October 2023

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How has faith in Jesus been passed on to you? Maybe it wasn’t, initially. Perhaps you discovered Christ on your own, or maybe it was shoved down your throat rather than passed… often there is some level of transmission involved when we are building faith, with negative as well as positive connotations. As we grow, there are added layers of discovery, unlearning, and relearning. I grew up going to church, but more than that my parents had spiritual conversations with my sister and I, read stories of scripture to us, and prayed with us. I can’t really recall anything feeling forced, it was more like a big invitation to something exciting. In particular, as I’ve gotten older my family has shared honestly about the gifts and struggles associated with faith - navigating God’s presence in the complex ups and downs of life. Often I meet folks still hurting from negative faith experiences from childhood, people who keep their distance because of the fear and shame associated with religion, or perhaps because they are not sure communities of faith are able to hold space for them as they navigate all the questions around belief that come up on their life’s journey.

 I’ve been reading a book recently by Meredith Miller called, ‘Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kids Don’t Have to Heal From’, a title which as my pastor friend commented, is quite ambitious. I’ve been exploring what it means to intentionally pass faith along to my kids - not just exposure in church, or explicitly telling them what to think about God, or forcing different practices upon them. I long for it to be a collaborative experience - discovering and wondering about God together, and perhaps exploring what a childlike faith is really about, since Jesus recommends it (Matt 18:2-4). 

Sometimes when we think it’s our job to pass along faith, we can lean on quips and quotes we’ve heard, rather than share how God has changed our lives. We pass along Bibles or books, hoping this person will land on a nugget inspired by the Holy Spirit, which will turn their lives around. We might share reasons to believe rather than share more personally, why we actually believe what we believe due to our life experiences. Often a difficult season of life has helped shape our faith the most, but those moments are not shiny, can be embarrassing, and might expose more doubt or frustration than we are comfortable with making public. I don’t know about you, but humility along the journey of faith is the most attractive to me - stories where we came to the end of ourselves to find God's presence there all along, shaping us into something different than we’d ever expected.

I’m curious to know how conversations about faith and spirituality have taken shape over your lifetime - what has changed, what has remained the same? What do you long for those who are distant from faith communities to know about the living God? How do we live out the truths of God in our world so that people feel God is more approachable than they might think? Blessings on your journey, as you discover God’s action in your own life and in the lives of the ones you love.

In Christ,

Pastor Becca