It's All About Words

"I want to be a doctor."
"I want to be a teacher."
"I want to be a clown."
"I want to be a lawyer."
"I want to be a scientist."
"I want to be an archeologist."
"I want to be a police officer."
"I want to be a chef."

Can I ask where the theologians are?

I have a secret; I know where they are.

They’re everywhere.

They’re in your youth group.
They’re in your church.
They’re in your schools.
They’re in your neighborhood.
They're in your family.

Maybe the reason why you can't find the theologians is that we're not listening to them. But, I believe that a big part of the reason why you can’t find them is that they don’t have the “right” words.

Theodicy.
Sanctification.
Prevenient Grace.
Liturgical.
Atonement.
Eschatological.

It’s about the words.

So often, we don’t trust young people with the words that would allow their theological ponderings to make verbal sense. We fall into the trap of thinking that, “Young people are not capable of doing theology”. We (young people) are more than capable of “doing theology”.

Youth workers – in my experience – assume that young people are not (often) interested in anything other than being entertained. We assume that youth groups that “work” are those groups that have large numbers of attendees and crazy games; of course, we don’t want to scare the kids away by going too “deep” on them!

That’s where we are so often wrong.

Youth are deep. We need to trust them with the words and with the space to use those words in conversation.

Everything we (as people) do is a statement of our theology, of how we interact with, and what we believe about, God.

Theology is not something that should be accessible only to academics in ivory towers. Theology is for us all, young people included. We need the words that will help us to make sense of our stories.

When we don’t explicitly discuss theology with our young people, we are in effect telling them, “You’re not good enough, or capable of thinking about God. You are not a whole person.” Now, of course, this is perhaps understood subconsciously. But it is understood nonetheless.

I dare you to trust your young people with the words. I dare you to give space for those words to be used. And see what happens.

Perhaps then we’ll hear:

“I want to be a doctor, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a teacher, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a clown, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a lawyer, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a scientist, and a theologian.”
“I want to be an archeologist, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a police officer, and a theologian.”
“I want to be a chef, and a theologian.”

Or maybe, just maybe we'll hear:

“I’ll always be a theologian.”

Comments

[gavin]

nat this is excellent. i like to get our kids thinking theologically, its kinda hard with my limited formal education on theo, which i think most ym's are like.

good book to read in this case is "who needs theology" co-authored by stan grenz

[Lorna (see-through faith)]

good thoughts - but I laughed when you said that a blog quiz said that you were me ... poor you , lucky me

Blessing you in His name - the UMC sorely needs young theologians on fire for Him - just like you are :=)

[Dalton]

Amen, amen, amen.

Except for the part about the clowns. I am petrified by clowns. Clowns cannot be theologians.

[Dan Morehead]

Interestingly, I was taught words like sanctification, prevenient grace and eschatological as a 12 yr old and also aided in seeing how they might matter. Young people's abilities should not be underestimated. I want the possibility of hearing simply, "I want to be a theologian," without addition or remainder and agree with the spirit of this post. I want theologians who are able to puzzle through the mysteries of our faith with the upmost rigor and seriousness, but agree that there needs to be the ability to speak to those who are not specifically trained to do this work. In some ways, that's why I rarely publish 'academic' theology on my blog. Stop by sometime. Thanks for the good post.

[Mark]

Very good.

I found a personal reminder this past weekend listening to the 3 HS seniors deliver the sermon on Youth Sunday. These kids are deeper than their outward persona would imply.

[Rosina Fisher]

wowzers. don't let the critics quench that godly fire. God bless you!

[ymp]

Completely true and well written. Now (if my life is any indication) be prepared to repeat often. Please, repeat often. There are too few people who speak up for young people.
Thank you.

[Julie Nelson]

Very well put. You are exactly right on. And, sadly, not only do we overlook young people, but we so often overlook everyone - thinking that only the theologically educated want to know those big "scary" words, so we shield everyone from them. All of the faithful yearn to know more about our faith and our Lord and it is time that we start trusting everyone with theology. Only then will we find ourselves a church of disciples.
God bless you, wise one. Keep proclaiming this message - tell everyone who will listen.