September 16, 2022
The last two weeks “on the Vine” I have been reflecting on the nature of Christian growth or formation. I identified the unique charisms of the Evangelical Covenant Church as a part of the Lutheran Pietist tradition, that insist on the primary and initial action of God in establishing a relationship with human beings; in other words, an emphasis on grace. But we are not completely passive in our faith, instead our faith is a grateful response to God’s grace by being good stewards of the gifts and abilities God has given us. We do this by allowing God to develop our faith and gifts by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Body of Christ, the church.
Last week I identified the seriousness with which Christians around the world and through the ages have taken the task of directing people in the faith. The letters in the New Testament are all examples of spiritual leaders guiding and correcting others in their faith that they might grow in Christ. (For example, see Colossians 2:6-7, 2 Peter 3: 14-18) A Christian educator by the name of John Westerhoff wrote a book many years ago that made a big impression on me. It’s title, Will our Children Have Faith?, echoing the teaching of the epistles, speaks clearly about the purpose of his book. How do we guarantee that the Christian faith continues into the future? Westerhoff underscored the importance of Christian formation by declaring that Christianity is always one generation away from extinction, all we have to do is fail to offer the gospel to the next generation or fail to form those who grow up in the faith, and Christianity as we know it will end. Westerhoff who died this year lived, to see the diminishment of many churches in North America, and a decline in people who consider themselves “christians.” How will we at First Covenant respond?
We at First Covenant Church have been graced by the commitment and efforts of our Nurture Faith committee. Joining you as your pastor in the middle of a pandemic could have been very daunting, but the work of Nurture Faith in offering us opportunities to gather from a distance, to pray and study together, to remain a church together, has been a gift that has made us the healthy church we are today—and helped me get to know you all through a computer screen. Now that we are beginning to shift from pandemic to endemic, the Nurture Faith team is poised to help us expand our formation opportunities, deepen our faith, tighten our bonds to one another and to God, and to prepare to more faithfully reach out in God’s name to our neighborhood and world.
One of the first things one learns in a Christian formation course today is the newly rediscovered truth that humans learn first inductively, and secondly deductively. In other words, people learn what it means to be a Christian by observing the lives of Christians. Our experience reminds us of this truth. We don’t wait until a child understands what forgiveness and reconciliation are before we teach them to say, “I’m sorry.” Further, we don’t wait until children understand the value and gift of a healthy meal before inviting them to offer God thanks for a meal. Instead, we model behavior and invite them to imitate it, and to grow into the meaning of that practice over time. One of the greatest gifts we have as a church is the layers of generations that we have in our church, and how well we interact with one another. We form people first by living our faith with one another, modeling for those younger in their faith what their faith might look like. So, we will a have game night, a monthly craft night, and an outing to a Mariners game. Opportunities to gather as a family of faith for fun activities, but also activities that demonstrate the joy and love of being a Christian, expressing and shaping the faith of our community. Likewise, the way we care and listen to our children through our children’s ministries makes the love of God concrete in non-verbal ways that become the foundation for the words of faith that will follow later in life.
In fact, many words will follow: words of the scriptures, words about God, words to God. We have created formation opportunities for young children and older children. We have a confirmation program for our teenagers. We have adult education opportunities as well, all teaching the scriptures, their interpretation, and their application. And these are just on Sundays. We have Bible studies online each week on Wednesdays and Fridays. Next week I will begin a four-week series on First Corinthians at the Shores, and this Advent I intend to offer an online study on the Psalms using Walter Bruggeman’s short, classic book Praying the Psalms.
We also have practices that form, like our Wednesday evening online prayer meeting, and our weekly worship services that can be attended in person and virtually. After our worship services on October 16, November 6 and 20, we will have intergenerational exploration of scripture using the arts. In the new year we will have separate adult and youth formation offerings. But after them all we will join for a community meal to get to know one another better exploring together more informally what a life of faith means. We also stretch our faith and model service through the weekly breakfasts we offer to our food-insecure neighbors.
The sign above my door is amusing. But it should also be inspiring. No one knows enough Bible, no one’s faith is fully formed in this life, no one is not needed as part of the life of a church. Please carefully discern the options you have in the months ahead for your on-going faith formation. And consider the opportunities you have for contributing to the ministries of our church, and formation of others by your service and example.
Pastor Todd