To ask youth workers, educators, and parents:
1. We’re halfway through this book. In the opening line of Chapter 5, Dean says: “Some would argue—maybe you are among them—that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is not worth such a fuss.”
- How concerned are you about MTD? (page 85)
- Note: if you did not discuss this earlier, you can see some of Dean’s views on this subject here.
2. React to the story about the Faith Christian School and Gainesville State football teams:
- What part of the story affects you most? Why?
- Faith’s coach wanted to send a clear message to the opposing team: “You are just as valuable as any other person on Planet Earth.” What is one concrete way teenagers in your community have heard that message? Did it come from a church?
- Can you think of a situation in which your church is being called to send this message to teenagers? (page 85-87)
3. How would you describe your congregation’s attitude toward Christian teenagers? Does your church tend to view young people primarily as people who will save the church from extinction, who will serve the church as members, or who are called to be the church? (page 95)
4. In discussing mission, Dean says, “God does not send out a few teenagers in a church van to represent Christ in the world on behalf of the church; God sends the whole church.” Is this how your church thinks about mission? (page 97)
5. Dean claims that “translation is how we hand on faith to our children. The principles that describe the gospel’s transmission across cultures could just as easily describe the way we ferry faith across generations.” She says we are called to translate God’s love for young people through the medium of our own lives.
- What does it mean to translate God’s love through your life? Are you actively translating?
- Does your church have a mission and/or education committee? How are their tasks different? Who has responsibility for transmitting the gospel across cultures and generations? (page 98-99)
6. Dean describes “liminal moments” in the Christian life as the interval between Christ’s call and our response, in which Christ waits for us. Can you think of a time you’ve lived through a liminal interval with a young person, waiting for him or her to respond to Christ’s call? Does God’s waiting make you uncomfortable? (page 101-102)
To ask teenagers:
1. [Tell your students the story about Faith Christian School and Gainesville State on pages 85-87. Then ask:]
- Put yourself in the position of one of the players for Faith Christian’s football team. How would you feel about your coach’s decision?
- What if you were a player on Gainesville State’s football team? How would this night have felt to you?
- Faith Christian’s Coach Hogan wanted to communicate this message: “You are just as valuable as any other person on Planet Earth.” Do you know anyone like Coach Hogan? What makes them different from most people? Give a concrete example of when they treated people as equally valuable?
- What is a situation in which your church or youth group might enact Christ’s “wasteful” love, the way the Faith Christian community enacted it for Gainesville State?
2. Choose your favorite ending to the sentence and explain why it matters to think about mission this way:
Mission is: a) a trip; b) an event; c) a way of life; d) a purpose; e) something people do when churches send them to other countries; f) something else
3. Do you think “God is up to something good in the world?” If so, what good is God up to? How does Jesus Christ factor in? How do you factor in?