Young Adult Initiative Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
H O LY Y E A R N I N G S HOLY L I S T E N I N G HOLY PARTNERSHIPS MARCH 2018
Holy Yearnings Holy Listening Holy Partnerships A Peer-to-Peer Young Adult Ministry Initiative Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary March 2018
Table of Contents Background
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Project Overview
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Congregational Fellows
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Mentoring Congregations
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Launching Congregations
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Young Adult Interviewees
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Approach
10
Themes
12
Fellows’ Reflections
19
Initial Outcomes
21
Looking Forward
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Facilitators
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Background Holy Yearnings, Holy Listening, Holy Partnerships: A Peer-to-Peer Young Adult Ministry Initiative seeks to address one of the biggest challenges churches face today: reaching millennials in meaningful ways. This multi-phase process aims to help congregations create innovative ministries to support young adults’ flourishing through an Innovation Hub housed at Garrett- Evangelical Theological Seminary which is taking place under the direction of Dr. Reginald Blount, Assistant Professor of Formation, Youth, and Culture, and with the assistance of Grant Coordinator, Jennifer Moe. Garrett-Evangelical is one of 12 Innovation Hubs supported at seminaries across the US through the Lilly Endowment’s Young Adult Initiative. Inviting congregations into new modes of deep and Holy Listening to the yearnings of young adults lies at the center of the project. Attending to the Holy Yearnings of young people requires Holy Listening that can lead to Holy Partnerships. These partnerships may give birth to new forms of Christian community that are both true to the gospel and attuned to current realities.
The Initiative will:
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2 Support congregations to design new ministries that nourish the Christian faith of young adults
3 Create a context for new learning and relationship building
4 Provide a space for young adults to put their faith into action
Invite a widening network of congregations to adapt this approach to their own contexts
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Holy Yearnings, Holy Listening, Holy Partnerships unfolds in three phases: Phase 1: Mentoring Congregations Research and learning guided the first phase. We identified ten Mentoring Congregations already effectively reaching young adults and selected one young adult from each congregation to participate as a Congregational Fellow. Fellows took part in two day-long workshops on the processes and methods of ethnographic research, qualitative data analysis, and design thinking. They collectively created an interview protocol that was designed to enable them to listen deeply to the Holy Yearnings of young adults in their contexts. Between the workshops, they each conducted three, confidential
interviews that lasted about an hour. During the second workshop, they engaged in participatory data analysis to identify salient themes that deductively emerged from the data. They also revised the protocol based on their interviewing experience. In addition, we hosted a young adult consultation to develop the curriculum for a course called, “The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Young Adults.” The current report presents findings from the Fellows’ research.
Phase 2: Mentoring and Launching Congregations Seven Launching Congregations (those seeking to begin young adult ministries) stepped forward to take part in Phase Two. The next phase invites the Mentoring and Launching Congregations to go on a learning journey with each other and the Spirit. Teams from each congregation will experience Fearless Dialogues, a tool for finding common ground among people of diverse ages, education levels, races, and classes. Using the findings from Phase One, the teams will engage in Holy Listening with young adults in their own neighborhoods. Drawing on deepened empathy, they will then engage a design process, resulting in prototypes — new ministries they will “try out” in an effort to better come alongside the Holy Yearnings of the young adults in
their contexts. Along the way, the teams will prototype and test a ministry project with young adults, learn from small failures, adjust their innovations, and try again, using coaches and mentors to better understand their community’s attitudes toward young people. This phase includes a pre- and post-assessment of congregational satisfaction and energy and attending the course, “Religious and Spiritual Lives of Young Adults.”
Phase 3: Sharing Findings In the final phase, we will mobilize our new knowledge to help change church cultures to be more hospitable to Millennial’s Holy Yearnings. We’ll do this by hosting a conference to share our findings and through a series of blogs, articles, and TED Talk-inspired sermons created by project participants including researchers, judicatory leaders, congregational teams and young
Phase 1: 2017 - 2018 Winter
Spring Mentoring Congregations identified Ethnographic training
adults themselves. We will nourish a movement of faith communities listening deeply to the Holy Yearnings of young people to form Holy Partnerships that reflect God’s future.
Phase 3: 2019-2021
Phase 2: 2018-2019 Summer
Interviews conducted Young Adult Consultation
Fall
Data harvesting Launching congregations identified
Winter Data Analysis
Learning communities form
Sharing preliminary findings
Spring Design Innovative Ministry Projects
Holy Listening
Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring
Fall
Generate collective meaning-making opportunities
Modify prototypes Launch and iterate prototypes
Summer
Disseminate findings
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Meet the Congregational Fellows These ten young adults entered a year-long fellowship to equip them to use ethnographic methods to listen deeply to and learn from their peers. The participating Fellows were selected because: they have gifts and graces for pastoral leadership, were already interested in pursuing further education for leadership, and/or would benefit from engaging with their young adult peers around the city who are leading change in their congregations. Fellows were given a stipend for their participation. In April 2017, the Fellows attended a two-day training about ethnographic listening and meaning-making. They also helped construct an interview protocol. Over the summer, they each recorded three hour-long interviews with young adults from their congregations. The open-ended questions asked, what do young adults care deeply about; what do they think is working in faith communities; and what do they desire from church.
In Fall 2017, the fellows gathered to pour over the transcribed interviews, listening collectively to the themes they heard emerging. This collective data analysis and story harvesting session created a learning community of listeners who wrestled with the data together—rather than a more traditional approach to data harvesting, which leaves interpretation to “experts” who tend to be academics far removed from young adult realities. The Fellows attended two two-hour webinars for additional learning and support during the course of the fellowship. The current report presents the preliminary findings about young adults’ desires and challenges regarding participation in a faith community. These insights result from an embodied exploration that centers young adults as experts on their own lives.
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Congregational Fellows
La Tonja Ellis
Christopher Hudson
Alexa Eisenbarth
Briona Jones
Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church
CityPoint Community Church
Gilead Church
Grace Church of Logan Square
Dominique Rutledge
Timothy Kim
Peter Schwich
Root and Branch Church
Redeemer Church
Erin ColemanBranchaud
Colin McDonald
Victoria Winslow
Urban Village Church
Trinity United Church of Christ
The Firehouse
St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square
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Congregational Fellows Fellows spend their time working as students and as volunteers.
Fellows are between the ages of 23 and 38 38
Four fellows are divinity school students: two attend Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, another attends Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and the fourth is a seminarian at McCormick Theological Seminary. Two fellows are pastors. Others engage in paid and unpaid work as pastor, school counselor, marketing manger, engineer, cheerleading coach, podcast host, community organizer, and children’s bookstore storyteller. They serve their congregations in several ways: as children’s minister, lay chaplain, young adult network president, social action chair, pastor, pastoral resident, member, co-chair of a 20something young adult ministry, and leadership team member.
29 27
30
31
32
33
27
25 23
Fellows are racially diverse.
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The cohort included an equal number of young men and women
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Women
1 White/Caucasian
Black/African American
Men
Asian/Korean American
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Mentoring Congregations Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church African Methodist Episcopal
Redeemer Church Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Arnett Chapel is an African Methodist Episcopal church that is socially conscious, Bible-focused, and active in the surrounding neighborhood. They have a very committed young adult ministry and are launching a Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School in 2018.
Redeemer Church has a variety of campuses and ministries, including prison ministry and a specific focus on 20-30 year-olds. Redeemer is an ELCA Lutheran church located in Park Ridge, though denominational information is not a part of their branding.
CityPoint Community Church Non-Denominational
Root and Branch Church Christian Church Disciples of Christ
CityPoint is building a multi-ethnic and multi-generational church community that reflects the diversity of the South Loop of Chicago. Their motto is “Simply Caring, Simply Community, Simply Church.” They gather in an intimate, casual environment and are committed to community service and to “learning and living the principles of the Bible”
Root and Branch leaves “room for the sacred and the strange.” They are LGBTQ affirming and have a motto that includes: “from strangers into neighbors; from consumers into creators; from wanderers into wonderers.” They are a “sometimes spontaneous, occasionally mobile, often adventurous, group whose schedule can change from time to time.”
The Firehouse/House Church Non-Denominational The House Church is a hip-hop worship experience, holding services on the first Saturday of every month in affiliation with the non-denominational Lawndale Community Church. They also host a community arts center called The Firehouse, and are part of the larger community development project of Lawndale Community Church. Gilead Church United Church of Christ /Christian Church Disciples of Christ This north-side Chicago church brews their own small-batch beer and embraces the practices of telling true stories, sharing good food, and worshiping beautifully. Their motto is: “We are open and affirming, antiracist, local, organic, slow-church, just peace, free range, real butter Christians.” Grace Church of Logan Square United Methodist Grace Church is committed to “challenging unjust beliefs about faith and community” and service to its neighbors in Logan Square. They are “coffee drinkers, tea drinkers, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, tattooed, lost, found … filled with questions, homosexual, heterosexual, thinkers, dreamers, social justice champions, loud singers, quiet singers, teachers, students, Children of God.”
St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square Evangelical Lutheran Church in America St. Luke’s, founded in 1900, practices “radical welcome” and justice that includes, attending city council meetings, partnering with grassroots community organizations, and marching through the streets in public witness to God’s love. It is part of Reconciling Works: Lutherans for Full Participation, which is committed to the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in church and society. Trinity United Church of Christ United Church of Christ Trinity UCC enacts a theology of liberation and social justice. Their motto is: “We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian.” They host health and fitness activities, provide access to fresh produce through weekly farmers’ markets, and support the growth of local black-owned farms, vendors, and businesses. They are located on Chicago’s south side. Urban Village Church Edgewater United Methodist Urban Village is a multi-campus congregation whose mission is to create “Jesus-loving, inclusive communities that ignite the city.” They are committed to nurturing a church without walls and have a track record for mentoring a new generation of pastoral leaders. They are open and affirming of LGBTQ+ people. 6
The ten Mentoring Congregations are located in neighborhoods across the city of Chicago.
Gilead Church
United Church of Christ/Christian Church Disciples of Christ
Urban Village Church Edgewater United Methodist
Redeemer Church Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Grace Church of Logan Square United Methodist
Root and Branch Church The Firehouse/House Church
Christian Church Disciples of Christ
Non-Denominational
CityPoint Community Church Non-Denominational
Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church African Methodist Episcopal
Trinity United Church of Christ United Church of Christ
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The six Launching Congregations are located in neighborhoods in and beyond Chicago. Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church Minneapolis, MN
St. Mark A.M.E. Church Milwaukee, WI
Destiny Christian Church of Evanston Jesus-Love Korean Church Skokie, IL
Evanston, IL
Second Baptist Church Evanston, IL
Gilead Church
United Church of Christ / Disciples of Christ
Urban Village Church Edgewater
North Shore Baptist Church
United Methodist
Redeemer Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
St. Luke's Lutheran Church of Logan Square Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Grace Church of Logan Square United Methodist
Root and Branch Church The Firehouse/House Church
Christian Church Disciples of Christ
Non-Denominational
CityPoint Community Church Non-Denominational
Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church United Church of Christ
Trinity United Church of Christ United Church of Christ
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Young Adult Interviewees Most research subjects are in their late 20s.
Interviewees come from diverse faith backgrounds. Some grew up praying every night before bed. Some attended church regularly. They went to Vacation Bible School and taught Bible study. Some have experienced crises of faith. Some grew up without faith and began their faith journeys outside their family of origin. Others described their ongoing relationships with God throughout their lives. Some described how life crises led them to deepen their relationships with Christ. Some have explored world religions and studied various holy texts. They visited and “dated� different types of churches over the years.
ages 31-37
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Interviewees are single, married, and divorced. Most, but not all, identify as heterosexual. Others identify as gay, queer, lesbian, or did not specify.
ages 21-25
5
ages 26-30
14
Half of research subjects identify as White/Caucasian. Most research subjects identify as women.
15 11
Men Transgender
4 White/Caucasian
Black/African American
Women
Other (Korean, Korean, Latino,Latino, Mixed, Mixed, Haitian/Africanandand Haitian/African American American 9
An Empathy-based Approach
The project took a human-centered design approach. This iterative method, championed at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d-school), is a way to produce creative solutions to complex challenges based on the underlying needs of targeted users. The Fellows engaged in the first step of the dschool’s multi-step design method, which is centered around gathering the perspectives of real people. The method uses solution-focused thinking, which starts with a goal and considers both present and future conditions, along with the parameters of the problem. This process includes phases of: 1) empathizing, 2) defining the challenge, 3) ideation, 4) prototyping, and 5) testing. The Fellows approached the empathy phase by hearing young adults’ experiences of and perspectives about faith and community. They sought to decipher what motivates young adults to engage with congregations. The Fellows conducted hour-long ethnographic interviews, with 30 young adults in their 20s and 30s, about their experience in their congregations, their faith backgrounds, and their lifestyles more broadly. (The empathy phase will be repeated in Phase 2, as new churches enter the project and all participating congregations move through design thinking). The project used a referral sampling method to locate and identify interviewees. Most interviews took place in person, but a few were conducted by video or by phone.
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Story Harvesting As we harvested the data, we allowed the voices of the interviewees into the room, closely hearing what they had to say, sharing our insights, and identifying themes and outlying ideas. These categories framed our subsequent coding of the data and ongoing meaning making.
The following themes most frequently emerged from the data: 1. Welcoming and Accessible 2. Relevant and Relatable Leaders 3. Relationships, Connection, & Community 4. Spiritual Practices 5. Social Justice Oriented 6. Painful Past Experiences of Church 7. Ambivalence about Christian Label
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Welcoming and Accessible* Interviewees found communities where they feel accepted and comfortable being themselves: places where they are truly seen. In some cases, the churches offer a casual, warm, and joyful atmosphere. Their churches exhibit an openness to diversity that speaks to the young adults’ inclusive values.
I feel like myself here. I feel welcomed and affirmed. This is the kind of place I could bring a failure and feel like there are people to lift me up and be with me through it. - Daniel, a 26-year-old White man
They held a vegan potluck! The church was so loving and accepting of everyone who walked through the door and they were also conscious of sustainability. - Robin, a 27-year-old White transgender person
There was a sense of I didn’t need to change to be a part of the community. That sure was huge because a lot of church experience that I had I thought I needed to live up to whatever the culture of the church is, whereas I felt like [here] it was: whatever you bring, bring it. - Roy, a 35-year-old White man
There is diversity in the church in terms of racial, ethnically. I can appreciate that. And as I reflect on that, the biggest appreciation is there’s not this big talk about it. …I also appreciate that there is an openness to just loving people. We don’t have to agree with where you are or your life circumstance. - Liz, a 36-year-old Black woman
Come as you are! I love that! And I love that [the pastor] has a sense of humor -that’s finding the light in everything! - Michelle, a 33-year-old Asian PacificIslander woman
* Quotes have been edited for clarity. All names are pseudonyms for the purposes of interviewees’ confidentiality.
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Relevant and Relatable Leaders Interviewees value pastors who take time to cultivate relationship with them. They want to see themselves reflected in the people holding the mic. They hope pastors will be approachable role models they can emulate and with whom they can connect. They welcome opportunities to see the pastors as full people who are socially engaged and emotionally intelligent.
(I came back) because [the pastors] were chill. They were really inviting and personable and seemed smart and interesting. - Lisa, a 23-year-old White woman
Wouldn’t it be awesome if there were more pastors willing to march in the Gay Pride Parade or willing to show up with Make Love Louder or willing to go outside of the very safe, deliberate protected spaces of Sunday morning pulpits? - Jeff, a 37-year-old Black man
I was like ‘Yes, I will come back for sure!’ I really like [the pastor]! I would just like die laughing. I felt like I was literally like, you know, getting the word from God, but also like someone was in a little mini comedy show up there, too. - Jean, a 30-year-old Black woman
I was so grateful to him (the pastor) for being a role model for how to be a person of faith and an activist. That is central to why I am at [my church] and even deeper than that why I am a Christian still to this day. - Gail, a 25-year-old White woman
As a queer person, having a queer pastor as the head of the church -- I cannot say how incredibly important that is for why I feel welcome and like a valuable part of the community. - Daniel, a 26-year-old White man
[In my past experience, the pastors] were like unapproachable celebrities, that you couldn't see or touch. …But there's this sense of humility from the staff and [the pastor] and I just really appreciated that. …I had never experienced any pastor come up to me like, ‘oh let's get coffee.’ I've always been in a bigger church, where the pastor is so busy he doesn't have time to socialize or talk with individual members. So I thought that was really amazing! - Kathy, a 24-year-old Black woman
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Relationships, Connection, & Community Interviewees appreciated being seen, known, remembered, and sought out. They want to feel cared for without judgment. Feeling connected to God in community is a powerful draw for them. They want to leave feeling restored and nourished. They appreciate connections within church that expand to their daily lives.
Every time I go back to that church I feel like this really strong feeling of restoration … I don’t know, community is the only way to put it. – Lori, a 28-year-old White woman
I’m able to witness what’s happening when you look around the room and everyone is just in there, we’re all connected. And we’re there for the same purpose, and I think it’s, it’s really love. - Michelle, a 33-year-old Asian PacificIslander woman
It also like is very evident in the way that Passing of the Peace happens at the church and in the way that people interact after the service: It’s a community where people are really necessarily communing and care about one another and don’t judge one another. – Dara, a 28-year-old White woman
I definitely feel connected to not only God here, but to the people of God, which is one of the more important things for me. – Anna, a 28-year-old Korean American woman
If I don’t show up on a Sunday, people are blowing my phone up, saying: where you at? Are you coming at all? So that makes me feel good…. That core group of people who I know I can talk to about my outside life .. who are giving me advice, and I can hang out with them. - Yvonne, a 28-year-old Black woman
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Spiritual Practices The young adults in our study are creating and adapting forms of prayer and ritual to fit their schedules, lifestyles, and preferences. They are interacting with prayer as a way to encounter the world and as a tool for managing stress and anxiety. Prayer is both a habit and an ongoing experiment.
There are moments where I’m just like super stressed and super worn out and I’m just like, ‘God, can you give me something?’ and it’s not to say he does this every time, because he does not. But there are moments where he does. He will take the pain away or clear my mind. - Jean, a 30-year-old Black woman
I'm finding out what it means to be prayerful in every moment. I'm learning about what it means to have both an experiential and an intellectual understanding of God. And I think I am characterizing myself as like actively seeking to live in the love of Christ, now in a way that I never did, even when church filled up a lot of my calendar. - Julie, a 25-year-old White woman
You know what? Crazy thing. Because I’ll just be sitting, riding my forklift, driving around, and I’ve got a ‘God is great’ playlist. The guy is rapping and speaking about the trials and tribulations and I sit there and I’m like: ‘man look I’m going to play this playlist.’ If I’m struggling, I’ll sit there and have a time with God. I’ll talk to God the whole day. It won't be a prayer, it would just be like trying to talk to God the whole day. - Anthony, a 30-year-old Black man
A thing that really piqued my interest was learning about beach baptism. One thing that definitely attracts me to a church is hearing about things that are not traditional. Okay, so we’re going to go to the beach and get baptized? That just made me want to participate, because we serve a radical Christ. For his day, he did things that were not the norm ... And so, I visited [the church] and kept going and dated the church for a little while. And probably after six or seven months I joined. - Liz, a 36-year-old Black woman
I do pray every night before I go to bed, just out of like—it’s something I’ve always done — so I continue to do it. But I still go back and forth on whether it’s silly, I guess. - Samantha, a 28-year-old Black woman
There’s this grotto and it’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and anyone can come in. It’s at the back of the church, off the alley. There are saints and a big Jesus and you can light candles and sit there and pray quietly. When I didn’t go to church and I needed to be alone, I would go there and center myself. - Melanie, a 31-year-old Hispanic woman 15
Social Justice Oriented Congregations struggling to interpret the gospel through the lens of contemporary issues such as racism, mass incarceration, sexual orientation/gender-identity justice, poverty, and climate change are attractive to the interviewees. They want to be involved in churches where they can find like-minded sojourners committed to enacting their faith by working for the betterment of their world.
The job description for worship leader actually had things about [the community] being LGBTQ inclusive and anti-racist, and I was like ‘this is kind of awesome!’ … Now I find myself in a community where I can go out and be supported and know my church is fully behind what I’m doing on Gay Pride Day or in Black Lives Matters rally . - Jeff, a 37-year-old Black man
I’m thinking about racism as original sin in the American context, and I’m having the realization that you can do things with the faith in ways that are relevant to the things I care about. …I could definitely say that going with people from church to participate in the march in Springfield, taking action directly involved in a political movement about struggling people, and people who are being left behind—having an opportunity to do that in community was super important. - Daniel, a 26-year-old White man
I have been really pleased at how [my church] has tried to engage people in addressing concerns, and raising things that they want to change in the world. - Lori, a 28-year-old White woman
The pastor and others here have helped me see that justice for all people is part of our mission as people of faith. People who are Christian must be loving, but not just talk about these values but actually put them into action. - Gail, a 25-year-old White woman
I was looking for a place to have courage to do what I wouldn’t do otherwise. So I have the ability to make decisions based on what I think my impact on the world would be. A lot of what gives me satisfaction is getting to that, actually following through on that. - Randy, a 25-year-old White man
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Painful Past Experiences of Church Many of our interviewees spent a period of time as “church refugees” after experiencing Christian communities that were limiting, painful, and hypocritical. They grapple with belief and belonging and sometimes feel ambivalent about their identities as Christians. So my four years in college shook me to the core of what I was as a believer, so much so that I stopped going to church. - Anna, a 28-year-old Korean American woman I had this breakup with Jesus that I had a lot of pain around. - Daniel, a 26-year-old White man
Christians are so devoted about going to church but they would just do so many hateful things to my mother, and myself, and I never understood how you could be so devoted to going to church and spew hate. - Jean, a 30-year-old Black woman
The church has been deadly in its impact on LGBTQ people and the church needs to own that and do better. – Jeff, a 37-year-old Black man
I have a group of friends who grew up in the church and have had terrible experiences and a lot of them have like walked away or are atheist or agnostic. A lot of them are in the church, but they carry with them a lot of baggage. - Kathy, a 24-year-old Black woman
Something that created distance between me and God was seeing a lot of hypocrisy in people who call themselves Christian but will go drop bombs or are misogynist or racist. – Lori, a 28-year-old White woman
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Ambivalence about Christian Label Interviewees hesitate to call themselves “Christian,” even when they espouse belief in Jesus, are regular church attendees, and find meaning in being part of a church community. They are acutely aware of the stigma of the label and want to avoid being associated with people who do not share their values. Some struggle with not feeling “Christian” enough.
People make assumptions about the word ‘Christian.’ But within Jewish circles I’m very happy to say ‘yeah, I’m Christian’ because they’re not going to put these evangelical conservative assumptions on me. - Robin, a 27-year-old White transgender person
‘Christian’ in America does have some negative connotations …I try to be Christ-like in all capacities, and if that is what Christian means then sure. I can be a Christian. - Jean, a 30-year-old Black woman
It’s been really nice to have a support group for how you can be a Christian, despite what your fellow Christians are currently doing. (I’m) trying to be a force of good in the world. - Lisa, a 23-year-old White woman
The word (Christian) comes with a lot of baggage right now. In the place and time and culture that we live, I know that I inherit a lot of baggage with that word. And I’m not excited about all of that baggage. - Daniel, a 26-year-old White man
I’m not a 100% [Christian] – I guess I can’t really –I feel like I can claim it, but maybe others would feel like, I wouldn’t be able to claim that I was Christian. - Samantha, a 28-year-old Black woman
I say I would identify as Christian around Christians, because then they'll be cool about it. But I feel like Christian is this dirty word, so I probably would say ‘oh I love Jesus, like I follow Jesus, like I think Jesus is cool.’ I'm just careful with my like wordage, verbiage because I just, I just want to be, not triggering. - Kathy, a 24-year-old Black woman
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Fellows’ Reflections A final step in Phase 1 of the project involved interviewing Congregational Fellows about their experience of learning ethnographic practices and adapting them to a process we call Holy Listening. These interviews allowed the Fellows to voice how the process affected their ongoing practice as Christians engaged in lay and professional ministries. The Fellows reported that Holy Listening holds potential for congregations and ministry leaders wishing to better engage young adults. They reported experiencing through the interview process a kind of one-on-one encounter that is rare in their day-to-day lives. They pointed out that the act of slowing down and giving focused attention brought moments of shared connection, laughter, joy, and delight.
Fellows experienced the interview as a mutual discovery process. They heard interviewees articulating ideas as if for the first time and reflecting on questions they had never been asked. Several mentioned witnessing “aha moments” such as this: “He lit up as if maybe he hadn’t told the story before,” one Fellow observed. The interviews enabled the young adults to think about their past experiences in new ways. “In the midst of what we were talking about, they hadn’t dug a lot deeper than surface… they felt certain ways about church, but hadn’t really explored it further,” one Fellow commented. Another reflected about the stories their interviewees shared: “It wasn’t something they were discovering for the first time. It was, at times, a rediscovery. Or it was something they may have known and may not have verbalized in a while.” Some interviewees told Fellows they felt more “connected and present to their stories” than usual. One Fellow described how the structure of the interview was a way of giving “the spotlight and letting them shine in it.” Both Fellows and interviewees found Holy Listening beneficial, pleasurable, and worth repeating. “At the end of the interview, one person said, ‘I wish we could do this more. This was really helpful for me.’ It was odd for someone to actually listen to her and not talk at her,” one
Fellow reported. Another described the power of a meaning-making moment with their interviewee: “It was very exciting for both of us… we were laughing, it was full of joy… it was a great joyful moment. Another said: “I noticed their posture seemed to change a bit, as if they feel lighter and freer.” Holy Listening enabled Fellows to connect in new ways with their young adult peers, particularly around the task of shared meaningmaking. A Fellow described the experience: “Meaning was constructed in the space between the two of us.” Another one commented “When they each talked about their experiences, it drew me in. The circle became more intimate. As you are hearing about people’s experiences and listening, you see moments where your own experience with church and Christianity become opportunities to connect your stories to theirs.” Fellows noticed similarities across interviews. “It’s interesting that the individuals were so different, but the stories are so similar,” a Fellow commented, continuing, “They all have yearning for a space in the church to be their individual self and also have that space to grow and be cultivated.” Another said: “Across the interviews, I noticed that a lot of people thrive on that sense of community … Some of them once had community and are looking for one that fits them now.” Fellows noted the process allowed for vulnerability and painful experiences to surface. One explained: “Part of the reason they were looking for a church like ours is because their church experiences have been too traditional and their questions about relevance of church and how it plays into their Christianity either were unanswered or ignored.” Another said: “I felt confident in that space. They had made themselves vulnerable: I didn’t want to leave. I was like ‘okay we should probably do this again.’ There was this trust built … and I get to keep maintaining that trust.” 19
Fellows’ Reflections continued Fellows reflected on what they found challenging about the experience. “To mute myself was something I’m not familiar with” one Fellow explained. Another remarked about the challenging nature of the process: “I was really trying to embody the Holy Listening part… to hear the deeper part that they’re communicating… It’s something I know I need to lean into, because I found myself talking more.” Fellows found the process challenged their preconceived assumptions about people and practices. One said: “Sometimes you look at people and you put them in a box automatically. One thing that surprised me about the individuals I interviewed was there’s a lot about them that I didn’t know, that I wouldn’t have expected: a lot of passions they have that I was completely unaware of. I saw them and put them in a box and thought they’d fit there. But they completely took that box and exploded it. I see that it’s important to take the time to actually see a person, hear a person, to learn what their passions are, and move forward from there.” Another said the experience helped them redefine “spiritual practice” for themselves: “I have an aversion to ‘spiritual practice’ as it’s been shown to me. But I’m reclaiming that word. I definitely think this was a spiritual practice. It’s a holy practice. It is something that’s sacred but that wasn’t ethereal. It was very much rooted and grounded in everyday life. That’s exactly what spiritual practices should be.”
“Imagine a congregation where people are intentionally having these types of conversations all the time and this forms the fabric of the congregation’s relationships. The relationship itself has value! It would be worth it, even if it were just for the sake of the relationships. But I’m thinking about something more: these conversations are so we can be more powerful together. Holy Listening is a vehicle for building solidarity. It brings us to the point where we are able to see each other’s pain, the places we’re hurt, the way world is broken, and the way we need each other to help fix it.”
Fellows came away with renewed appreciation for story-based ministry. The approach was particularly affirming to the Fellows who were already experienced with active and deep listening techniques. “It’s really hard to hate someone if we know their story,” one Fellow asserted, “Now I’m even more convinced of that.” Another Fellow commented, “I am even more convinced of a greater power… the power of listening.” Fellows recognize that Holy Listening adds value to congregational life by increasing potential for shared action. “We discover in Holy Listening what we want to do together. What our deeply held commitments are,” one Fellow remarked.
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Initial Outcomes The Project, even in its early stages, has begun to influence how the Fellows live out their faith within their congregations in several ways. “It helped us to reground ourselves in a strongly relational orientation about how we think about our mission and our ministry,” a Fellow explained. The experience showed Fellows how this type of listening can also be useful for collecting data that informs the development of a project or program. “It helped me think about a different outcome for the sort of conversations I was already committed to having as part of my ministry,” a Fellow reflected. Another said: “My ministry has changed a lot. Now I consider: how do I glean from other people and their beliefs and how do I incorporate their beliefs into what we’re trying to do as a ministry? How can we include their thoughts and visions in the conversation?” Still another reflected: “It made me more aware of the other young adults in our congregation. We have a large congregation. I was only focused on the individuals I already knew. I became more aware. I started to look around more. I started to wonder: what’s bringing that person here?… I’ve started talking to the newer young adults and just trying to figure out their story and where we all align.” The process was transformative for this Fellow who explained: “I’ve felt my own life and faith totally transformed by one-on-one conversations where the point is to talk about the shit we don’t talk about in normal life and get to the root of why people are here what’s important to them and what’s in it for them. I want my ministry going into the future to be about exploring how an organizing methodology can enrich congregational life… not only internally but also increase the effectiveness of our public ministry or witness.” Fellows enthusiastically recognized the potential of the practice to positively benefit their communities. “My hypothesis is that this sort of work is so far missing and we have an opportunity to do this work with each other as church,” a Fellow asserted. Another characterized the potential of the interview experience in these words:
“The process is all about the role of Holy Listening as a vehicle for building solidarity. The point is to create an opportunity where we are able to see each other’s whole pain, the places we’re hurt, the way world is broken, and the way we need each other.” A Fellow described this realization about young adults’ diverse needs in their community, “If we hadn’t taken the time to listen we wouldn’t have seen the differences at all.” One commented on the challenge of applying what they learned, “We’re thinking about redesigning worship based on what we’ve heard… its 200 years of strict tradition and we’re trying to move around within that structure and framework.” Another Fellow said they feel confident about their community’s ability to apply the lessons they learned: “I don’t think it would be a huge culture shift. There are a lot of things [my church] is doing well. Once they understand the need and what’s happening… they will be very responsive to. It’s not a massive change, but it will still be like an aha moment.” Several Fellows envisioned a broader application for Holy Listening. One explained: “My dream for that is to be able to create a space in the community where youth and young adults can come, be themselves, talk about the things that really bother them.” Another asserted: “I have had this idea in my mind about creating a “How to be a decent person” training. That arose from this experience… We’re not taught how to listen to one another and how to be present to one another.” A Fellow suggested that all community members be trained to listen to each other, so that pastoral care “doesn’t have to be concentrated in the busy pastors.” Another suggested that the pastors have deep conversations with all their parishioners at least once. “It’s a way of getting someone to feel seen in the community very quickly, and you don’t really know what the hell’s going on out there unless you do that,” they asserted. Finally, Fellows recognized the need for Holy Listening as an ongoing process. “Doing this once now in 2017 won’t tell us in 2025 what we need,” a Fellow remarked. 21
Looking Forward As researchers facilitating the Holy Yearnings, Holy Listening, Holy Partnership Initiative, we set out to test our hunch that young adults engaging in deep and Holy Listening with peers might hold promise for churches desiring to better meet the needs of this generation. Informed —but not bound—by ethnographic methodologies, the Congregational Fellows have completed a year together, becoming a learning community, finding shared passion, and experiencing great value in the seemingly simple task of hosting a particular type of interview. The feedback from the ten Congregational Fellows and their thirty peers, not surprisingly, affirms the call for more face-to-face, one-on-one conversations about what matters most in life. These kinds of conversations hold value in real time as inherently good and as seedbed for new and deeper, community-forming relationship. Holy Listening also holds value in the long term as people imagine the work they might do better together, and as they seek to create positive change through their communities for the sake of their neighbors and the world. This Initiative was informed by scholarly and mainstream works that have sought to better understand the projects and organizations that are using innovation to engage those who might not otherwise affiliate with conventional faith communities. As the project unfolds, we will continue to learn from and be in conversation with these efforts. Namely, these findings corroborate the research of social scientists at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture who conducted a large-scale study on religious innovation. The Religious Competition and Creative Innovation project (RCCI), funded by the John Templeton Foundation, explored the development of innovative forms of religious belief, practice and organization. Holy Listening, Holy Yearnings was also influenced by the work of Harvard Divinity School Ministry Innovation Fellows, Angie Thurston and Casper ter Kuile. Funded by the
Fetzer Institute, their report, “Something More,” offers case studies of religious innovators from across the spectrum of religious traditions who are imagining new possibilities for their traditions. These works, among others, provide a lens through which we can observe and understand the qualities and characteristics of communities that are creatively adapting during this period of massive religious flux. The Initiative’s grounding in this wider context enables us to more effectively support congregations facing the adaptive challenges before them. As we look forward, we envision new forms of congregational life growing from a process of deep, Holy Listening that cultivates empathy toward young adults. We will continue to mine the possibility of deploying an ever-widening circle of this “faithful remnant’—young adult leaders who do still affiliate (to varying degrees) with ever-evolving forms of Christianity. These young adults are finding ways to live out their faith in a variety of vocations, including hybrid forms of pastoral leadership. They are exemplified by our Congregational Fellows—can often be found within and around the edges of faith communities. They provide access to the questions, doubts, and “Holy Yearnings” of their wider cohort—the friends, co-workers, and social media acquaintances who are dissatisfied by or disaffected from institutional religious forms. When given a platform within existing congregations, these young adults might find allies among older generations of Christians who are willing to translate the life-giving traditions, practices, and stories to fit the emerging spiritual needs of new generations. Teaching and learning toward the creation of “communities of Holy Listening” might indeed provide a next most faithful step. Dori Baker Tobin Belzer
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Facilitators Rev. Dr. Dori Baker is Senior Fellow for Research and Learning at the Fund for Theological Exploration (FTE), an Atlanta-based leadership incubator for the church and academy. Her research lies at the intersection of young adult culture, innovative leadership, cultural studies, and spiritual practices that sustain activism. She wrote Doing Girlfriend Theology: God-Talk with Young Women and edited the book, Greenhouses of Hope: Congregations Nurturing Young People Who Will Change the World. She currently edits a Chalice Press series on young adults, vocational discernment, and faith-based leadership for social change and is the editor of numerous journal articles. Dori received her PhD in Religious Studies from Northwestern University, is a graduate of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and is an elder in the United Methodist Church. She lives in Lynchburg, Virginia where she is an active volunteer around issues related to racial justice. Bethany Stolle is the founder of Stolle Creative and is an interaction designer, curriculum developer, and instigator. She put her youth and family ministry degree to work at Augsburg Fortress, designing physical and digital products for children, youth, and adults, and helped launch Sparkhouse which developed a number of awardwinning youth ministry resources under her leadership. Bethany studied Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship under Jon Kolko at the Austin Center for Design and facilitates design and strategy workshops across the country. Through Stolle Creative, Bethany helps companies design products and services that put users first. Her skills include design research and synthesis, product vision and strategy, instructional design, content development, usability testing, team leadership, and group facilitation. She is passionate about working on “wicked problems,” developing empathy through design research, and making space for people to create together.
Tobin Belzer, PhD is an applied sociologist and a Contributing Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC) at the University of Southern California. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University (2014, 2015-2016) and a Research Associate at the CRCC (2004-2014). Tobin earned her PhD in sociology and master’s degree in women’s studies from Brandeis University. As a doctoral candidate, she was awarded the Joshua Venture Fellowship for Young Jewish Social Entrepreneurs. Belzer was a 2007-08 Fellow of the Congregational Studies Team's Engaged Scholars Program, funded by the Lilly Endowment. She was awarded the Hadassah Award for Excellence in Writing about Women from the American Jewish Press Association. With Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler, she is the co-editor of Joining the Sisterhood: Young Jewish Women Write Their Lives (SUNY Press, 2003). Rev. Dr. Karen E. Mosby is currently a PhD student in the Christian education and congregational studies track at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Over the course of her 30+ years in ordained pastoral ministry, she has served as the Pastor of Pastoral Care and Administration at Second Baptist Church (Evanston); Pastor of Good News Community Church United Church of Christ (Chicago); Director of Contextual Education at Chicago Theological Seminary (Chicago); and an Executive Director of Programs at Good News Partners (Chicago). Her published writings include ”’Our Sons and Daughters Shall Prophesy’: P(r)eaching with Millennials” (DMin Dissertation, 2014) as well as contributions to Aspire: The New Women of Color Study Bible (2007); Living Stones in the Household of God: The Legacy and Future of Black Theology (2003); and Sister to Sister: Devotions for and from African American Women, Vol. 2 (1999). She received a bachelor of science in journalism from Northwestern University and the master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. 23
Young Adult Initiative Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 2121 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201 847.866.3861 | Garrett.edu
Funding for the Young Adult Initiative comes from Lilly Endowment Inc. An Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation, Lilly Endowment Inc. was created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family – J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli – through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. The Endowment exists to support the causes of religion, education and community development. Lilly Endowment’s religion grant-making is designed to deepen and enrich the religious lives of American Christians. It does this largely through initiatives to enhance and sustain the quality of ministry in American congregations and parishes. More information can be found at www.lillyendowment.org.