Adults in many churches have access to excellent Christian education resources through classes, Sunday forums, and of course, through well crafted sermons. Yet even life long parishioners remain sketchy about basic church doctrines and teachings, the Bible, and their own faith. I think a lot of it is due to the enormous gap between their pre teen years when they stopped learning about the basics of Christianity and their mature adult life where they were well schooled in the ways of the world. Imagine building a successful career in any field with only a sixth grade education that was taught by ill trained teachers using dumbed down materials. I imagine also congregations of mature adults offered sophisticated teaching struggle to relate it to poor grade school beliefs.
What fills the gap are unasked questions, even among the most ardent Christians. They’re unasked for the usual reasons: desire not to be embarrassed, assumptions about what others know, determination to figure it out on their own, never being asked what their questions are, and so forth. Surveys are likely to be of little help because adults have a keen sense of what they’re expected to say and no survey can be designed to elicit specific personal questions.
I just finished facilitating a six session program with members of our parish to discover what those unasked questions might be. It was a sort of experiment held at Noon on Wednesdays in hot midsummer – an inauspicious time to do anything in a church. It was surprisingly well attended by mature adults with lots of questions all of whom were life long Christians, many of whom came to the Episcopal Church from other denominations. Here’s a sample of questions asked and issues raised.
- What is the relationship between priest and bishop
- What are the rules for priests? What is the lectionary? How does it work?
- Explain excommunication
- Are there angels? If so, what are they?
- Are there guardian angels? What is heresy? Has it changed over the years?
- What happens in baptism?
- What is the difference between John’s baptism and a Christian’s baptism?
- Why did Jesus have to get baptized?
- When was the first Christian baptism?
- What do we believe about communion?
- Do you have to be baptized to receive communion?
- Why?
- What’s required to be eligible for communion?
- Whatever happened to confirmation?
- When is first communion appropriate?
- Is there a catechism for first communion?
- Do we have the same saints as Catholics?
- How are we different from other denominations?
- What is predestination?
- Are Jews saved?
- Explain biblical metaphors.
- What’s the rapture?
I imagine the list surprises some clergy who wonder if these are not questions and issues addressed many times over in classes, forums and sermons…. They might be inclined to respond as one of my old professors did with a growl, “weren’t you here yesterday when this was covered?” Most clergy have dedicated their lives to the study of scripture, tradition, and doctrine, but parishioners have dedicated their lives to other things. They have other fields of learning, careers pursued, and a variety of obligations that have nothing to do with church. Even those most committed to following Christ are able to give their full attention to the faith for an hour or two a week at most and that seldom more than once a week. It means the gap between what was taught in their Sunday school youth and what they hear as mature adults remains something of a black hole. In truth, even the best attended class or forum attracts a relatively small portion of the congregation.
Is it worth trying to fill the gap and can it be done? Perhaps. Here a few random thoughts. Preteens and teens are smart, curious, and ready to challenge adults. They are capable of engaging with sophisticated learning about holy scripture, the church and its doctrines. Sunday school offerings should be at a challenging level.
Some classes and forums should be dedicated to seminar type conversations about particular questions parishioners have raised when given the opportunity to do so. It would improve the process of selecting resource materials for other classes and forums.
Something like a Dear Abby column might be sent out to parishioners every week. Some of you may be aware of the popular programs and newspaper column “The God Squad” featuring Rabbi Marc Gellman and Monsignor Tom Hartman. Each week they answered random questions from religious and non religions persons. It’s an example of what I suggest at the parish level.
Hi Steven,
I don’t know what happens with Episcopalians, but with United Methodists, if an adult asks to be baptized, there is little or no preparation for the event. Most clergy won’t require any kind of catechesis or instruction in what it means to be a disciple of Jesus; just get get them baptized and celebrate. We have so much to learn from our pre-Constantine forbears; as our culture becomes increasingly secular and religiously diverse, we need more than ever to provide instruction in the faith throughout our lives. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I was raised in a “liberal” Presbyterian church and was rather inquisitive as a teen. For example, I kept bringing up Steve’s question #18, “What is predestination?” with the “senior” minister. After putting me off in a somewhat condescending way, he finally said, “You don’t need to worry about it.” The difference between then as a teen and now as a retired philosophy professor is the way laughter works. For laughter, especially in regard to #18, can disarm in a perfectly appropriate way.
Funny you should pick on that one. It was the question raised by a fo
rmer Presbyterian