I’m preparing a session for an upcoming youth retreat on the topic of “Silence and Solitude as Spiritual Disciplines.†It has caused me to think about the lack of silence in our lives in the US.
My parents owned a small cabin near Warsaw, Virginia on a tributary into the Rappahannock river when I was growing up. They never had a telephone installed there (this was way before cell phones) and the small TV could only pick up two stations on a good day. The place was amazingly quiet, and it gave me time to fish, swim, and walk in the midst of silence. Most of our teens today have constant noise, or the potential of noise invading their lives all the time. Cell phones, IPods, computers, cable TV, radio (how do you like yours—AM, FM, XM, Sirius, HD…?), and a host of other sounds invade the lives of our teens every day.
So, how does the church teach the power of silence and solitude to a generation that is engulfed in sound and image? Retreats are one way. Take the group to a location and confiscate all their electronics, even though they will wail and gnash their teeth at the beginning. Then structure times for them to be silent, and to give them the opportunity to listen to the voice of God.
However, I’m not sure that a weekend away once a year will really teach this discipline. It is too easy to return to all the electronic noise of our western culture. My faith tradition (Baptist) is not known for having times of silence in worship and the new worship styles seem to focus on how much sound, light, and how many moving pictures on a screen that they can cram into 25 minutes. To really teach the discipline and benefit of silence and solitude, it needs to become a part of our worship and our practice as a community of faith. We can spend our entire time at church making noise and never listening. We can spend an hour in Sunday School talking and never being quiet and listening for the Spirit to speak.
What a shame to think that we may be teaching a generation of believers that the sound is more important than the silence.
On the journey together,
Greg
Thanks, Greg. At my former church electronic equipment was banned (and sometimes confiscated) for youth retreats and children’s camp. They managed to survive somehow.
I’ve found it helpful to distinguish between “silence”, “quiet,” and “stillness.”
It does no good to tell a child to be “quiet” in church—-but they are able to appreciate the notion of “stillness” or “inner silence.”
You are not alone in your observations about today’s teens and their inability to deal with silence – – but, then, they’re not alone, either. I have found in leading retreats that a lot of adults of all ages really struggle with it. On the other hand, the appeal and numerical success of Taize services, particularly with young adults, says there’s a hunger there. Taize, if you haven’t experienced it, is almost entirely a sizable chunk of silence wrapped in repetitious chant-like music; the only spoken words are scripture and prayers. Younger generations flock to it in France, coming from all over the world. I’ve seen Richmond Hill’s chapel filled for the Taize service they offer, when there are high school retreatants there. A couple of useful resources come to mind: Rob Bell’s “Noise” in the NOOMA Series, and Upper Room’s new series “Pilgrimage” part of their “Companions in Christ” materials, is brand new, and excellent. -jb
I agree with you Greg, that retreats are a good way to accomplish this practice. However, I think you make a valid point when you suggest that any experience that does not become a regular discipline of life may be more introductory than long-lasting. The challenge of educators is to consider this fact and address the way faith is formed as a part of the regular discipline of the corporate community of faith. Off-site retreats can become a regular practice of the church but to a limited degree, because of financial and calendaring considerations. How to make “retreats” an on-going approach AT the church may hold some great promise and be an issue that needs much deliberation.
We can encourage spiritual practices on a personal, privatized level and are hopeful that members of our congregations are involved in spiritual practices at home. But this is hard to monitor and my hunch from experience is that most of our members are not engaged in regular spiritual practices. This SHOULD be a part of the teaching and training discipline in every Christian home. But as you say, there are many competing forces!
The issue, therefore, that stands out in my mind, for the Christian educator is an issue of planning–for the church and for the family. I’m not thinking of planning in terms of repeating the same kind of activities and events that most churches traditionally provide for their members, but a new approach to planning that gives consideration to the kinds of STRUCTURES and PROCESSES that are congruent with how faith is formed in a community of faith.
For example, we cannot adequately address many spiritual practices because we have structured an hour for most things that happen in our churches. Sunday School is an hour. Seminars are usually an hour in length. Worship is an hour. And the list goes on. Where did we ever get the notion that the magic number of minutes for effective Christian education is 60 minutes? The only way we can adequately address many spiritual practices in community is to structure time for them. That’s why retreats work so well–they provide flexibility and adequate time for thinking, reflecting, pondering, asking questions, sharing thoughts, and being quiet–and they provide a conducive environment for the kind of processes that effectively address, experientially, the spiritual disciplines.
I cannot be more serious when I say that one of the greatest needs we have across the board in our current educational ministries is to STRUCTURE in more time so that, THEN, we are able to address the PROCESSES that are necessary for effective faith formation–dialogical learning and mission immersions as two examples. So as you can see, this is a planning issue, and one that needs collaboration among all staff members and program areas of the church. If we can faithfully address this need, then “retreating” and experiencing the spiritual disciplines may become a viable practice AT the church on a consistent and on-going basis in additional to the off-site retreats and mission immersion experiences–all which are effective formational practices.
Greg, Amen! I will go one step further from the local church and put the responsibility on the parents. I take mini-vacations throughout the year, 1-3 days, and make them electronic free. No matter where we go, there will be no TV, video games, computers, iPods or electronics like that. We spend the time talking about God’s creation, God’s purpose in us, how we relate to others, how we are contributing to the pollution of the planet and how we can change that, as well as spend time with a good, relaxing while enjoying waves crashing on the beach, quiet reflection and renewing of the spirit. This is not out of the reach families. This can happen once a month in every home over a three-day weekend.
A discipline is only as good as its practice. Families are the key to growth/discipleship in individual lives. The church can only reinforce not replace what families teach!