In the third part of these blogging series about community, I feel the need to discuss the spiritual rhythm of learning. In a place where the main reason for gathering is learning, our college church finds this topic both a strength and a weakness.
One of the hardest parts of being a college pastor is helping students learn and grow while valuing their education without idolizing it. In many cases when I bring this topic to the attention of a student their response is something along the lines of: “But, this is why I’m here.” As true as that statement may be, the fact is that if this is your approach to college then there will always be an excuse. If it’s not college then it is a job. There will always be something or someone demanding our time.
Now before I go any further let me clarify a few things. I think college is great. Some of the greatest things in my life happened in college. Learn and soak it all up. Take advantage of all the great academic opportunities that are given to you. The reason you go to college is to learn, graduate, and gather tools you will need throughout life.
As the same time, regardless of where we are in life we need to be involved in a christ-centered community and have healthy spiritual rhythms in our lives: scripture, prayer, and rest. Most people “in the real world” would probably even say that you have the most time of your life while you are in college. A lot of students come into college with preconceived expectations and ideas of how things will pan out. Not all of these are even bad, but sometimes we have to unlearn some things in order to relearn the right things.
Whether it is theology or traditions, we all have things that have been taught to us that we need to figure out where we actually stand on it regardless of what we have always known to be true. For a lot of people this process is gradual and takes quite some time and for others this process can hit hard for a couple of months. Some people may have been taught some very sound theology and have seen modeled out what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus, where others may actually need to unlearn practically everything and relearn it all over again.
[lcf] strives to be a safe community where someone can go through this spiritual exploration. I know for me personally I went through this my entire freshman year of college and, frankly, I haven’t stopped since. There are certain stances that I think are fair to say that they are “closed fist” like God creating the universe, the fall, virgin birth, bodily resurrection, and Christ’s redemption through the new heaven and new earth. However for many of us we may have been taught things or assumed things about Christianity that may or may not be biblical.
A learning community must learn together. A community that is unwilling to have an “open fist” stance towards secondary things can, in many cases, find themselves being held back as a result. This does not mean that everyone must agree, or that whatever the pastor says goes, but rather a community working together to help each other learn as well as challenge each other to take ownership over their beliefs. There are quite a few skeptics and doubters that are a part of the [lcf] community and if nothing else, at least they feel as though they can learn about what they believe and what others around them believe in a safe environment. These individuals also challenge those of us that have never really taken the time to truly examine what we actually believe and why. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people who do not claim to be Christ-followers is that many Christians are ignorant and don’t know why they believe what they believe. To actually think about what we are saying and why we believe it is incredibly important.
The vast majority of students that call [lcf] home are from Virginia or north of Virginia. This leads to a heavy percentage of our students coming from rather traditional churches (if they come from one at all). With that in mind we feel the need to constantly evaluate and rethink through various hot topics.
I recently had a lengthy discussion with my mom about homosexuality. My mom will be the first to admit that having grown up in a family based in Virginia and North Carolina her traditional upbringing carries heavy on her approach to topics such as homosexuality, alcohol use, and politics. These aren’t always bad, but even my mom realizes that tradition should never overwrite Scripture. One’s stance towards these issues may vary from another’s stance, but we should attempt to stay clear of discussions that are founded out of tradition rather than doctrine. With that said, I myself had to undergo quite a bit of exploring and wrestling before coming to where I am today, and even today I would say that there are quite a few topics that I have no clarity on where I stand. I have a lot to learn and I pray that I never stop.
A follower of Jesus should be a student for their entire life. We should never stop learning and growing. I love reading and you can typically find me reading quite a few books at a time. I would even say that I have a small addiction to books because I find myself getting new books to read when my library already is packed with books I need to read. I believe that as Christ followers we need to never stop lessening, reading, and looking into those open fist topics every now and then. Learning is both for the mind but also the soul. Reading inspires, enlightens, and challenges us to unlearn certain things and relearn others.
My prayer is that you can find a safe community that welcomes the thought questions that few want to be asked. May we all be students in our lifetimes that never stop expanding our understanding of who God is and what he is about. May you be inspired to read authors, theologians, bloggers, and articles from people who you agree with and disagree with. Above all, may we as the Church be a constant example of a learning community.
- Philip Watkins
