tive’s Fellows program (augsburg.edu/ypci). We’ve identified four artforms, or movements, that we think will help congregations initiate a praxis-oriented approach to discipleship that moves the congregation into the public square for the sake of the world. This method owes a lot to the methods of practical theology, experiential education and critical pedagogy.
Accompaniment is the first movement of the congregation out into the public life of its community. Before we can assume that we know what our communities need, we must first do the hard work of listening to and knowing them. Faith is formed as we develop practices that enable us to walk alongside and listen to our neighbors. Interpretation is the second movement of the congregation into its theological claims and the biblical narrative. Our theological commitments and God’s promises shape the way we interpret what we encounter through accompaniment and those encounters shape the way we interpret our theological commitments and the biblical narrative. Faith is formed when we develop practices that enable us to put our neighbors’ stories, our stories and God’s story into conversation. Discernment is the third movement of the congregation into a posture of listening to God’s spirit. It is shaped by a willingness to see ministry as the process of following the Holy Spirit rather than a process of domestication. Faith is formed as we learn how to pray, wonder and debate about who God is calling us to become and what God is calling us to do within our communities.
Proclamation is the fourth movement of the congregation back into the community with God’s good news. Our compassionate listening, theological interpretation, and faithful discernment help us to identify what Christ’s good news might sound like or look like for our communities right here and right now. Our proclamation might take the shape of public worship, protest, service, funky rituals in the town square or flash mobs at the high school football game. Faith is formed as we learned to articulate (in word and deed) Christ’s good news for our communities in meaningful and public ways. This experience of intentionally engaging our neighbors in the public square and hearing their stories will cause us to begin asking theological questions which will draw us back into our theological claims and the biblical narrative. When this happens our congregations begin to mine the depth of our tradition not because it is what we had scheduled for that Sunday’s education hour but because they are truly seeking to make meaning out of what they have encountered in the public square. This process invites the entire congregation into both theological inquiry and discernment as we seek to understand what God would have us do and whom God would have us be in the situations that arise. But it does not end there. The entire congregation learns how to articulate Christ’s good news in the public square in new and innovative ways.
A CHURCH FOR THE WORLD These artforms are not a silver-bullet. They will not solve the church’s number problems. They will not make youth hockey go away. But they might help your entire congregation learn to seek, notice, articulate and participate in Christ’s redeeming work in the places where they live and work and go to school. A church that exists for the church will employ practices of domestication to secure its future. A church that exists for the world will invite its entire congregation into the praxis of seeking to proclaim news that is truly good in the public square for the common good. Only a congregation that is striving to be public will be able to form a faith that is vital for our world today.
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A POSTSCRIPT ON BEST PRACTICES Our Fellows have also come to the realization that it is not necessarily helpful to produce a list of “best practices” or ways of putting these artforms into practice. We think this is unhelpful for two reasons. First, such practices don’t necessarily exist yet. There are some promising practices but none that have been used with children, youth and families enough to prove their effectiveness. Second, we firmly believe that it is the process of developing these practices that will help form faith in new ways in your congregations. The four artforms invite you and your congregation into a process of discerning and creating new practices that form faith and proclaim good news in your setting. Instead, we like to offer what we call “best questions”. Our hope is that as your congregations faithfully wrestle with these questions you will begin to discover the unique practices that enable your congregation to engage in accompaniment, interpretation, discernment and proclamation. As you learn, I hope you will be in touch with us and share your discoveries. What works? What doesn’t? How is God moving your congregation into your public square? Accompaniment 1. What are the assets of our community? 2. What are the hopes/ dreams/ aspirations of our community? 3. How/ where/ when is our community experiencing heartache? 4. How/ where/ when is our community experiencing joy? 5. Where is there life? Where is there death? 6. What practices enable us to truly walk alongside and listen to the stories of our context? Interpretation 1. How might we think theologically about what we’ve heard in our community? 2. What biblical narratives might help us better understand what we’ve heard? 3. What theological claims do we make as a church that might help us understand what we’ve heard? 4. Where did we hear Law? Gospel? 5. Where did we experience God’s presence? Absence? 6. What practices would enable us to guide our people through this interpretive process?