Book Review: Tribal Church

Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation
By Carol Howard Merritt
Alban Institute, Herdon, VA., 2007

In her book, Tribal Church, Merritt gives a hopeful and powerful statement to mainline churches large, small and in between. She writes, "The mainline denomination has everything it needs to minister to the younger generation." It is this statement that compels me to read her book and to reflect upon its content. In a congregation that has a substantial number of younger people between the ages of 25 and 35, but so few are involved in a meaningful way, this book has allowed me to explore what some of the reasons young people may not be involved. By in large our young people population is not unlike many mainline churches. Each one struggles with an aging membership and each one of our churches are struggling to find that balance and that space in which younger people would consider our individual congregation. As a way to review this book, I would like to lift up some themes that seem consistent among younger people throughout the United States. With the help of the Alban Institute, Merritt has looked into this population with some intentionality and identifies ways in which the mainline denomination is in fact well suited for reaching younger people because younger people are looking for sacred space that is inter-generational, inclusive and has some traditions that provide grounding and destiny for younger people.

As a way to begin this review, I would like to reflect upon one of the more exciting and hopeful things that Merritt lifts up in her book. Merritt grew up in a mega-church with a strong youth program, mission program, and a clear delineation of right belief and wrong belief. She was moved and excited by this experience as a youth and participated in many of the activities including a youth mission trip to China to witness to the Chinese who didn't know Christ. As she moved from High School to college, she found herself questioning everything that shaped her personal Christian commitment. Everything she found herself believing in, feeling about, and wondering why, her church had an answer that felt repressive, limiting, judgmental, and contrary to everything she believed. Sensing a call into the ministry, Merritt found herself drifting away from her conservative and evangelical roots and found more space and tolerance in the mainline churches. As she completed her Seminary training, she found that her call was not to ministry in evangelical, mega-churches, but in small to mid-size Presbyterian Churches. In her ministry she observed the missing generation in such churches and so she began to explore the reasons why this was the case since she, herself, found so much peace and fulfillment in them. Merrit observes in Chapter eight, "The 'mega-churches' with its rock concert setting appeals to those in their 40s and 50s, but not so much with the younger generations. Younger people are looking for churches where the ministers knows their names, where people notice when you missed Sunday morning. They are looking for a church where they can serve God and connect with one another. Where the young and old gather together and a place where progressive theology is taught and practiced." (Merritt, Page 136) She observes that the backdoor to the 'mega-churches' are as wide open as their front door. This is a hopeful sign for those of us serving local, mainline churches.

Tribal Church is a book written not so much for young people, but for those of us who are would like to be that sacred place for young people to worship. In her book, Merritt suggest several things that will be helpful for those of us who want to be a safe, sacred place for young people to worship and grow. Let me share a few ideas with you. Young people want the generations to worship and play together. There is strength for young families to see 'church grandmas and grandpas' interact with their children. They want the wisdom of age and the vitality of youthfulness to be the grounding for their children. They want to be able to sing songs of praise with children, youth, middle-agers, empty-nesters, retired folks, and the wisdom of aging folks to be the spirit that surrounds them and gives them a reason to study and worship together. Young people are looking for ways to foster inter-generational relationships.

Young people also want church members to be less critical of their economic and spending habits. Young people have extraordinary expenses today and no longer is a woman's income considered additional income -- no, Merritt points out that both parents need to be working today if they are to make it in a world where money is often the only way to relate to one another. All of their lives, young people have been told that they must make money and if they don't they are a failure. Young people have been accused by church people of being lazy, foolish with their money, and should save just like their parent's and grandparents did. Time is money and time lost is money lost. Each day the young people have to deal with this kind of prejudice in the day to day world and they don't want to hear about it in their church. Young people need older people to understand their situation or at least be open to the reality that life is not as easy as it once was and young people are under an extraordinary amount of pressure just to make it to the end of the day. Encouragement and understanding is what young people are looking for older people and in the church they will call their spiritual home.

Young people are also looking for a safe and inclusive space to worship. Young people today do not look at sexual orientation, religion, culture, and race as wrong or even different. Young people are radically inclusive and they expect that of their church. They are not a generation that judges these differences, instead they see similarities rather than differences. Many young people have left their churches of their childhood because they have perceived that the community is often more exclusive then they are. They see diversity as a gift and are eager to learn more about their culture, their traditions, their likes and dislikes, and they want their faith community to reflect that same openness -- an unambiguous openness.

Affirming traditions is also something that young people look forward to experience. They like the special services like Christmas Eve, Easter Sunrise, or Good Friday. These special services and others like them, open up a deep spirituality that they long for and wish to be a part. They enjoy the Sunday School picnics, the youth fellowship, and the traditions that sustain the community of faith. One thing that young people resist are church supper expectations, or special events that are planned by older people who don't have financial and family responsibilities. For older churches with long traditions, it is easy to criticize young people who aren't helping with the extraneous activities such as fund-raisers and that relates back to the notion that young people don't have extraordinary amount of free time or funds to participate. It is better to let young people begin their own traditions and sometimes that means ending others. There is nothing wrong with this. Younger people are more willing to participate in the new traditions they establish. When they are given this kind of invitation rather than being scolded or criticized because they do not appear committed to old traditions is a better way to nurture a commitment from our young people.

Finally, it is important to younger people that they feel they can share in the leadership of the church on their ever changing life situation. Young people want to lead, but they do not want to participate in the leadership if they feel like they've not been given the authority. Merritt makes this observation which is so apt for young people who are seeking to lead. She says this about young adults in leadership. "I [young people] want to enjoy their youth while they are still living it. [Young People] don't want to spend time yearning for someone else's glory day and [they] certainly are not interested in going through an institutional mid-life crisis in [their] twenties." This pretty much sums up the attitudes and feelings of young people and leadership. If we're going to ask them to lead we need to share this leadership and not yearn for the 'good ole days', or participate in institutional therapy at every committee or board meeting. Extra time is not a luxury for young people and being conscientious of young children at home may require that we shift our 'regularly scheduled' meetings to a time more accommodating to young people, and yes, we need to consider the possibility of childcare if we want our young people to serve.

As Merritt draws her book to a close, she uses a hopeful illustration from our Native American brothers and sisters of the Sioux tribe. She writes, "The Sioux nation of Nebraska uses a circle in their walking meditation. It's big, a bit like a labyrinth, but this one has only two simple paths intersecting in the middle of it. One runs from west to east, symbolizing our lives, the other from south to north representing our hardships. And in the center, where the path of being and adversity meet a tree of life grows up, strong and beautiful." [Merritt, Page 150-151] Here in the center where our lives intersect with adversity is the tree of life -- a safe and sacred place where the our lives intersect and we experience a place of healing and growth and it is here, in the center of our world that our communal life intersects and where ministry with young people begins.