Good News from, with, and for the Nones ELCA/ELCIC Bishop s Academy, January 2-7, 2014 Savannah, Georgia Notes taken by Bishop Ray Tiemann

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1 Good News from, with, and for the Nones ELCA/ELCIC Bishop s Academy, January 2-7, 2014 Savannah, Georgia Notes taken by Bishop Ray Tiemann Pr. Anna Madsen, Director of OMG Center for Theological Conversation Presentation 1: My Karma Ran Over your Dogma Who are the Nones? PEW study does not provide one clear description; e.g. urban millennials are a world apart from rural millennials. Greg Smith, US Religion Survey, PEW, describes them in this way: They are not sworn off disbelief, just not in any religious organization. 4 in 10 pray once a month. Religion is somewhat important; they are not uniformly secular; they are not just searching or waiting. Perhaps most distinctive is that they don t go to church. There is disagreement about whether they come mostly from the Protestants, but the Catholic Church has them, too. Often, they are people who have never gone to church in the first place. They are simply going about their lives, giving a big shrug to the whole issue of religion. Growth in the numbers of Nones are among those who identify as liberals, not conservative. The Nones rebel against a rigid definition of sin. When conservatives say this is what a religious person looks like, they simply say, That s not us. They vote less, but when they do, they vote Democratic. Their numbers almost equal the numbers of evangelical Protestants who vote Republican. This group doubled within one decade, approximately percent in It is difficult to determine whether there are more Nones are if it is just more acceptable so more are reported. They feel the religious right is about intolerance, bigotry, and judgment. It is more about imperceptions about the church. Nones are skeptical that the church is into grace and forgiveness. From their perspective, all Christians hate the sinner and the sin. Walt Bouman noted that the Christian life is not about morality (everything a law code) but mortality (Jesus is risen from the dead.) The Christian life is about immortality, not immorality. And that is about belief, not actions/works. Now that you know that death is not final, there's more to do with your life than try to preserve it. Psychologist are telling us that those who are feeling isolated have a higher rate in sinful behavior. Neurologists are suspecting that brain chemistry does more to determine sinful behavior than before, including diet studies concerning sugar. Feminists are saying that what describes a sin is set by those in power who make the rules, who have never been touched by trouble, and too often in the church is reduced to sex. However, sin is not a choice that can be reduced to sinful behavior. What if the Nones knew if wondering about the faith is a normal part of the practice of faith, like worship and praying and singing? Pr. Anna Madsen, Director of OMG Center for Theological Conversation Presentation 2: Tenacious Humility Ideas to consider: 1) Hold a synod event primarily intent on everyone learning something new. Require continuing education with some funds to support. 2) Cultivate a culture of personal growth and theology for leaders. 1

2 3) How to we train the laity if all are of the priesthood of all believers? 4) Congregations should use less time for evangelism and more time on personal theological thinking (too many Baptists in Lutheran clothing). 5) Pastors should model joyful disagreement, which grows out of respect for one another. 6) Meet with the Nones, not to convert but to listen. Dr. Andrew Root Children, Youth, and Family at Luther Seminary Presentation 1 Young People the church and the melting of identity Young people wrestle with the question of Who Am I? The building blocks leading to this have changed. Most historians don t think this question was important much before the 17 th century. E.g., once a peasant, always a peasant. Not a personal question or decision. First building block skills and abilities. Second building block Your love; who you are related to. So, work and love were solid. In modernity, this is not as true. Work and love are still a basis, but not the most significant. There is a melting of work. Occupations/careers/etc. are so fluid that the gold watch at retirement occasion is like a unicorn in today s society. Some studies have shown that career changes happen every 20 months. In the same way, studies also show that one love for life is also not holding true. Why has the church lost the year olds? Mostly not hard feelings toward the church, but they don t care, rather benign about it. Too often the church wants to uphold the form (of being church) while the Nones are trying to engage their mystical experiences. Christian Smith says his studies show year olds do not hate the church. The majority have no hard feelings towards the church. This is good news. The bad news is: the reason they don't have hard feelings is because they really don't care. Conventional life is usually defined as having a career, getting married, buying a home, and having children. At this point, there is connection with the church. This model is not same anymore. (This still looks like the values of the conservative, Republican contingent.) We lost them because somewhere in the American consciousness, the church is locked up in conventionality. The movement into conventionality is taking longer and longer from a sociological perspective. It might not be until 30 that the lightbulb goes on, that I should find a church. When you're living in your parents' basement, working at Starbucks, going back and forth to NYC trying to get your band going you don't think of yourself as a person who goes to church. There has been a transition from work to consumption. We are not identified by the work we do but by what we own. Some studies have shown that answers to ethical questions by young people are very diverse, but in the study this question found universal agreement, Is there ever a time when it is wrong to buy something? There is a transition from love to self-gratifying intimacy. Love shouldn t be difficult, but easy and always great. If it gets difficult, it was not meant to be. What this does for the church is a person who is not trained to be committed, or willing to work hard, so they leave the church. Don t serve on committees, Council, etc. We have a perfect storm coming. The next generation is going to inherit all these church buildings with no will to manage them. "I'd rather spend time with my grandparents than be sitting in a church basement." 2

3 Dr. Andrew Root Children, Youth, and Family at Luther Seminary Presentation 2 Changing Landscape of Pastoral Ministry, from Root s The Relational Pastor Before modernity, people needed to know the past, and through tradition, it would lead to the present. (bound by space, time, and a single narrative) After modernity, science and technology and entertainment get us from the present into the future. (unbound by space, manipulate time, and a surplus of narratives) Before modernity, much happened within the family recreation, education, religion, relatives, relationships, work, etc. Today, each issue is an independent area. It is a pluralization of Life Worlds, which includes family now as an independent area. There is a field of cultural totality, which includes family, society, government, economy, and religion. In the past, family and religion held the major components, with society being fairly strong and economy and government were the smallest. Today, economy and society is huge, family and government is small, and religion is smallest. Too often we use technology as a science to solve a problem by providing a new form which promises exponential growth. We are doing ministry this way. Let's do it more relationally instead. Dr. Shauna Hannon, Professor of Preaching, LTSS Presentations 1 & 2: Preaching with the Nones Bibliography for Preaching as a Ministry of the Whole Congregation The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor The Roundtable Pulpit: Where Leadership and Preaching Meet by John Mcclure Sharing the Word: Preaching in the Roundtable Church by Lucy Atkinson Rose Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art by Lenora Tubbs Tisdale The Homiletics of All Believers: A Conversational Approach to Proclamation and Preaching by O. Wesley Allen, Jr. Mashup Religion: Pop Music and Theological Invention by John McClure Preaching at the Crossroads, How the World and Our Preaching Is Changing by David Lose It is important to find a way to have conversation with the Nones (and others) in the process of sermon writing. Listen to a text and stop in the reading for those to respond, I wonder and I notice Suggest more involvement in the sermon process five congregation members and Nones they know to help with sermons for a month. In the course of a year, 60 people get involved in sermon/worship, a great side benefit. Other suggestion: Static tableaus of a Scripture lesson Some quotes: 3

4 "Preaching is not something an ordained minister does for fifteen minutes on Sundays but what the whole congregation does all week long; it is a way of approaching the world, and of gleaning God's presence there." - Barbara Brown Taylor, "The Preaching Life" "The aim of preaching is to gather the community of faith around the word to set texts and interpretations loose in the midst of the community in order to foster and refocus its central conversations."- Lucy Atkinson Rose, Sharing the Word: Preaching in the Roundtable Church "What if the sermon provided not simply the content of the Biblical narrative as a source for religious identity, either in the 'strict' prescriptive form of conservative preaching or in the 'lenient' suggestive form of mainline preaching, but also promoted lively interaction with that story? To put it another way, is there room in our homiletical imagination for an interactive sermon.if our people have spent their entire lives watching others (the preacher) talk about faith but have never themselves had the opportunity to do so, where will they have developed the competence and confidence to so it themselves?..."the goal is that, over time, hearers discover in Scripture a valid, compelling, and useful meaning-making narrative that helps us make sense of all other options and stories in our postmodern, pluralistic world. To help them grow toward such competence, believe we will need a shift from what I would describe as a performance homiletic to a participatory one." - David Lose "Preaching at the Crossroads: How the World and Our Preaching Is Changing Closing Reflections by bishops Tracie Bartholomew, New Jersey Synod Doesn t like Nones, but thinks Religiously Unaffiliated is more respectful of the parents, children, etc. or church-going members. These are the ones Jesus often reached out to. Realize that the church is more challenged by indifference than hostility. Are we not clearly enough reflecting how much our faith means for us to attract others? Murray Finck, Pacifica Synod He knew Robert Schuler in CA, who often said, The Lutherans have the best theology, but it doesn t sell. (That is, a suffering God and the cross and service versus positive thinking/blessings from God.) In meeting with military chaplain leaders no longer traditional Christian models, but also Jewish, Islamic, and even atheist chaplains. When chaplains are Christian, they are more often fundamentalist, who say they cannot serve some because of their faith, e.g. gay & lesbian, etc. Lutherans have served well, and they want more who can serve all in the armed forces. If we have this place, how can we use it to the advantage of telling the world? Michael Girlinghouse, Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod Everyting heard through the filter, How will this play in Hobard, OK? This is an adaptive time and Andy described the changes well. It is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be lived into. It is time to make changes but not lose our tradition. From a None, I wish the church would stop treating us like prey, trying to bring us in to keep the church alive. How do we meet them where they are? One pastor has said, The church will not be full until it is empty. Challenge is to combine proclamation and pedagogy. How do you combine preaching with teaching in worship, the time when we have the most consistent time with church members? There is 4

5 Biblical illiteracy (those not in the church) and cultural illiteracy (those in the pew who don t know this new world). Elaine Sauer (ELCIC), Manitoba/Western Ontario Canada s Nones are much the same, but the analysis of Nones is also true of those who attend church, to please their parents/grandparents, etc. All three theologians called us to put the relationships above all else, and this is true for reaching others. The Nones are real people who need real relationships. We need more faith conversations with them. 5