A college of the church for the 21st century
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Church Colleges face an uncertain future as they strive to maintain their identities while adapting to massive cultural religious changes. One option is to completely jettison any sense of institutional religious identity and have no theological identity. Another is to develop an exclusive community that seeks uniformity through doctrinal statements and student conduct codes. Neither of these two options is acceptable for Lutheran Colleges. Within our theological tradition we have the resources to construct a theological identity that is both grounded in a particular tradition yet open to all. This presentation is a diagnostic case study of Wartburg College which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. All opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily reflective of Wartburg College.
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A college of the church for the 21st century
- 1. { A College of the Church for the 21st Century Pastor Brian Beckstrom
- 3. Part One: Where have we been? Institutional History, what can we build on? Part Two: Where are we? Discontinuous Cultural Change & the Church Young Adult faith development Religious Snapshot of Wartburg College Part Three: Where are we going? Our Adaptive Leadership Challenge Conclusion: An Appreciative Theological Proposal Discussion A College of the Church for the 21st Century
- 4. { Wartburg College History Where Have We Been?
- 5. { • German Pastor • Ecclesiastical Maverick • Neuendettelsau, Germany Wilhelm Löhe (1808-1872)
- 6. { • 1837: Church authorities send Löhe to obscure small town • 1849: Löhe founds Missionary Society • 1853: Creates Deaconess community • Hospitals, a Magdalen refuge and other social service projects followed. Neuendettelsau
- 7. { “Mission is the one Church of God in motion” -Wilhelm Löhe Foreign Missions
- 8. In 1844 Löhe responded to the plea of Gemran American missionaries by sending missionaries to establish a mission congregation in Frankenmuth, Michigan with a dual purpose: to give spiritual comfort to the German pioneers in the Midwest, specifically the Saginaw Valley to show the native Indians in the area "Wie gut und schön es ist Jesus zu sehen" (how good and wonderful it is to see Jesus). Mission to America
- 9. { {Rev. Georg Grossmann Saginaw, MI (1852-1853) The Beginnings of Wartburg College
- 10. {By the end of 1854 there were 3 Wartburg’s in Dubuque. Dubuque (1853-1857)
- 11. { {St. Sebald (1857-1868) The Wartburg Castle On the Move
- 12. { {Galena, IL (1868-1875) Mendota, IL 1875-1885) On The Move
- 13. { {Clinton, IA (1894-1935) Waverly, IA (1935- Present) On The Move
- 14. Historical Assets Missional Identity Adaptability Audacity Discussion: What other historical resources have I missed?
- 15. Lehman, Karen, "Wartburg College Knight Guide - Wartburg History" http://knightguides.wartburg.edu/content.php? pid=498788&sid=4101988. Accessed 10/1/14 Matthias, Ronald. Still on the Move: Wartburg College, 1852-2002. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: WDG Pub., 2002. Sources
- 16. {The privatization of faith and collapse of public religious expression Where Are We?
- 17. { {Modernism Universal truths/values Overarching theories Unified self Postmodernism Particular (local) truths/values Subjective, personalized ideas Self is fragmented Stuck in this worldview with You: Hypermodernity
- 18. [God?] Hypermodern Faith: Private, Personal, Subjective
- 19. Experiential Satisfaction Late modernity: eclipse of ethical universalism—only self remains (human flourishing reduced to self-gratification through series of experiences) “For religious people, this applies to God no less than human beings. Desire—the outer shell of love—has remained, but love itself, by being directed exclusively at the self, is lost.” – Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith Even God exists to gratify our individual desires
- 20. Incurvatus Se: The Sin of Hypermodernity Sin is a relational category. Luther: Sin = being curved in on oneself Preoccupation with self and personal experience is a form of bondage
- 21. Public Faith: An Oxymoron?
- 22. {Discontinues cultural change & the Church Where are We
- 23. Individual level: Hypermodernity is characterized by rapid cultural change driven by technological innovation, information overload, and constant communication. Institutional level: Institutions are vulnerable in hypermodernity because they often lack the agility to change and adapt to keep pace with cultural change. The result is cultural fluidity and instability The Effects of Hypermodernity
- 24. Cultural Insecurity Economic dislocation, uncertainty Demise of “career” as stable path Growing inequality Debt
- 25. Religious Climate Change “The evidence for a decades-long decline in American religiosity is now incontrovertible—like the evidence for global warming, it comes from multiple sources, shows up in several dimensions, and paints a consistent factual picture—the burden of proof has shifted to those who want to claim that American religiosity is not declining.” –Mark Chaves, “The Decline of American Religion” ARDA Guiding Paper Series
- 26. The Mega Church Anomaly Nondenominational (Evangelical) Megachurches still growing Megachurches more likely to be innovators Overall percentage of Christians in US continues to decline
- 27. Church as Restaurant Megachurches do a good job of reaching dissatisfied consumers, but not “nones” or young adults.
- 28. {Crystal Cathedral REVEAL Study What is the future of the megachurch?
- 29. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 The Rise of the None’s (Source: Diana Butler Bass “Christianity after Religion” ) Percentage of US Population (2011) American Religious Trends
- 30. {Young Adult Faith Where are we?
- 31. A Sign of things to Come 25-30% of young adults are “none’s” Only 25% attend worship weekly 40% never pray.
- 32. Change is the new normal Young adult are… Getting married and having kids later. Will have 15-20 jobs in their lifetime Have less life security that previous generations
- 33. Spiritual Tinkerers “A tinkerer puts together a life from whatever skills, ideas, and resources that are readily at hand.” – Robert Wuthnow, After the Baby Boomers
- 34. Teens described virtually the same religious faith at the end of the first year out as they did at its beginning, except that their frequency of attendance at religious services declined. It was as if my teen respondents had secured their religious identity (or nonreligious identity) in a lockbox soon after graduating from high school. Though they may not have checked on that identity during the year, when I asked teens whether it was still there, they opened the box and confirmed, “ Yes, it’s still there.” The Identity Lockbox
- 35. Students do not want colleges and universities to take on the role of “church” and supply religious answers to life’s questions, but many students do expect their undergraduate experience to help them think more clearly, feel more deeply, and consider more responsibly the broad questions of life. These questions no longer necessarily come pre-labeled as religious, but they are functionally religious because they focus on ultimate concerns:. – Invisible no Longer Young Adults are not antagonistic towards faith
- 36. GUIDING BELIEFS OF MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM 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. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism
- 37. “The problem does not seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an excedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe: namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the Church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people focused primarily on “folks like us” – which of course begs the question of whether we are really Church at all.” – Almost Christian, Pg. 12 How did this happen?
- 38. “2012 Millenial Values Survey”, Public Research Institute http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/04/millennial-values-survey- 2012/ Accessed: 5/8/12. Clydesdale, Timothy T. The First Year Out : Understanding American Teens after High School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Dean, Kenda Creasy. Almost Christian : What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Jacobsen, Rhonda Hustedt and Douglas G. Jacobsen. No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012 Putnam, Robert D. and David E. Campbell. American Grace : How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Meister, Jeanne. "Job Hopping Is the New Normal: Three Ways to Prevent a Human Resources Nightmare." Forbes, 8/14/12 Accessed 1/25/15. Zscheile, Dwight. Class Lectures, 1/5/15-1/9/15. Sources
- 39. {Faith at Wartburg Where are we?
- 40. Looking at the numbers How do we evaluate ourselves as a College of the Church? Robert Benne: Number of Lutheran students
- 41. Are we truly measuring what matters? “Being in Church makes you a Christian in the same way that being in a garage makes you a car.” – GK Chesterton. Having Lutheran students doesn’t ensure that the institution will have a Lutheran identity This is especially true for young adults that have been formed by MTD and don’t see denominational affiliation as all that important. Measuring what Matters
- 42. Student Demographics 27 states, 68 Countries 10% International Students 11% American Ethnic Students 17% First Generation College Students 25 Christian denominations, 6 major world religions
- 43. 29 27 11 11 3 1.2 Largest Christian Groups % of Student Body Student Religious Affiliation
- 44. Decline: Church & College, 2005-2009 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 ELCA Wartburg ELCA Students % decline
- 45. 0 10 20 30 40 50 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Lutheran Students % Student Body Lutheran Students over time
- 46. 0 10 20 30 40 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 ELCA Lutheran Students % Student Body Student Religious Affiliation
- 47. 34 32 31 31 29 27 25 24 22 18 43 42 41 40 39 36 34 34 31 29 0 10 20 30 40 50 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 % ELCA Students % Lutheran Students Student Religious Affiliation
- 48. 16 8 3 2 0 5 10 15 20 Muslim Hindu Buddhist Jewish # of Students Student Religious Affiliation: World Religions
- 49. 14 27 30 39 55 75 77 65 86 78 0 50 100 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 No Affiliation # of students Student Religious Affiliation: “None’s”
- 50. The Association of Religion Data Archives. http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1415.asp. Accessed 10/8/14 Wartburg College Student Demographics Reports. Wartburg College, 2014. Sources
- 51. {The Holy Spirit & Adaptive Leadership Where are we going?
- 52. Characteristics of God’s Spirit Is a Public person at work in the world Brings creativity and innovation Heals and builds community Creates unity without diminishing diversity Shows up in the most hopeless situations among the least likely people. Interlude: Hope & the Holy Spirit
- 53. "Through the incarnation, we discover that God’s future is at work not where we tend to look but among the people we write off as dead or powerless to make things different. If the Spirit has been poured out in the Church – the Church as it is, not some ideal type-then we are compelled to believe that the Spirit of God is at work and alive among the congregations of America” - The Missional Leader, Pg. 9 Theology of the Cross
- 54. Technical Problems Adaptive Challenges Can by solved with existing knowledge Require new learning Experts can handle Learning/innovation must come from the people Operating environment basically stable Changing environment Can be dealt with on level of strategy/technique Touch on underlying issues of identity and purpose Technical and Adaptive Change
- 55. Adaptive Challenges What does the Faith Pillar at Wartburg mean in a post Christendom era?
- 56. Adaptive Challenges Increasing pluralism and a declining Church have made the Christendom assumption of a common faith identity unrealistic.
- 57. Adaptive Challenges The triumph of moralistic therapeutic deism and the instability of young adult lives makes faith development challenging.
- 58. Adaptive Challenges Reluctance to talk about faith publicly, and subsequent lack of a clear identity as a College of the Church, reinforce the notions of MTD that faith is a peripheral reality on campus.
- 59. We (Wartburg College) have not articulated a post Christendom vision for what it means to be a College of the Church that, Is positively stated Demonstrates that our embrace of pluralism is because of the College’s theological commitment to the Lutheran tradition, not in spite of it. Owned by all Responsive to the current realities of increasing pluralism and changing patterns of young adult religious affiliation. Adaptive Challenge
- 61. Theological Reinterpretation Interfaith Youth Corps: What is something within your tradition that compels you to join in this work?
- 62. The cross is central for a Lutheran Christian theological understanding. The Theology of the Cross reminds us that we have been crucified with Christ and died to self which allows us to live and serve others. Our needs/agendas can not the driving force in our lives. Our particular calling as a College of the Church is to offer the best possible education to all those who come to us…because of our faith tradition, not in spite of it. Therefore we can at the same time be both grounded in our identity and open to all. Theology of the Cross
- 63. Freed through the Cross to serve “[A] Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor…. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor. Yet he always remains in God and in his love….” —Martin Luther, Freedom of a Christian
- 64. Heifetz, Ronald A. and Martin Linsky, "Leadership on the Line : Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading" http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&sco pe=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=674952. Luther, Martin and Timothy F. Lull. Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989. Malcom, Lois. Holy Spirit: Creative Power in Our Lives. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2009. Welker, Michael and John F. Hoffmeyer. God the Spirit. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. Zscheile, Dwight. Class Lectures, 1/5/15-1/9/15. Sources
Notes de l'éditeur
- -Today’s presentation…Dmin work at Luther Seminary. -Thanks to so many of you…esp PR, Missional Conversation Team
- -Today’s presentation will present some very challenging realities about the future of Wartburg as a College of the Church. These realities are not necessarily unique to Wartburg, in fact, having worked at another Lutheran institution I believe Wartburg does this better than most of our peers. -At the outset I want to name the reality that when it comes to our identity as a college of the church there are often a number of unhelpful narratives on Church College campuses that pit groups, offices, and people against one another. -First of all…there is the tendency to want to assign blame for decreasing numbers of Lutheran students to particular offices, people, or groups. As I will demonstrate the challenges we face as a College of the Church are the result of massive cultural changes and not the fault of any one group or organization. We can always ask the question whether we can do better in recruiting Lutheran students, but that must be a broad based effort not merely the responsibility of one or two offices. This is an adaptive challenge that requires the input of many in order to find solutions. -Secondly, there is the secularization narrative that asserts that eventually this whole college of the church thing is going to go away. The evidence does not support this narrative either. We do live in a more pluralistic age and many are questioning the viability of religious institutions, but the vast majority of the world’s people, even those unaffiliated with religious institutions, are asking religious questions. Furthermore even if we wanted this College of the Church thing to go away our identity and our mission are too deeply grounded for that to happen. -I would imagine that most on campus find themselves somewhere between those two rather extreme narratives, and just simply aren’t sure what to do with this whole College of the Church thing. This isn’t surprising as the dominant cultural narrative remains that Religion is a private and personal thing and not fit for public discussion. I believe this narrative is just as unhelpful. -There is no doubt that we face challenges as we try to understand our identity as a College of the Church in the 21st century. But I remain hopeful. Partially because of the Wartburg community and its mission, but more importantly because I believe that God is at work through the Spirit guiding and directing this work. -We have an opportunity to do something really amazing here…reimagine what a College of the Lutheran Church looks like in the 21st century, we don’t have to agree on everything but we do have to work together because none of us is smart enough to figure this out on our own.
- Today’s presentation will be divided up into 3 parts… Where have we been: Breeze through history as most of us know it. Appreciative Inquiry: what from our past is worth saving? Where are we: Cultural change & the Church, Young Adult Faith Development, Religious snapshot of WB College Where are we going: An apreciat
- Löhe, JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM (1808-1872) was born on the 21st of February 1808 in Fiirth near Nuremberg, and was educated at the universities of Erlangen and Berlin. In 1831 he was appointed vicar to Kirchenlamitz, where his fervent evangelical preaching attracted large congregations and puzzled the ecclesiastical authorities. A similar experience ensued at Nuremberg, where he was assistant pastor of St Egidia.
- In 1837 he became pastor to Neuendettelsau, a small and unattractive place, where his life's work was done, and which he transformed into a busy and influential community. He was interested in the spiritual condition of Germans who had emigrated to the United States, and built two training homes for missionaries to them. In 1849 he founded the Lutheran Society of Home Missions and in 1853 an institution of deaconesses. Other institutions were added to these, including a mental hospital, a Magdalen refuge, and hospitals for men and women. In theology Löhe was a strict Lutheran, his piety was of a most attractive kind. Originality of conception, vividness of presentation, fertility of imagination, wide knowledge of Scripture and a happy faculty of applying it, intense spiritual fervour, a striking physique and a powerful voice made him a great pulpit force. He wrote a good deal, amongst his books being Drei Biicher von der Kirche (1845), Samenkorncr des Gebeles
- Löhe didn’t contain his missionary efforts to Neuendettelsau. He began sending and training parochial school teachers and eventually Pastors to many parts of the world including Brazil, Ukraine, Australia, and New Guinea. In 1840 a German missionary named Frederick Wyneken working in the states of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan wrote an appeal for help to all the Lutherans in Germany, telling them of the hardships of German pioneers in his region and of their lack of pastors, churches, and schools.
- Löhe’s mission to the United States was far more successful educationally than it was evangelistically. His missionaries never did make significant inroads with the Native American population, but having being responsible for both a seminary and Church College in a country he never actually visited is a significant accomplishment.
- In 1852 Löhe sent a young man named Georg Grossmann, who Löhe ordained without permission, to Saginaw, MI which was nearby the mission congregation in Frankenmuth. His task was to open a school for the training of parochial school teachers that would serve the German Lutheran community. With 8 students Grossmann opened the school that would later become Wartburg College.
- At first Grossmann worked with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and sent young men to be trained at the Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. But in 1852 Grossmann had a theological falling out with the LCMS and decided to move the College from Michigan to St. Seebald, IA. His money ran out in Dubuque however so the College reopened there and remained until 1857. While in Dubuque in 1854 Grossmann established the German Evangelical Synod of Iowa. By the end of 1854 there were three “Wartburg’s” in Dubuque. 1) Grossmann’s teacher education program (suspended due to other needs) which will become Wartburg Normal College, first reopened in 1878 in Andrew, Iowa and then moved to Waverly, IA in 1879. 2) Wartburg Theological Seminary 3) A Lateinschule established by Sigmund Fritschel which will become Wartburg College
- -In 1857 the Iowa Synod purchased farmland at St. Sebald and moved the seminary there. The school was both a seminary and preparatory school. -The name Wartburg was given to the college when it was located in St. Sebald because the wooded countryside of the area reminded Grossmann of the Thuringian Forest where the Wartburg Castle is located. The Castle was built in 1067 on a hill just outside Eisenach, Germany. The two most famous residents of the Castle were St. Elizabeth who was known for devoting her life to faith and service, and Martin Luther who hid out at the castle from ecclesiastical authorities. While at the Castle Luther translated the NT into German.
- -With increasing student numbers, the synod decided in 1868 to move the preparatory college to Galena, IL. The college would be a six-year course modeled on the German Gymnasium to prepare young men for university studies in “Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology.” It was closed in 1875 -The Wartburg Seminary was moved to Mendota, Illinois in 1874 and was joined by the college in 1875 College enrollment was small (15-25) and the seminary was growing. The college needed to move. Mendota, IL 1875-1885
- -By the fall of 1894, Wartburg College moved to Clinton, IA because the Seminary needed the space. At this time the College in Clinton had 66 students. Meanwhile, the normal school (Wartburg Teacher’s Seminary) continued on in Waverly. -The College was finally consolidated in Waverly, IA in 1935 where it remains to the present day. Waverly is a rural town of about 10,000 located near the Waterloo-Cedar falls metropolitan area.
- Looking at the history of Wartburg College a number of assets emerge. First is the missional nature of Wilhelm Löhe who originally sent missionaries to the US (and other locations) who would go on to found the College. Löhe had a broad understanding of God’s redemptive work in the world that encompassed both “mission” (addressing social needs) and “evangelism” (sharing the Gospel). The combination of these two aspects of God’s work in the world makes Löhe a missional leader which means that Wartburg College has missional dna. The fact that a College which has had 7 different locations still exists today is a testament to its adaptability. Wartburg’s early leaders were willing to try and fail (often in fact) which should be a resource we draw on institutionally. Wartburg started out as a teacher’s college before creating several spin off institutions including a preparatory academy and seminary. Audacity: When Löhe saw a need for something he acted. When the number of unmarried women in Germany began to grow Löhe created the Lutheran Deaconess Association to harness their gifts and talents. When he heard about the needs of German American immigrants he sent teachers and Pastors to serve them. The College’s peripatetic history is further proof of this audacity. When better opportunities were perceived elsewhere the College picked up stakes and moved.
- -This is probably rehashing for many of you, but we are in a time of transition in terms of worldview. We’re moving from the modern period that reached its zenith during the enlightenment toward what some are calling a postmodern worldview. -I’m operating under the assumption that we are living in a time not of pure modernism or postmodernism, but rather hypermodernism. We still are shaped by many of the assumptions of modernity but have moved beyond others. In particular I would argue that nowhere is this more true than in relationship to the self.
- -In terms of faith we have retained the modern era’s discomfort with faith and other non objective, empirically verifiable phenomenon. Essentially in the modern era God was bracketed out of everyday llfe and relegated to the realm of the unexplainable. -If God is bracketed out of our lives as an object of our love and a means of orientation, then essentially all we are left with is our selves. It really becomes all about us and our personal, private experiences of God.
- Human flourishing is about having a series of gratifying spiritual experiences. God exists to gratify my individual desires…people are looking for how God glorifies us.
- -Sin is at its core a relational issue. Sin is not about breaking arbitrary rules but rather about engaging in activity that keeps us and others in bondage and prevents us from being the people God created us to be. -Luther argued that sin is essentially to be “curved in on oneself”. I would suggest that the sin of hypermodernity is that of being curved in one oneself. With the loss of ethical universalism and the presence of a transcendent God we are left merely with ourselves as objects of attention. -While this may sound like classical narcissism or ego centrism it has been warped in the hypermodern age. People aren’t necessarily preoccupied with themselves because of some sort of hedonistic gratification, rather they are preoccupied with their flaws and insecure identities which are a product of a fluid and fragmented world. -Make no mistake about it…this is not freedom, this is bondage.
- -With God bracketed out of life and individuals curved in on themselves there is a vacuum in public religious expression which ahs become extremely polarized. -There are those on the far right who are reacting angrily to the bracketing out of God from public discourse. They have become the de facto voice of Christianity in the United States. Militant, angry, and provocative. -At the other extreme are those who will not talk about faith in public as a reaction to the voices on the extreme right and a result of the privatization of faith. -Wartburg is a place where we’re not sure how to talk about faith publicly.
- Special thanks to Dr. Dwight Zscheile, Luther Seminary, for permission to use some of his slides from class presentations in this section in particular. (Zscheile, Dwight. Class Lectures, 1/5/15-1/9/15).
- People are searching for security. Our institutions are not sustainable.
- -Hypermodernity has challenged every cultural institution (just look at the current state of our political life) and the Church is no exception. -There was a time when it was assumed that certain churches, particularly conservative ones, were immune to decline but that has changed. There is decline across the theological spectrum, no one is immune.
- -Now whenever we talk about the decline of the Church people point out that mega churches seem to be doing quite well. -That is true to an extent, particularly because mega churches tend to be more innovative and daring than smaller Churches. -But it isn’t clear whether the mega church is a sustainable and viable option for the future. Obviously the megachurch model is working to some extent but its hard to say that it is a solution when the religiously unaffiliated are the largest growing group in the United States.
- -Americans view churches as restaurants…places where one goes to be served spiritual goods and services. When the service or food is not up to par people will either drop out of Church or move to another congregation that provides better religious goods and services. Megachurches do a good job of reaching dissatisfied consumers. But what if you don’t eat out? An increasing number of people (none’s) don’t. -It seems that megachurches are most effective in attracting the “dechurched”, those with some sort of Church experience that have become disillusioned with their own congregations and perhaps stopped attending altogether for awhile. -But some of the mega church growth is surely attributable to defection from other churches
- There are some signs of trouble on the horizon for the mega church… -Megachurches tend to be built around a visionary leader but rarely make the transition to new leadership. Typically megachurches are passed down in the family but that can lead to troubling results…see the Crystal Cathedral, the original mega church, which was recently sold after a battle over succession. A more recent example of the trend is Mars Hill in Seattle which has essentially disbanded after its controversial Senior Pastor’s behavior could no longer be tolerated. -Many megachurches have also realized that they aren’t having the impact on people they once though they had…REVEAL was a courageous study by Willow Creek Church that essentially concluded that while successful in attracting people to Church there wasn’t much spiritual transformation happening. -Part of the issue is “measuring what matters” rather than simply using the easiest metric (attendance) to evaluate effectiveness.
- -As mentioned earlier the religious culture in the United States has undergone a seismic shift. There are now more unaffiliated people (none’s) in the US than Mainline Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc.)
- -These trends are even more pronounced among young adults…As Putnam & Campbell argue in “American Grace” it takes time for generational differences to change mainstream views. But clearly this is what is coming down the pike. -I think their numbers may actually be overly generous, especially in regards to Church attendance.
- -Sociologist Robert Wuthnow points out that the lives of young adults are less stable and certain than their parents. Young adults are in a process of becoming that lasts beyond the point their parents were married and had kids. The average college graduate will now have somewhere between 15-20 jobs in their lifetime.
- -All this leads to a lot of experimentation and an aversion to putting down roots in a particular tradition. Young adults are spiritual tinkerers who grew up going to worship at one church, youth group at another, and doing service through another. They haven’t put down deep roots because their lives are in transition. -Robert Wuthnow, sociologist at Princeton University argues that young adults are essentially spiritual tinkerers…
- -College students also tinker with faith but usually they put it on the shelf during the first year out of High School. Sociologist Tim Clydesdale calls this the identity lockbox. The idea is that as everything is changing around them the tendency is to want to hold on to the things that give one a sense of identity. Questioning them is scary and threatening.
- -But we’d be wrong to assume that students aren’t interested in spiritual questions. The vast majority still say they believe in God and that questions of meaning, value, and purpose matter to them… -College students may put their faith on the shelf initially but often become more open to spiritual exploration as the years go by. At Wartburg there is a marked increase in attendance at Weekday Chapel in particular as students begin to think about what’s next.
- -But what kind of faith do college students actually have? Recent studies have suggested that Christian faith has been “colonized” by what researchers are calling Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Christian Smith, Kendra Creesy-Dean and others argue that MTD is now the dominant religious worldview of Christian teens and young adults. -Source: Dean, Kenda Creasy. Almost Christian : What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
- -So who’s to blame for this? Well it turns out that we (the Church) are. -We’re doing a great job teaching young people what we really think about Christianity. -This has been affirmed for me by Congregational Pastors who tell me time and again that MTD is the default theology for most of their parishioners.
- Questions, comments, etc
- -I’m going to share some of the demographic information about the faith affiliations of Wartburg students. But as I do so I remind you that the decline we see in Lutheran student enrollment is only one measure of what it means to be a Lutheran College. -Bob Benne who has written about Lutheran Higher education for many years essentially evaluates the Colleges based on how many Lutheran students they have. Benne argues that ideally Church Colleges need to maintain a “critical mass” of students from their own tradition.
- -I think this is a mistake for a number of reasons… Churches have discovered that counting noses is not really an accurate representation of the Church’s mission. As the English writer GK Chesterton once said… The same is true for Lutheran Colleges. Having a lot of Lutheran students does not necessarily ensure that the institution will have any sort of Lutheran identity. Considering the fact that the Church has essentially been shaping young people according to the principles of MTD this is especially true. Not to mention the fact that denominational affiliation means little to most students. Many of whom have multi denominational identities. -The true measure of Lutheran Higher education are its mission and the values that the institution embodies. It is still absolutely essential that there is a practicing Christian community on campus shaped by Lutheran theology, but it is just as important that the institution as a whole owns the faith pillar of its mission and actually lives it out.
- -This demographic data about Wartburg College indicates how much the environment has changed… -The College still draws heavily from its traditional base in the Midwest for its student body, with Iowa being the largest state represented. As High School graduates in Iowa continue to decline this is a cause for concern. -More recently the College has become more geographically diverse, there are now 30 states and 60 countries represented on campus. -Wartburg has always had a sizeable international student population that continues to grow and now stands at 10% of the total student body, the highest percentage in history. -The American ethnic population comprised mostly of African American students from Urban Midwestern cities also continues to grow and now comprises around 11% of the student body. Approximately 17% of the student body are first generation College students. -This is the most ethnically and geographically diverse student body in the College’s history, and one of the most diverse among ELCA Colleges.
- -Religious diversity has also increased over the years. When the College began it was 100% Lutheran and as recently as 2007 Lutherans comprised 41% of the population. Currently the Lutheran student body (including all Lutheran denominations) is 29% with the next largest group being Roman Catholics at 27%, and a variety of other Protestant denominations represented on campus.
- -The decline in ELCA student enrollment at Wartburg has actually been slower than the decline of the denomination. From 2005-2009 the ELCA declined by %16 while the % of ELCA students at Wartburg declined by just 5%. -Some of this may be attributed to Wartburg’s location in the Midwest, typically a Lutheran stronghold. -Many on campus concerned about the faith related identity of the College feel that our recruitment materials and marketing efforts downplay the College’s religious affiliation. There is no objective data to substantiate such a claim but there is a belief at Wartburg, and many other ELCA institutions, that being a College of the Church negatively impacts the recruitment of non-Lutheran students. -This data seems to suggest the possibility however that despite these concerns the overall decline of the denomination is the bigger issue. Having said that figuring out how to articulate our faith identity as an institution could alleviate some of this uneasiness.
- -The downward trend in the percentage of Lutheran students at Wartburg has been going on for some time and mirrors the decline across Lutheran denominations.
- ELCA students who have comprised the core of Campus ministry have also declined steadily since 2005. Reaching out to students from other religious traditions while remaining grounded in our Lutheran identity is challenging and many on campus expect the same kind of attendance numbers despite the decline in core population. Further complications include the steady decline of the ELCA, erosion of ELCA identity, and less interest in worship and communal faith life among students.
- -The decline in overall Lutheran and ELCA population has actually been fairly consistent. Since 2005 the overall percentage of Lutheran students at Wartburg has declined by 14% while ELCA students have declined 16%
- -The number of students at Wartburg affiliated with other world religions remains relatively low. The largest group are Muslim students but that represents less than 1% of the population. -Over the years the number of students affiliated with other world religions has fluctuated but Islamic student growth seems to be on a constant upward trend rising from 2 in 2005 to 16 in 2014. Hindu students fell from 14 in 2005 to 3 in 2010 but are now trending upward once again. –The number of Buddhist students seems to have declined while Jewish students have remained consistent. -It should be noted that these numbers are very small so even slight increases or decreases are magnified.
- -Another interesting development is the number of students who declare no religious affiliation. In 2005 just 14 students indicated they were not affiliated with any religious tradition, that number climbed to 86 in 2013 and declined slightly to 78 in 2014. -There may be some confusion for students in reporting this category as there isn’t an independent or non-denominational option on the survey. Whether these numbers mirror the national trend of disaffiliation among young adults, or represents an upsurge in non-denominational Christians at Wartburg is worth further study. Ideally the survey instrument should include a non-denominational Christian category. -All of the statistics reported in this section are calculated by excluding students who declined to answer the religious affiliation question. That number has actually been declining since 2005 but still represents almost 200 students, or 7% of the population.
- -This situation may seem incredibly grim, but fortunately within the Christian tradition we have a reason for hope, and that is the Holy Spirit. -Some characteristics of the Holy Spirit that are important to keep in mind come from Michael Wleker’s fine book “God the Spirit”.
- -The biblical witness indicates that the Spirit tends to show up in the places we least expect and in the most dire circumstances. -From a Lutheran perspective we would call this the “theology of the cross”…namely that God is most clearly revealed in the place we least expect…on the cross in suffering, weakness, shame, and humiliation.
- -But we have to be realistic about the situation we are facing in order to understand what kind of leadership is needed to move forward. -Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky (Harvard) are leadership theorists who focus on the difference between technical problems and adaptive challenges. -Technical problems are problems for which solutions already exist, it’s merely a matter of applying these know solutions to the issue. An example would be the way Churches typically respond to dropping attendance…the first step is to change the music, hire a younger pastor or youth director, or introduce some sort of new strategic plan. -But what if the problem is bigger than that? What if the very culture and the way people relate to religious institutions has changed? In that case there is no known solution to the Church’s struggle. This is an adaptive challenge. -Heifetz & Linsky say that the biggest failure in leadership is treating an adaptive challenge as if it is a technical problem.
- -I believe that our identity as a College of the Church in the 21st century is an adaptive challenge rather than a technical problem. The world has changed, Wartburg has changed, and we can’t go back. We have to move forward. I’m going to read a brief excerpt from a paper I wrote for one of my classes assessing the faith environment at Wartburg… -When the College was founded in 1852 its mission was to educate Church leaders to serve an ethnically specific population within the context of Christendom. Identity, mission, and outcomes were clearly defined by the narrowness of the focus. There was no perceived need for “mission” on campus as nearly everyone came from the same Lutheran and/or Protestant tradition. Mandatory Chapel, required Religion courses, and a defined code of conduct were the means through which the College tended the spiritual lives of its students. Since that time much has changed. Like many faith based Colleges Wartburg responded to the cultural upheaval of the 1960’s and increasing cultural pluralism by essentially transferring responsibility for the spiritual life of the student body to the Campus Pastor and Office of Campus ministry. The construction of the Chapel in 1992 provided a wonderful space for ministry but further marginalized this element of campus life. “Faith” has remained one of the College’s four pillars (along with service, leadership, and learning), students are still required to take two Religion courses, and there is a clear Lutheran Christian presence on campus although participation in faith based activities is optional. As cultural and religious pluralism has increased “faith” has come to be more broadly defined and the College’s role in the faith lives of its students has become less clear.
- -So let me be specific about some of the adaptive challenges that I believe we are facing as a College of the Church for the 21st Century…
- -The best thing that most people can say about faith at Wartburg is that it’s there if you want it, but you don’t have to go to Chapel. That may be true, but why would such a statement compel anyone to want to explore their faith?
- -So here is a statement of our adaptive challenge as I see it…
- -Remaining firmly grounded in one’s tradition while still remaining open to increasing diversity and changing religious identities is tricky but possible. -Inter Faith Youth Corps is an organization of College students from different faith backgrounds working together to solve social problems. -IFYC provides us with a model for resisting relativism while embracing pluralism. They don’t ask their participants to leave their faith at the door but rather to look within their own tradition to discover a reason for engaging in work with people from other traditions.
- -I believe that the Theology of the Cross is a wonderful resource for Lutheran Colleges in the 21st century.
- -This quote from Luther underscores the fact that faith is not about us…it’s about our neighbor.