Brian McLaren || Inherited Faith VS. The Faith We Will Live

We’re in the midst of a 3-day visit with author, speaker and activist Brian McLaren.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not a big fan of being in charge of events like this because it makes it hard(er) to be “fully present” during presentations… but in order to be a good steward of this time, I’m going to do my best to recount some of the conversations he’s led us in… because I think there’s a lot of good stuff for us to consider in the work that we do with college students!

Our opening session was focussed around the transition that students (or people in general) need to go through in order to fully “own” their faith. Brian referred to the process as one where students are moving from an “inherited” faith (a faith — or lack of faith — that has been instilled in them by parents, other family members or friends, pastors, youth pastors, other church members, etc.) to a faith that is their own (one that will ultimately shape how they live with God and with others).

This transition is a movement from a ‘dependent’ faith — to a ‘counter-dependent’ faith — to an ‘interdependent’ faith (note that the final position in this movement is not independence, but interdependence, one where the parents (or faith friend, etc.) has something to both give and receive).

As students come to our campuses — often having been exposed to one stream of the Christian faith during their “growing up” years back home — they likely now find themselves being exposed to numerous Christian (and non-Christian) streams of faith — which should evoke in them a process of asking questions and seeking answers.

Brian used the Chambered Nautilus (pictured above and to the right) to illustrate the process young believers go through during this movement from inherited faith to the faith they will live.

He suggested that as students are exposed to new and/or different understanding about who God is, what Jesus did, how the Spirit moves, how the Bible is interpreted, how experiences are understood, etc., etc., etc., that students grow… and out of necessity move forward to a place with more space (or into a faith that allows for a larger — more diverse — set of beliefs).  As they move forward, the take with them the pieces of their inherited faith that still “fit” and leave behind those that do not, and subsequently “seal off” the “smaller space” that they have out grown.

NOW, Brian was not at all suggesting that students should attempt to piece-meal their theology together based on their own personal preferences, comforts, likes or dislikes.  But he was suggesting that their might be things (like slavery, bigotry, chauvinism, a geocentric view of the earth, etc.) that Christians have believed — as a part of their biblically informed understanding of the Christian faith — that no longer fit with their understanding of God, Jesus, faith, etc.

I believe this is one of the major reasons why we see social justice so closely tied to the faith of young and/or sincere Christians today.  They’ve seen something that doesn’t make sense… and as they have moved forward, this is something they’ve had to include.  As recent as 15 years ago, however, the major emphasis within young Christians on college campuses seemed to be in the area of corporate and/or personal worship experiences.  While many of todays students still find this to be an important part of their faith expression, many more see service — social justice — living out the call to “love our neighbor” as one of their chief expressions of faith.

We have this session recorded, and once we have it posted, I will link to it here… but this is what I’ve taken with me from our opening session together.

Some of the questions I pose to us:

• How do we “create space” for students to experience God in new ways — that ultimately serve to promote them taking ownership of their faith?
• How do we help to facilitate the movement from a faith that is dependent — to counter-dependent — to interdependent?  How does this movement inform our programs?  Our conversations?
• How do we encourage students into this movement, without making them feel like what they currently believe is not inadequate?

Some thoughts, reflections and questions on Brian’s first presentation…

What would you add?  What questions would you present?