A New Faith Forming Ecosystem
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For well over 100 years in the United States, Christian churches had a highly integrated religious ecosystem. It was comprised of multigenerational family faith practice and religious transmission at home; strong congregational community relationships and church life, especially participation in Sunday worship; weekly Sunday school for children and youth (and in many cases adults); and church groups (youth, men, women). Many Christian traditions relied heavily on the ethnic faith traditions of their people to transmit faith from generation to generation—at home and at church. And all of this was surrounded by an American culture that explicitly or implicitly supported the Christian value system and Christian practices.
There is no way to go back to this older ecosystem—it has eroded over the past several decades because of all the changes in the culture and society, the family, technology and communication, and more. The environment has changed, and the relationship between congregational faith formation and its environment has changed. We need a new faith formation ecosystem that reflects this changed context. This new ecosystem incorporates five, essential, interconnected components:
For a short introduction to the new vision download the overview: Vision of a New Faith Forming Ecosystem. Use the Reimagining Faith Formation Assessment Tool to examine congregational life, family faith formation, age-group faith formation, and leadership. Download the Tool in PDF or Word versions.
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Intergenerational
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Intergenerational faith formation and whole community faith experiences are at the center of the new faith formation ecosystem. “Throughout Scripture there is a pervasive sense that all generations were typically present when faith communities gathered for worship, for celebration, for feasting, for praise, for encouragement, for reading of Scripture, in times of danger, and for support and service. . . . To experience authentic Christian community and reap the unique blessings of intergenerationality, the generations must be together regularly and often—infants to octogenarians” (Holly Allen and Christine Ross, Intergenerational Christian Formation, page 84).
Guided participation in a community of practice is central. This is the recognition that congregations themselves teach. People learn by participating in the life of a community. Practices of faith are taught through the interrelationships of worship, learning, service, ritual, prayer, and more. Among the events central to the Christian community are the feasts and seasons of the church year, Sunday worship and the lectionary, sacramental and ritual celebrations, holidays and holydays, works of justice and acts of service, times of prayer, spiritual traditions, and events that originate within the life and history of a individual congregation. A faith forming education that is centered in the life of the Christian community is intrinsically an intergenerational experience. |
Family
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The family is the single most important influence on religious transmission and faith practice—a truth demonstrated in research studies, the Christian tradition, and pastoral experience. The faith of parents and grandparents, their role modeling, their teaching, their warm and affirming parenting style are key factors in religious transmission and developing highly religious children, youth, and young adults. In the new faith forming ecosystem, congregations need to equip families as centers of faith formation developed around three essential elements.
Congregations equip families to become centers of learning and faith growth at home by nurturing family faith and developing the faith life of parents and grandparents, strengthening family life by focusing on family asset-building, and developing the knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents (and grandparents) for parenting. |
Age Group
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In the 21st century faith formation needs to be seen as a lifelong journey of discipleship—a process of experiencing, learning, and practicing the Christian faith as we seek to follow Jesus and his Way in today’s world.
Age group and generational faith formation addresses the unique life tasks, needs, interests, and spiritual journeys of age groups and generations across the whole lifespan. The eight faith forming processes provide both the framework for a comprehensive age-specific formation and the content - knowledge and practices - of the Christian faith: caring relationships, celebrating liturgical seasons, celebrating rituals and milestones, learning the Christian tradition and applying it to life, praying and spiritual formation, reading the Bible, serving people in need and working for justice and caring for creation, and worshipping God with the faith community. In addition age group faith formation includes life issues appropriate to that stage of life and missional initiatives to engage the spiritual but not religious and the unaffiliated and uninterested. |
Missional
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The new faith forming ecosystem incorporates a missional emphasis by focusing on the spiritual and religious needs of those who are spiritual but not religious or unaffiliated and uninterested in religion.
First, this involves expanding and extending the church’s presence through outreach, connection, relationship building, and engagement with people where they live—engaging with people around their life situation (needs, interests, concerns), their quest for meaning and purpose in life, their drive to make a difference in world and in lives of others, and more. This first type of missional curriculum provides a safe environment for people to explore life-centered and spiritual-centered activities. Second, missional faith formation provides pathways for people to consider or reconsider the Christian faith, to encounter Jesus and the Good News, and to live as disciples in a supportive faith community. Missional faith formation guides people as they move from discovery to exploration to commitment. The catechumenal process provides one example of a pathway with its ritual stages and formational content—participation in the life of the faith community, education in Scripture and the Christian tradition, apprenticeship in the Christian life, intimate connection with the liturgy and rituals of the church, moral formation, development of a life of prayer, and engagement in actions of justice and service. Other programs cover the basics of Christianity in a multi-session course in a supportive small group environment. |
Online & Digitally Enabled
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Digital media and the online environment provide the means to connect church life, age groups/generations, and daily/home life through continuous faith formation—connecting participation in church life and events with daily/home life by using online content and connections or reaching people at home and in daily life with online faith formation content and experiences that connect to church life and events. For example:
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