Our Vibrant Faith team just returned from our first in-person retreat of the year, where (among other things) we focused on the foundation of our calling as a church-serving organization. To do that, we revisited the priorities and passions of Dr. Merton Strommen, the ground-breaking academic who founded Search Institute and its little-sister offshoot, The Youth & Family Institute (which later morphed into Vibrant Faith). Even today, Mert’s five core beliefs—the mission-minded imperatives that fueled his work—are prophetic call-outs to ministry leaders who are hungry to add weight to their impact.
These are Mert’s emphatic self-reminders as he straddled the ministry and academic worlds—little Post-It notes to himself on the intersection between research and practice in ministry…
- “His choice and conceptualization of research projects will reflect his awareness that the church is not only a part of the Gospel but also God’s mission to the world. And the research project, then, is a demonstration of God’s mission.”
- “His sense of mission will impel him to the higher standards of research and a continuing discontent with present insights into important matters.”
- “His awareness of the limits of psychological research will encourage a God-given humility. He will ask that his findings be a stimulus to inquiry and reflection and not a new voice of authority in the church.”
- “He will interpret his data in light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. He knows also that when his church does not live by her reconciliation, she thereby deprives the world. Thus he sees his task as a ministry to the church through helping her listen and be questioned.”
- “He will view scientific advance as part of God’s continuing creation, to be employed in gaining a more rational understanding of those with whom he would share himself and his faith.”
Together, Mert’s imperatives add up to a commitment to truth in ministry—the co-mingled truth about “God’s revelation in Jesus Christ” and the truths we discover in “scientific advance.” Research, then, is best-seen as “a demonstration of God’s mission.” We behold the truth about God as revealed in the person of Jesus, and we behold the truths, surfaced and revealed by research, that underlie our relationships. This means we are wide awake in our relationship with God, and wide awake in our relationships with each other. At Vibrant Faith, we’ve translated this into a simple mission: Helping people increase their capacity to be present to God, and increase their capacity to be present to one another.
This brings me to Jonathan Haidt’s electrifying book The Anxious Generation—released last year and dropping like a boulder in a mountain lake, rippling out to our cultural shorlines. In a long piece written for The Boston Globe, Haidt’s lead researcher for the book, Zach Rausch, spotlights a culturally uncomfortable truth uncovered by their exploration into the catalysts of anxiety among young people: Families that maintain their core religious commitments and closely identify with a particular religious community tend to create “happiness ecosystems” for their kids.
Rausch and Haidt set out to explore what happened when young people (starting in 2010 or so) were “inadvertently deprived” of “real-world community, independence, and free play.” With smartphones and social media filling in as replacements, this tragic trade has fueled a “precipitous decline in their mental health.” In essence, our communal life experienced a radical shift from in-person relationships to online relationships. The result has been the onset of crippling isolation in every age group, but particularly so for young people. A worrying decline in mental health is the fruit of this, and explains the title of Haidt’s book.
While the effects of this wholesale (and rapid) shift in our relational culture extend into every nook and cranny of contemporary life, Haidt and Rausch found that some clear cohorts have escaped the worst of consequences—conservative religious communities. Apart from the theological beliefs of these communities, Rausch says a few sociological distinctives seem to operate as antidotes to infectious anxiety, producing young people who are, simply, happier in life:
- Tradition and Structure – Conservative communities typically value loyalty, authority, and sanctity, which foster openness to religious traditions and structure. Religious families, and especially conservative religious families, “tend to emphasize structure and duty, providing children with clear boundaries and roles to play in the home and community.” Inside these clear boundaries and roles kids are more certain of their identity and less influenced by the chaotic influences of their culture.
- People vs. Machines – Rausch says his research reveals that parents who are more secular, and more liberal, tend to be less restrictive in how their kids use technology, paving the way for deeper, broader attachments to social media. In contrast, says Rausch, conservative teenagers spend more time investing themselves in in-person community—with peers and adults in religious activities and services.
- Rooted in Real-World Community – Rausch says: “Human communities were always rooted in specific places—places imbued with meaning, places with history and a shared identity… Virtual networks are not sufficient replacements for real-world communities.”
Neither Rausch or Haidt have any religious connection or commitment themselves—but both have highlighted the clear social benefits that traditional, structured religious communities still deliver for young people. The more kids see their identity as embedded in a boundaried religious community—an immersive religious ecosystem—the happier and less anxious they are. Even more, say Rausch and Haidt, kids growing up in these communities are the only cohorts that have demonstrated some level of immunity to the infectious spread of anxiety in our culture.
At Vibrant Faith, we’re called to extend Merton Strommen’s passionate commitment to vertical depth (a person’s capacity to be present to God) and horizontal depth (a person’s capacity to be present to others)—through the intersection of a life centered on Jesus and a life invested in the relational truths revealed by research. We’re creating tools to help you in this kindred mission, including:
• The Sacred Stories Project – This multimedia resource offers your people a simple, safe, and “normal” way to share aspects of their story in natural, genuine ways. And you get a more connected, honest, and “known” congregation. It’s four guided sessions with accompanying video segments from Adam Young, trauma counselor and host of the podcast The Place We Find Ourselves.
• Listening to Jesus Together – It’s a set of six carefully crafted “listening encounters” designed for three people to experience together—online or in-person. The goal is to give people in your congregation a weekly “reminder habit” to help them listen to Jesus in the context of a short-term small-community experience.
• Following Jesus – It’s a curriculum resource you can use with both adults and teenagers in your church this fall—help them explore what an ABIDING/REMAINING relationship with Jesus is like. It’s an experiential, highly interactive, co-discovery way to invite people into deeper intimacy with Jesus.
• Practical Tools for Raising Faithful Kids – A small-group resource that bridges the gap between knowledge and practice in parents who want to influence their kids toward a deeper faith. You’ll receive six lessons for hybrid learning formats, editable leader and participant guides, and a PowerPoint slide deck.
Rick Lawrence is Executive Director of Vibrant Faith—he created the new curriculum Following Jesus. He’s editor of the Jesus-Centered Bible and author of 40 books, including his new release Editing Jesus: Confronting the Distorted Faith of the American Church, The Suicide Solution, The Jesus-Centered Life and Jesus-Centered Daily. He hosts the podcast Paying Ridiculous Attention to Jesus.
