Although our time with Brian McLaren has ended, I’m trying to get down some of my thoughts on some of the great conversations he’s led us in…

Today I’m thinking about our third session with him, on the 4 Stages of Faith Development  (If you want to read the first couple of posts you can find them by clicking here: Inherited Faith vs. the Faith We Will Live and/or Reading the Bible Naked).

I can foresee a number of future posts relating back to this one… as I will only attempt to summarize what he shared and give some initial thoughts on how it relates to our work with college students.

The Four Stages of Faith Development that Brian described (after briefly talking about a few of the other models/descriptions that other theologians, psychologists, etc. have put forth) are:

1. Simplicity — You’re either for us or against us.  It’s all or nothing.
2. Complexity — There’s more than one way to do things.
3. Perplexity — Everyone has an opinion.  Who knows who is right?
4. Harmony/Humility — Seek first God’s Kingdom… love God, love neighbors… in essentials unity… focus on a few grand essentials.

If you’d like to see how Brian further characterizes the 4 stages (according to the focus, motive, perception, beliefs, as well as how individuals at each stage will view authorities, life, identity and God) you can visit Brian’s slideshare site at: http://www.slideshare.net/brianmclaren/stages-of-faith-1920055).  I highly recommend viewing the presentation if you have the time… because my brief summarizations are just that… brief.

While the 4 stages themselves were not new to me, or to most of us involved with the faith development of students, what came next connected some dots for me in some ways that had not happened before.

Brian suggested that:

• Many churches are Stage 1 or Stage 2 churches
• Therefore, many of our students are coming to campus at Stage 1 or Stage 2 in their faith development
• Stage 1 students will often have problems with their Stage 2 classmates
• While there will be faculty at each of the four levels of faith development, many faculty are at Stage 3
• Stage 3 (and 4) faculty (and staff) will make faith challenging for Stage 1 and 2 believers on campus (for differing reasons)
• Students will likely need to journey through Stage 3 in order to arrive at Stage 4
• Many students who enter Stage 3 won’t stick with it long enough to make it to Stage 4 (this likely speaks to why so many students walk away from their faith during their college years)
• Students at Stage 3 need to see people at Stage 4 — that’s about the only thing that will help them to get from Stage 3 to 4
• Stage 4 Christians are not perfect
• Stage 3 and 4 believers have few places/churches they can find the necessary “space” to exist, question, learn and grow in

Hearing Brian express some of the strains that will naturally, and inevitably, occur between people at different stages shed some important light on some of the challenges I’ve sensed in my present work.

• Students who are unwilling to “hear” you (Stage 1)
• Students who desire to have you map out their spiritual growth for them (Stage 2)
• Students lack of interest in their faith development (Stage 3)
• Students struggle to find a new “home church” (any of the Stages)
• Students who struggle when things don’t work out the way they think they should (Stages 1 or 3)

And I could go on… but I think you see what I’m saying.

Our big challenge, as I see it, is helping students to understand this process that they are going through… and to come alongside them as they journey forward… because as much as you can see the challenges, I hope you can also see all of the opportunity (a topic for a future post).

As our students move from a more clearly defined and/or protected faith, towards one that is more explored and then ‘owned,’ they will experience some of the pain, fear, excitement, struggle, etc. that often accompanies things that are  new, unknown and different.

Still a lot swimming around in my mind surrounding this… but I’ll stop for now.

Thoughts?