Faith Learning Community

I have been doing quite a bit of reading for the work my co-authors are engaged with writing a new book.  Writing a book is a dual process of bringing together some of the things I already know along with reading and researching to learn new things to add to the mix.  It is an interesting process and provokes me to think about the learning process itself.  

I think there are two forms of things we know---hence have learned.  Some things we know are simply good to know---for no other reason.  An example of this is the fact that we are loved.  For me this is theologically true---God loves all of us without qualification.  There is no ulterior reason for this.  It is just simply true for me.  I cannot prove it, but I have learned it is true.  The other form of learning is the things we know in order to be able to do something.  This includes all sorts of practical things. And it includes things like the skills we have learned in order to do our jobs.

We know we send our kids to school so they can learn.  They learn all sorts of things.  We want them to learn to read and do math.  As they get older, we want them to learn some civic things so they will be good citizens of our country.  We teach them things about character so they will be good boys and girls.  Too often in college, I think, we are too concerned with learning only things that will pay off in getting a job.  Let me elaborate.

The problem with this skills-for-a-job view of college is not realizing it is too short-term.  The skills we need for a job may be irrelevant or out of date before we know it.  We need to need to become life-long learners.  Of course, we talk about this occasionally in the college setting, but I doubt students “hear” it or take it seriously.  It is difficult to think about the next forty years when you are in college when four years is a “long time.”  But life-long learning is where it is at.

When I think about my own life, I realize even I have done many things I never dreamed I would do.  And the younger one is, the more likely this is going to be the case.  One of the terms my co-authors and I have used in our books is VUCA---volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.  We live in a VUCA world and change is the only predictable element.  And so it is that we must be life-long learners.

I recently ran across a great quotation that puts this in stark terms.  Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy is quoted as saying, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”  This strikes me as true.  If you think about it for a moment, many of us can think about things we knew---once upon a time---but we have learned new things that surpassed or did in the things we once knew.  This is especially true in the sciences, but not exclusively there.  Furthermore, if we are not engaged in life-long learning, we miss out on this chance to grow and be better.

The spiritual twist I want to add to this is to suggest it is also true for those of us who are people of faith.  If we really think about it, we already know the truth of it.  I am fairly certain few of us today believe in the same kind of God we did when we were four or five years old.  At that age, the God I believed in was very real and very much like a real person---only invisible and perfect.  The God I believe in today, I hope, is just as real---but “real” in a very different, more complex way.  I am fine using personal language to talk about that God, but I don’t literally believe God is a “person” in the sense of being “Father” or “Mother.”  Rather God acts with personal-like characteristics.  For example, God “cares” the way people care.

The question is where we can be life-long learners in a spiritual sense?  Too often our churches stunt our growth in faith.  We need what are called learning communities.  We need these kinds of communities to provide new ways of thinking and acting.  We need learning communities who stretch us and give us mentors in faith development.  Sadly, I am aware of too many churches where no one reads anything new.  Sermons are too often a rehash of old stuff.  They reinforce the rigidity of what often is a fossilized faith.  I believe we need a faith and a theology for our current age---and the VUCA world in which we all live.  

Learning communities should be caring and challenging. They could aim to help all of us stay in spiritual shape.  I wonder how people even understand the idea of being in spiritual shape?  What would it mean to work out spiritually?  All I know is it would be more fun and better for me to do it together rather than alone.  Having support make is easier and more likely for me to succeed.  But where do we even find such spiritual communities?

I long for this type of faith learning community.  I think many people long for it.  Creating such a community probably is not very difficult.  Local churches should be able to do it quite easily.  But if they don’t, maybe some of us can explore other options.  It is not an either/or---either a local congregation or some alternative version.  In fact, I rather like the idea of a both/and.  Let’s explore it.