Pastor s Corner: Tangled Christian parachutes
By TODD LEHMAN
Trinity Mennonite Church
Summer is a time for baseball games, basketball summer league and weekend tournaments, swimming in the local pool, going to church camp, long hours of work, sleeping in, vacationing with family, VBS, hanging out late with friends, boating at the lake and reservoir, and going on service and mission trips with the youth group. Of course, these are activities enjoyed mostly by high schoolers.
Having recently returned from a mission/service trip with the TFY youth group (Trinity and First Mennonite Youth — two churches in Hillsboro), I'd like to focus on those.
When youth go on a mission trip one of the first things to recognize is that the amount of work the group will accomplish is minimal when compared to the level of learning that can take place in each youth (and adult leaders, too). Focusing on this helps a great deal in preventing what Kenda Creasy Dean calls "Christian Parachuting" in her book, "Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church."
The phenomenon of Christian Parachuting as described by Dean is "a decontextualized 'dropping in' to a needy situation just long enough to distribute beneficial goods that sometimes places unwanted stress on a beleaguered community."
As I understand that definition, it means us, the parachutists dropping in, do work for someone (sometimes work that only we deem necessary, not even being directed by those we're serving) without any care for the larger problems those in that situation face, let alone allowing our presence to address those problems.
It seems that with this kind of cavalier attitude we can even contribute to some of the larger problems that we are there to "fix."
This topic of Christian Parachuting resides in the larger context of Dean's book discussing the developmental stages of faith through which youth travel. Often for a person of high school age, the work of serving others is not seen as something to do because it makes a difference to him/herself but rather because it helps someone else, because it's a fun adventure to go on a trip with peers to a place where we don't know anyone, because it feels good to help others, or simply because Jesus told us to.
There is little, unfortunately, in such an act that has to do with identifying with Christ's suffering. So, one might wonder, why do we continue to champion service/mission trips as a major event in the yearly cycle of youth ministry? (In fact, much of the fund-raising of our group for the past year has gone toward the mission trip from which we just returned from Kansas City).
There are several positive results we can glean from such an experience, some of which are selfish. The group of youth who go have a major shared experience which helps to cement the group as a unit; there are many opportunities throughout the week to bond with different members of the group; and there is a sense of accomplishment with seeing a project through to completion, whether that means taking one project from start to finish or completing one task that is part of many on a larger project (such as doing the siding of a new house for Habitat for Humanity).
However, there may be some learning that is less selfish such as gaining an expanded world view and a new level of compassion.
During our time in Kansas City we had several learning opportunities about Rosedale, the community in which we stayed and did most of our work. This was to give us context for the place in which we served — what the history of Rosedale is, what the people of that community are doing to better themselves, how our work there fits into the scheme of their long-term vision, and what the relationship of Rosedale is to the greater area of Kansas City, and surrounding counties.
As we talked about some of what we experienced during the week, another bonus of our time was rubbing shoulders with some folks who are very passionate about the organizations they serve and the work those organizations are doing in the community. The passion rubbed off on some of our youth who said they not only recognized passion but also were inspired to be passionate themselves about things that matter, like their faith.
By being careful students of the communities in which we serve, TFY and the other local youth groups who are giving themselves in service this summer can make positive contributions to the places they go while growing closer as a group and learning much about the world and themselves in the process.
