Update 1 from Luther Seminary: Identity

Yesterday, our class spend discussing the issue of identity.  This might seem like a strange topic for a seminary class, but stick with me.

For most of human history, your identity was handed to you.  You were born to a peasant family, you were a peasant.   Your dad was a farmer, you were a farmer.  And it was pretty much set in stone by the time you were in your early twenties (if not earlier). It is only recently that people were allowed within society to construct an identity.  And if I think back to my 20s, I know I am no longer the same person.

To be honest, it can be exhausting work.  Because not only can you shape your own identity, but you can change your identity now with the swipe of your credit card at the mall or Apple store or buy a new car.  So much of our identity is no longer wrapped in our job/profession - but in what we consume or which groups we belong to.  Family and religion no longer play the same role in shaping identity.  While we don't name that truth, it is there when we lament people not coming to church or even within our own families.

I want to invite you to think about your identity and how you would describe yourself to someone else?  Moreover, where would the church fit in that identity?  I don't ask that to make you feel guilty.  I ask that to honestly assess what role the church and faith play in your life.

I also ask that because in the afternoon we spent time reviewing a book we had read that had surveyed 18-24 year olds, who are called emerging adults.  Emerging because unlike their great-grandparents who were pretty much had their identities either given or at least established by that age, today our emerging adults are still trying to find ways to "stand on their own two feet."  It is not that they want to be living in their parent's basement or living a nomadic life style, they are just trying to sort through the exhausting work of creating an identity.

The problem is also that many people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, etc are also trying to re-create their identities.  They just have more resources (usually) to make the work easier.  However, we tend to look down on people in their 20s for this work, but think nothing of a 40 year old saying, "I don't know what I want to be when I grow up."

I hope as a congregation we can talk more about this in the coming months.  We know we (in the Mainline) don't do a good job of reaching out to 20 year olds...but I think we could if we listen to their concerns.  By and large they are not against the church, they just don't feel like the church cares for them.  Can we be a place that challenges that assumption?

God's blessings and peace...may the traces of God's grace be with you all!