Credo (I Believe)

I was just listening to a clip of a rap called "The Apostle's Creed" on ITunes. I thought it might have something to do with the Apostle's Creed I learned in church, but although the artist does mention Jesus Christ, it's a different sort of creed. I was suddenly struck by the idea that many teens today probably have little clue as to what they believe. They might be able to name a few obvious things, but when it comes to belief and/or faith, I'm not sure most have ever thought about it. That's a problem for me.

Because of this second career I got into three years ago (i.e. ministry) I went through seminary to get a masters degree in Christian education. One of my classes (no big surprise) was Intro. to Theology. In that class, one of our tasks was to write a credo - a statement of our beliefs. In such a paper, we were to write a fairly systematic account of the basis of our faith; so, what do we believe about God? About Jesus? About the church? About the Bible? Etc, etc, etc. As a director of youth ministries for going on three years now, I haven't been able to get teens to articulate much of their own beliefs. This may be due to a reluctance to share. I think it is more likely that we in the church have done a poor job of helping them to work out their faith.

Faith. On one hand it's a gift from God; the Bible says so, after all. But is also a very personal thing. Even in the most lock-step congregation, different people will not share exactly the same beliefs. I'm not even sure that it would be possible to create an environment in which people could believe the same exact things. Look at the typical family. There are shared values, to be sure, but everyone has there own take on things in life - and in faith.

I am getting ready to kick off our church's "confirmation class" for the year. This is the process through which the students will learn more about the church and their faith and then decide if it is time to confirm, on their own, the baptismal vows that were made for them as young children. We will be using a mentor/student program this year, and I believe that it will work better than the old classroom model that many of us "churched" folk were subjected to in our youth. But my question at the moment is whether or not this process will really be helpful to the teens as they seek to understand their beliefs.

I believe that the church, when it truly lives into its purpose, is the embodiment of what and who Jesus Christ is for the world. It is the highest form of community. It exudes the kind of love that we all crave. It is home in the best sense of the word. It is imperative that the church work harder to help children and youth to come to grips with their beliefs. We can't force a person to believe anything. We can't just give them a book and say, "Read this. It's what you should believe." We must be willing to teach and to discuss, to walk along the road, with our young people. In doing so we create a relationship. It's what Jesus did with his disciples and it is no less powerful today than it was 2000 years ago. I believe it.