Back to Spirituality

"Attention, Please!" Connective Spirituality

And God said, "Attention, please! May I have your attention?" God, in Martha Whitmore Hickman's And God Created Squash: How the World Began, having created the most ambitious part of creation (that would be us), now asks a simple thing: "Attention, please! May I have your attention?" Why? Well, to point out a few things and to see if we have any questions. God particularly wants us to know this: "Remember I made you for company, for me and for each other. So we could love each other." And that's the core of Connective Spirituality.

I spent much of last summer filling in for one of our demoninational staff members while she was on sabbatical. I traveled to camps to check in on how things were going. My favorite part was hearing kids debrief the week. When asked about the good stuff, they'd give the usual answers: swimming, friends, food, small groups, FOB (flat-on-bunk, i.e., rest time)— and staying up late. The not-so-good included food, weather, bugs, FOB time.

And then the juicy part, what I really wanted to hear about: When this week did you get a glimpse of God? The answers included friends, vespers, campfire, small groups, worship, an early morning rainbow, and deer in the meadow. Though predictable, paying attention to such glimpses of God is much the point of the outdoor ministries experience. But I was surprised how many times, all summer long, I heard kids say, "I saw God in the storm." Whenever there had been a storm (and there were some real bangers this summer), someone found that to be a significant God-moment, a time when a glimpse, an awareness, a clear connecting with God happened—right in the midst of the storm. Even there, maybe especially there, was a connection with God.

God-Moments

Corinne Ware, assistant professor of Ascetical Theology at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Tex., defines spirituality just that simply: connecting with God. In her Connecting to God: Nurturing Spirituality through Small Groups, she writes, "That may seem too simple, but give it a chance; let it sink in."

Spirituality and spiritual practice is most often associated with contemplative practices and especially practices of prayer. Prayer takes many forms, from wellworked- out prayers that make their way into prayer books used over and over again in formal worship settings to seemingly random prayers that emerge as spontaneous conversations with God. Prayer may be a powerful part of a journaling practice. Prayer may use guided imagery or icons or be part of a simple, still, quiet centering time. It may become a kinetic practice, not done sitting still but a moving prayer practiced while walking a labyrinth or fitted to some other rhythm of life.

But at the most basic level, spirituality is all about such moments as those Godglimpses at camp—moments when we feel connected to something larger than ourselves. From the dramatic, bang-clangscary moments of the storm to the quiet of a rainbow, from the intimate care of trusted friends to the silliness of campfire games—they all can be spiritual moments if connecting with God happens. The campers never mentioned "prayer," but they surely named powerful spiritual experiences.

Nurturing the Connection

So how do we work this Connective Spirituality? How do we nurture that connection? Ms. Ware from Connecting to God again:

"An important thing to remember is that our own efforts do not produce the God connection. We do not bring God to us by means of something we achieve, as un- American as that sounds. We can only experience the God who is already here. Our efforts, then, are to enhance openness and availability. Spirituality is deepened by access. It is not God who is unavailable. It is you and I.…In learning how to be ‘spiritual,' our task is to position ourselves so that we can hear the voice that always speaks, feel the nearness of the always present Presence, and speak to One who continually hears."

Walter Brueggeman, not often turned to as a youth ministry resource, nevertheless has insight into how we "position ourselves so that we can hear" in youth ministry. In Living toward a Vision he observes, "If you ask almost any adult the impact of church school on his or her growth, he or she will not tell you about books or curriculum or Bible stories or anything like that. The central memory is of the teacher."

I don't need to pause for even a moment to find my teacher memory. For me it's all about Jean. Jean Goforth was my high school Sunday school teacher at Frayser Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee. She was also one of my summer camp counselors. Gathering us around a table in a small classroom in the mid to late '60s, Jean encouraged open discussion. Any topic was fair play so long as we respected each other and came back around (long before the bumper sticker) to ask "What would Jesus do?" and search our Bibles for understanding. In the midst of Vietnam, civil rights, and Martin Luther King, Jr., mid-'60s Memphis wasn't a quiet place, nor was our Sunday school. Jean made sure we listened to each other. She shared her own thoughts. She engaged us with Scripture and society. And Jean helped us connect— with each other and with God.

Relationship makes the critical difference. While they may also connect with God in other ways—through Bible study, the natural world, worship settings, and so on—relationship is the natural youth form for spirituality. It may be one-to-one, in small groups, in mission, or in leadership with others, but most often the relationship connection becomes the youth vehicle for the God connection.

Connective Spirituality is about practicing and experiencing and paying attention. Quiet or loud. Active or reflective. Prayer or social justice. Simple, repetitive, soft Taizé singing or praise/rock/jazz/soul/gospel/ hip-hop music. Contemplative prayer service or hands-on work trip. An amazing sunset or a shattering storm. Sitting alone in the quiet, sharing a meal with friends, or dancing madly with a thousand others at a concert. Wherever and however a genuine connection to God and each other happens, that marks a true and valid spiritual experience— a connective spirituality experience.

Being Company

God's desire is for our spiritual lives to connect us to each other as well as to God, that we be company for each other and for God. Micah 6:8 frames it clearly: "…and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Do justice—a spiritual life that connects to the needs of all people for dignity and fairness and the basics of life. Love kindness—a spiritual life that connects us to be company for those near at hand, family and friends and daily encounters at school and work and on the streets, those who need care and an ear, lifting up and healing. Walk humbly with your God—a spiritual life that connects with God and pays attention to the God presence in all those other connections.

"Attention, please! May I have your attention?" Years ago I lay in bed with my son, Blaine, after reading a story. At 4 years old, pondering his day at preschool, he rolled over toward me and said, "You know, Dad, when you first know someone your heart is like this." He showed me his little hand in a tight fist. "But the more you get to know them, it starts to do this." His hand began to open. "And finally it's like this." And he flourished his hand wide open. Then he rolled back over and went to sleep. Our preschooler paid attention and though he didn't explicitly name the God part, he got the connection.

Spirituality—contemplative, non-contemplative, connective, or whatever other language we put to it—is ever and always about paying attention, noticing the connections, and being company for God and for each other. And if we help our young people do that, we will find that they can love each other, love all others, and love God in the quiet and in the storm—we'll have done well for them on their spiritual journeys.

Randy Kuss recently began the Youth Ministries Coach-Trainer Project and God@Center Retreats, serving congregations and judicatories in spirituality and leadership development. He has over 30 years experience in local, regional, and denominational youth ministries.