The Ministry of Incarnation

Pete Erickson (perickson@faithink.com)

by Pete Erickson

Not everything that matters is meaningful. Tradition is grounded and formed in the values that inform our identity and guide our practices. Traditionalism is spending time on practices without wondering if they are aligned with mission, vision, and values. That dissonance you feel every change of seasons is the tension between tradition and traditionalism.

If you believe social media groups, it seems we spend 80% of the time in our work focusing on the technical parts of our job that provide a predictable comfort and essential function to the business of the church in faith formation:

  • Branding

  • Curriculum

  • Scope and Sequence

  • Scheduling

  • Registrations and Group Lists

  • Marketing/Communication

  • Program Requirements

And we assume that’s enough. The reality is, no young person during a confirmation interview has ever listed those things among the most formative to their faith journey. Instead, they talk about the care of their small group primarily about their small group leader.

We call it the leaven in the bread of the small group model. A mentor who has

  • walked and is walking the journey of faith,

  • who is real

  • who creates safe space

  • who wonders about important things without judgment.

 Those are the stories I hear about. Those are the transformational and sustaining elements of ministry.

 If we’ve learned anything over the last three years, it’s that the Pandemic has only accelerated what has already been happening in the relationship between the organized church and the CHURCH as a people in the world. In this liminal time and space, I have wondered:

  • Is the church building still a central hub of a young person’s relationship with the church?

  • If so, what does this mean for worship spaces? Youth rooms? Classrooms? Nurseries?

  • Programmatically, is “more” better? Or is “better” better?

  • Are full calendars of events a sign of vitality? Can we staff or program our way back to normal knowing  the complexity, busy-ness of families.

 What would happen if we changed the formula on how we spend our time?

  • Growing adult leaders to not just supervising young people but adults who have a passion for mentoring, who love young people and are vulnerable.

  • Investing our budget into the care, development and re-creation of adults who mentor young people.

  • Share stories about transformation in these relationships.

 That’s the ministry of incarnation.

Pete Erickson