One of the more effective evangelical tools right now does just that ”” it goes into the places where people spend time, at work and at leisure, and it gathers people who want to ask significant spiritual questions. Asking questions is actually something that sets Episcopalians apart from a lot of other traditions, particularly the ones who say there’s only one right answer and doubt is a sin. Remember that bumper sticker, “Question Authority”? I’ve never been sure whether it’s a description of somebody who’s good at asking questions or a challenge to keep asking difficult questions of the powers that be. But asking questions is a central part of our tradition. We don’t insist that doubt is a sin; we see doubt as necessary to growth.
Young people are hard-wired to ask questions ”” why? is the most characteristic word out of the mouth of a healthy developing child. ”˜Why should I do that, why is the stove hot, why aren’t girls and boys always treated the same, why are some people poor, why has your generation left the world in such a mess, how can we bring peace to the world?’ When we stop asking questions like that we begin to die ”” spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and probably physically.
Building communities where young people can ask the really big questions is one of the most important kinds of evangelism we can do ”” and the other important kinds of evangelism are about building communities where others can do the same thing. Theology on tap is a prime example ”” it offers welcome and hospitality, including a brew (caffeinated or spirited), conversation, and community. It is happening in bars. It is happening in coffeehouses. It is happening where people gather. There are ways to gather questioners, a number of them focused on faith in the workplace. We have always gathered to ask questions. The women’s guilds and men’s guilds in the church did similar work, but they expected people to show up in the church building to gather. We need to leave home and go out there to provide hospitable places for questioners!
Does the woman have children?
What a set of clueless, unasked, sample “questions” she offered.
Clueless.
Those are the sorts of questions a progressive adult TEC activist asks, sure.
Just clueless.
Yes, we must have the freedom to ask questions. But we must always be ready to give an account of the hope that we have in Christ! It is nonsense to say questions are more important than answers. We have the answer. It is Jesus Christ. Make room for the questioners? Yes. Then give them the glorious Gospel of our Savior. The freedom that the PB thinks we have by being able to question isn’t the end in itself. The beginning and end of Christianity is Christ himself, not a love affair with our polity, our questions, our freedom, our education, our collars and mitres, or anything else apart from Christ. I grow very tired of her mantra: We are not like anyone else… we are better. *sigh*
Threadbare authoritarianism parading as ‘questioning authority.’ Stuck in sixties activisim. As Sarah says, also out of touch with the genuine younger next generation. I suppose this should be no surprise. I wonder how many hours of her working day must go into litigation planning, removal of clergy and Bishops, plotting for a new TEC and a new Communion, etc.? No one apparently bothered to ask how many hours are required to dream up a new Gospel and a new church, instead of the ones given by Christ.
[blockquote]”Asking questions is actually something that sets Episcopalians apart from a lot of other traditions, particularly the ones who say there’s only one right answer and doubt is a sin. Remember that bumper sticker, “Question Authority”? I’ve never been sure whether it’s a description of somebody who’s good at asking questions or a challenge to keep asking difficult questions of the powers that be. But asking questions is a central part of our tradition.”[/blockquote]
OK, then – I’ll bite.
Dear KJS: why are unilateral trust property canons strictly and staunchly enforced – at great expense, while the Bible and 2000 years of Christian teaching are optional? What is it that [i]really[/i] matters to TEC?
🙄
John 15:10
I think she mentioned Jesus once and the GLBTQ once — guess that is meant to be even treatment. I am an Episcopalian and she is our PB, but she doesn’t speak the same language that I do.
BTW, my mama taught me never to use the Q word, and I don’t. How come the PB now picks up the “GLBTQ” lingo? That is a real stretch.
We should all be ashamed and embarrassed at this nonsense. To reduce Jesus’ final hours to a tour is beyond comprehension.
During Lent my parish walks the Stations on Fridays. We walk with Jesus, and one another, on the road to Calvary to better understand what His death means for each one of us. I am struck with every reading that it is my sinfulness that caused His death and yet it is His death and resurrection that grants forgiveness, hope and new life.
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You.
Because by your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.
She mentions the 4 dioceses that grew. What about the Diocese of South Carolina. I know she currently is poised to attack it, but didn’t it grow in the last year?
If she were honest, she would use South Carolina as the blue print for other dioceses who want to grow.
When you hear someone trumpet that “there is no one right answer”, it’s hard to imagine that they have encountered Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II used to revel in announcing to the crowds that had “gathered with their questions”, that “Jesus is the answer to all your questions.”
Asking questions is fine as far as it goes, but the problem with TEC is that it has no answers to anyone’s questions.
In particular, TEC does not have an answer to the question “What would be the point of my attending your church and supporting it with my time and money?”
Or the question “Why should I prefer to sit through a watered-down Anglican liturgy and a dreary sermon over sleeping late, reading the paper, watching the NFL, or anything else I might do on a Sunday morning?”
Or the question “Why should I give any money to support an old church building and clergy parading around in funny clothes when I could give the same money to the Red Cross and address people’s direct physical needs?”
Because TEC has no compelling answer to those questions, TEC is dying as a church.
#9 — I believe it went, “Jesus Christ is the answer to the question that is every human life.” The Pope intentionally was focusing on the personal; his statement wasn’t cognitive/propositional (Lindbeck’s term), as in, “[b]The[/b] answer is . . .”. Given the Pope’s background, he would have been well aware of the difference. I suppose it’s needless to say that this is not relativism, as JPII most definitely was not a relativist.
Ooops, #8
All church growth studies ( and who would want that ) say that the young people are looking for answers in a world that seems to have lost them. They want Christianity that makes a difference in their lives. No wonder they are not attracted to what we say we are about.
#10, you’re right, that’s the quote. However, there’s no neat distinction between the personal and the cognitive/propositional. Several years ago in a “First Things” article, Lindbeck conceded, at Cardinal Dulles’ insistence, that the act of faith in the person of Jesus Christ has a propositional/cognitive aspect to it. My point was that unlike the PB, the late Pope was proposing to the questioners that there is an answer to their most profund questions.
‘Personal’ in the manner I thought was being implied is what Lindbeck called ‘experiential expressivist’ — cognitive propositional claims are personal claims, but not subjectivist in the manner of experiential/expressive (corresponding to interior feelings, convictions). Lindbeck’s ‘cultural linguistic’ or ‘narrative’ category is probably what the Pope was getting at, in his 3 types system. My own hunch is that the typology is better at classifying approaches to Scripture than statements like the Popes.
Ms Schori is right in that there are a few minority parishes that are doing well. (However, most of the historical African American congregations are going down the drain.)
What I found interesting about the Los Angeles bishop election is that they had a choice between two visions – one that reached out to Latinos and one that kept to their present focus: liberal, “inclusive” GLBTQ types. And the election was seemingly deadlocked until Bruno told people to vote “with their hearts” and Glasspool won. This is not surprising. Liberals are some of the most bigoted people that I have met: “We give a can of food to the food shelter, but we don’t want to deal personally with actual minorities.”
So I am afraid that Ms Schori talking about reaching out to minorities is simply talk. Besides most minorities don’t want the tasteless gruel offered up by the Episcopalians and liberal Episcopalians really don’t want minorities because they tend to be more conservative.
I would be interested in what is going on in South Carolina to attract minorities.
Phil Swain — Thank you for yours. The exchange between Lindbeck and Dulles sounds truly fascinating. And I’ll gladly concede your point about the contrast between the PB and the Pope.
“Young people are hard-wired to ask questions..” Yes, and the answers that they’ll get from TEC this year will be changed uncounted times by the time that they themselves have children. Seems to be more of an ego trip than a religion when you can’t depend on the answers being passed along to the next generation.
To Seitz and Phil Swain — thank you both, if you’re still reading. I may very well have been guilty of mixing things up, because I meant to steer clear of the “experiential/expressive” category. The Pope’s affirmation it seems to me affirms a recognition that truth includes the irreducible mystery of the specific personal response and commitment, although certainly not to the exclusion of affirming the truth, “Jesus is Lord” (or anything else in the creeds) — something that can get lost when we’re in a polemical mode. Kierkegaard has a wonderful sentence: “eternal happiness is a good which is not distributed wholesale”. Anyways, I may have been guilty of creating a huge diversion, as the PB tends to altogether belittle the encounter with the transcendent God (apparently here as well), which is very wide of anything the Pope ever had to say.
I agree.
Well, this establishes the fact that the word “evangelism” is known to the PB. Contextually, it would not appear from this speech that she knows its meaning. Lawsuits do not equal evangelism, alas, even when one’s evangelism budget is given over entirely to lawsuits. Not even Beers nor a personal litigation assistant can make it so, wot?
Speaking to a TEC group in New Jersey about church growth is a tough job. For 2002 through 2008 Newark lost 17.9 percent of its Members, lost 15.3 percent of ASA, and 6.8 percent of Plate & Pledge in inflation adjusted dollars. The data for the diocese of New Jersey was down 7.3 percent, 15.8 percent, and 4.7 percent. For aging, both dioceses did well in 2008: Newark with 519 Infant Baptisms and 492 Burials while New Jersey had 834 and 817. For money, they did not do so well in 2008: Newark with 74 of its 110 churches with Plate & Pledge of less than $150K and New Jersey with 99 of its 152 churches with Plate & Pledge below $150K. For both dioceses this means that each “rich” church has two “poor” churches to help. It is difficult to be upbeat about the future with these data. One bright bit of data for TEC is that ACNA has only 9 churches in New Jersey. Statmann
I, too, agree, I think.