Bishop George Councell introduces One Book and reflects on Chapter 1 of Almost Christian

Introduction: One Book for the Diocese of New Jersey

Our Vision is that the Diocese of New Jersey is one family of diverse and unique congregations, belonging to Jesus Christ and belonging to one another, for Jesus’ sake. That vision is realized whenever we worship or serve or bear witness together. With their “One Book” proposal, the Committee on Lifelong Christian Formation invites our diocesan community to live our vision of belonging to one another through common study of a new book entitled Almost Christian, by Kenda Creasy Dean.

I commend the Committee for their creative work in development of this proposal and the selection of a challenging volume that will help us all to think critically about what we mean when we affirm that we will “continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers” (The Baptismal Covenant). While this work is about the faith of teenagers, it is addressed to the entire Church. It details some of the Church’s unmistakable failures while never losing confidence in God. It is well written, clear and accessible. It is worthy of our best efforts to “ read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” its findings and recommendations.

My prayer is that each of our 155 congregations will develop opportunities for members to read and reflect on the issues raised in this volume. Consider study and discussion groups; forums and lectures; sermons and seminars. Stay tuned to this blog for notes on each chapter, offered by different writers across our diocese. Above all, let us keep our hearts and minds open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in the renewal of the Church. May we see today an answer to our prayer: Lord, in your mercy, make New Jersey new. Amen.

Chapter One of Almost Christian: “Becoming Christian-ish”

A recent cartoon in The New Yorker magazine pictures four people seated around a table in a sports bar, enjoying drinks and chips. One man announces, “I’m in the market for an easier religion.” [view the cartoon]

Why not something Christian-ish? How about the Church of Benign Whatever-ism? This “church” is an expression of an easier religion, known as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, whose guiding beliefs are:

1.     A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over life on earth.

2.     God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3.     The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4.     God is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem.

5.     Good people go to heaven when they die.

Now, before you read on, find a copy of The Book of Common Prayer and recite The Apostles’ Creed. Then ask yourself, “What are these two statements about? Which is the easier religion? Which is the set of beliefs that our Church has passed on to youth?”

That exercise was just one segment of a powerful daylong workshop led by Kenda Creasy Dean at our Cathedral last month, sponsored by the Committee on Lifelong Christian Formation and the Right Onward Vision Committee of the Diocese of New Jersey. Kenda Dean is a longtime youth minister, an ordained United Methodist pastor, a wife and a mother of two adolescents, a Professor of Youth, Church and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of many books and publications, including Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church.

In Chapter One, Professor Dean begins, “Let me save you some trouble,” and gives us the gist of her book: American young people are fine with religion. They just don’t care about it very much, and it doesn’t last for very long after they graduate from high school.

But, in her second paragraph, Dean plunges us into a world of trouble when asserts that, “we’re responsible.” What? Why? Because teenagers’ religiosity is a reflection of their parents’ religious devotion (or lack of it) and the devotional life of their congregations.

There is more disturbing material ahead, with lots of research to back up claims that should shake the Church down to its foundations. The results of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) are all over these pages. They are clear, convincing and point to what we already know: the question is no longer, “How can we keep young people in church?” Rather, the question is, “Does the church matter?”

At this point I pause to reassure the reader that I have no time or interest in reading another punishing study from a sociology department that tells me what’s wrong with the Church and why it can’t last. But Kenda Dean sets this research in a framework of faith and uses it to speak the truth in love to faith communities that have “fallen from faith to religion.” She finds the theological and ecclesial crises amidst the sociological findings. She writes, “In Christian tradition, faith depends on who we follow, and that depends on who we love. Believing in a person…creates a very different set of expectations than believing in ‘beliefs.’ [F]aith means cleaving to the person, the God-man, of Jesus Christ, joining a pilgrim journey with other lovers and following him into the world.”  

In her first chapter, Professor Dean also introduces us to the idea of Christian Parasitology (think of the 1979 movie Alien) and gives a quick sketch of the NSYR.

There are spiritual gems on every page and she is not at all dry or boring in her presentation. She writes with passion about a Church that has lost its passion. She makes clear that the findings of the NSYR are a mirror for the Church. God has become an object, not a subject; an idea, not a companion; a butler or a therapist, not a living Lord. And so we have passed on religion as a trivial pursuit rather than a “consequential faith.”

We can do better. There much more to learn and much to do, by God’s grace. Read this book with your parish, your diocese, your bishop. Read on. Right onward!

The Right Reverend George Councell

Bishop of New Jersey