Revitalize! Discussion – Faith Formation

1. Revitalize! Discussion –Faith Formation A Task Group of the Victoria PresbyteryOctober 27, 2009Cadboro Bay United Church

2. What is Faith? From: Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity

3. Faith Formation The way we understand the meaning of the word ‘faith’ influences the kind of activities and learning opportunities we design for the formation of faith

4. John Westerhoff III Styles of Faith OWNED QUESTIONING AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

5. EXPERIENCED FAITH Experience is foundational to faith. For children and adults, it is not so much the words we hear spoken that matter most, but the experience we have which connect us with those words. Experienced faith results from our interactions with other faithing selves (people who have faith), with nature, and from individual experiences of wonder and the holy. EXPERIENCED

6. REFLECTIONS • Name for you, one experience of the holy • In what ways have you experienced the unconditional love of God in your congregation? • In what ways have you seen God at work in the world? • What for you has been a great influence on your faith development and why? EXPERIENCED

7. AFFILIATIVE FAITH Persons seek to identify and act with others in an accepting community whose values and stories reflect a clear sense of identity. Persons with affiliative faith need to participate in the community’s activities and seek a sense of belonging. A community’s expression, the teaching and learning of its story and its way of living are critical to the ongoing development of faith. Heritage, tradition, ritual, theology – all are learned, experience and seen to be the lenses by which the experience of the holy are given expression. AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

8. REFLECTIONS • What biblical character or story do you relate to best? • What hymn expresses an element of your faith well? • What part of the United Church identity or tradition resonates with you most and keeps you connected and coming back? • What experience in your congregational life has touched your heart? AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

9. QUESTIONING FAITH Here there is a the action of doubt and critical judgment. Sometimes painful and sometimes celebrative, those with searching faith need to act over and against the understanding of faith they acquired earlier. Searching faith is experimentation. Searching faith requires that we explore alternatives to our earlier understandings and ways, for people need to test their own tradition by learning about others. Searching faith embodies the need to commit our lives to people and causes, to take seriously ours and others doubts, questions and wonderings. QUESTIONING AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

10. REFLECTIONS • What questions of faith or doubts are most prominent for you at this time. • How does your congregation encourage questioning and seeking? How does it discourage it? • What provisions have been made for you to take your questions seriously within your faith community? • What opportunities are there for learning about a variety of perspectives on faith? QUESTIONING AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

11. OWNED FAITH Owned faith integrates one’s experiences, traditions and faith expression of self and others, one’s questions and intellectual struggles, and one’s mystical experiences of the holy. Moving to this style of faith involves emotional, intellectual and spiritual processing. Persons owned by their faith strive to witness to that faith in word and deed. Persons with owned faith want and need the help and support of others in sustaining and putting their faith to work. To reach owned faith is a pilgrimage in which we need to be provided with an environment and experiences that encourage us to act in ways that assist our expansion of faith. At this point in one’s journey, the conclusions, questions and practices of other that are different are not perceived as a threat but as a reflection of diversity. One can therefore engage in dialogue, debate and conversation and then either accept or reject the conclusions or ways of expressing that faith as appropriate for one’s own faith system without judging or dismissing the other. OWNED QUESTIONING AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

12. REFLECTIONS • What Spiritual practices do you engage in and how does your congregation support them? • Describe a recent experience of conversation or debate with someone whose faith perspective is different than yours. • What theological conclusions are cornerstones for you at this point in your journey? • How do you live your faith day by day? OWNED QUESTIONING AFFILIATIVE EXPERIENCED

13. Faith Formation Program Evaluation: Homework Questions:Please discuss these key questions with the leadership group (Board, Council, Strategic planning, etc.) at your Congregation and bring your answers back to the next Revitalize! discussion. • List the Faith Formation Opportunities your congregation offers in a calendar year. Then ask • What faith styles is each offering accommodating • Who is or has attended these • Who has not • What programs are there for: seekers, new Christians, youth, children, young adults, long-time members, , people in crisis, working folk, retired folk, those who explore faith through the head, through the heart, through relationship, etc. • 2. Does your worship embrace each Faith Approach ( Assensus, Fiducia, Fidelitas, Visio) and have and entry point for each Faith Style ( Experienced, Affiliative, Questioning, Owned) ?