It is clear according to Dori Grinenko Baker and Joyce Ann Mercer, youth should not be a time of waiting to become. Young people are not to be subjects of our solution based church ministry.
We are all (young people included) called by God to be the Church. Their point is well taken. We are to help youth and young adults not only to life out their vocation, but as importantly help them to find their vocation in a world with a narrow understanding of worth and meaning.
Already on the first page in the first chapter, I recognized my own struggle with what the authors name “a consumer-driven model of vocational discernment” (1).
Baker and Mercer offer various ways to help adolescence to confront and deal with their vocation. Based on their fundamental understanding that no one is an island, they call upon communities of faith to offer some kind of a companioned walk, reminding us that youth look to adults for help (10). This companioned walk gives youth an opportunity to be a prophetic voice in the church, helping the community of faith dealing with the question of identity usually assigned to young people.
The authors talk a lot about gender, and I personally think the issue of gender is a great example of where young people are or at least should be a much-needed prophetic voice in communities of faith. When talking about gender, the issue at hand is not only a question of helping youth finding who they are apart from traditional roles of the patriarchy, but also allowing the prophetic voices of young people to proclaim the radical message of equality, in communities that are often the strong protectors of patriarchy.
The authors give us what they call “four counter-narratives to the culture’s curriculum of vocation” (26). I can agree that those four narratives are all valuable in themselves, but I don’t necessarily buy into their way of presenting them. Why do we have to assume that “Christians are called to seek fruitful conversation and joint action with those who hold alternative religious worldviews” (26)? To be more specific, I agree that there is probably a value in those counter-narratives, but I don’t necessary see them as Christian. When they continue and present the all embracing contemplative immersion with nature (48) or quote young people talking about the supreme being of all major religion as a proof of how we are more alike than different (38), they are stepping outside my own comfort zone.
Their critic of church camp and recreational outdoor activities is worthy of discussion. However, I think their claim that “without intentional efforts to foster direct encounter with the natural environment … youth are unlikely to come away from these camps with a deep sense of compassion for other creatures and for the earth” (58), not only dismisses the power of God’s Creation in and off it self. It also forgets the ability of the youth to experience and connect.
Baker and Mercer emphasis the need for youth to tell their story. Using films containing such stories is great, and a helpful way of opening up channels of discussion.
Finally, if we take “priesthood of all believers”, seriously and truly believe that infant baptism is some kind of an entry point into God reign. The we must accept that youth have a calling here and now, not just at a later time. The true value in the book Lives to Offer, is based on that claim.
Joyce Ann Mercer and Dori Grinenko Baker. Lives to Offer. Pilgrim Press, 2007.