myself, this might sound confusing to you. Lemmesplain. I see my role as pastor as very much a spiritual advisor. I'll give you lots of things to think about and consider. Point you to scripture. Point you back to your own experiences. Point you towards the history of our church and the mistakes we've made and how we've worked through conflicts. I'll point you towards amazing books that I've read or people that I enjoy hearing.
I don't have the answers. But I've got a lot of things for you to contemplate. Ask away.
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