Former Urban Saints team member - Dr Mark Scanlan - conducted research with two different Urban Saints Groups as part of his studies on the relationship between the Church and missional youth groups. His findings have now been published in a new book and we asked Mark to share with us how the book came about and a taster of what he discovered...
An Interweaving Ecclesiology - the church, mission and young people
‘The affective gravitational pull of the church’
For a decade I led youth work at Stopsley Baptist Church in Luton. The work was well-resourced, based in our own youth centre, The GreenHouse. Despite this something began to frustrate me: language of ‘the main church’ to describe the building holding the church office & the worshipping space. Why was that the main church I wondered? Did it imply work with young people had less value? My instinct was to argue that what happened at the GreenHouse was as much ‘church’ as what took place in the ‘main church’.
This captures wider questions about parachurch work, intergenerational church, family services and youth congregations. Theologian Pete Ward writes of ‘the gravitational pull of the church’ that draws us back to pre-existing assumptions about church. Is this what was going on in the language of ‘main church’? I started to wonder more about the ecclesial life in Christian youth and children’s groups. Could this gravitational pull be resisted?
‘It is an interweaving thing’
I had no Crusader heritage growing up, though married into a family who were Crusaders through and through - Linda Jones, daughter of one time Crusader Chair, Janice, and Peter Jones, became a Scanlan back in 2002!) - and worked as a Field Worker for Herts, Beds and Bucks in the early 2000s. Through these connections I noted the identity and community within the movement and local groups, that for many this was more a tradition that formed Christian faith, than an organisation to join. Given this, and Crusaders’ influence on both youth ministry and the wider UK church, Crusaders / Urban Saints would be a fascinating lens through to explore my questions.
The Trustees graciously agreed to support this and a PhD and research project began. I explored Crusaders’ history through archival research and eighteen months of participation and interviews in two groups. Both aspects were fascinating. From reading handwritten minutes from the early 1900s to joining Bible studies, crafts and games in groups and talking with leaders and young people, a distinct vision of the church developed.
Despite commitment to not to be a replacement for churches but to work in harmony with them I sensed a form of communal Christian life in Crusaders being formed outside the gravitational pull of the church. Theologians call this an ‘ecclesial imagination’ – a way of life that forms faith. I sensed a similar dynamic in the two groups - participants’ faith was being formed in community. This was a kind of ecclesial life on the margins of the Church. A 16-year-old group member articulated this, describing her group as being ‘church for the last two years’. This experience was not universal. For some the groups were youth groups to attend that happened to have Christian content. For most though the identity was somewhat ambiguous, being places to explore Christian faith together but not churches.
Participants were comfortable with this inherent ambiguity. Technically this can be described as ‘liminality’ - the experience of being in-between, neither one thing or another, a space with opportunity to explore and experiment. Theologically I termed this liminality as ‘potential ecclesial space’ – holding the possibility of church-life without that identity dominating. Crusaders’ history helped identify how these liminal spaces with ecclesial potential are vital for the whole Church moving outward in mission. The experience of liminality created space for the church to grow into. This shifts the question of getting more young people into church by raising the equally important question of how might we encourage the church to grow into spaces occupied by young people?
The book
In encapsulating this a group leader found the right language – it was an ‘interweaving thing’. ‘Interweaving’ provides a beautiful image of how the Church is more than what happens in local congregations on Sunday mornings without diminishing the importance of this. It captures how liminal spaces such as youth groups might be part of the whole tapestry of church life. New threads might be woven in, enriching and expanding the Church.
The book takes this image, with the Crusaders / Urban Saints as exemplar, casting a vison of church that embraces liminal spaces. There are three parts - one sets the theological, sociological and practical rationale for developing a vision for the church out of youth ministry; part two presents the case studies, detailing characteristics of potential ecclesial spaces; part three explores the impact of this vision for the whole church in mission.
I hope the book might shift conversations about the Church, mission and young people to celebrate the weekly graft of those who meet, eat, pray, play and study the Bible with young people, while equipping the church to see how the Spirit of God might be at work in all sorts of liminal spaces that hold the potential of ecclesial life.
Dr Mark Scanlan
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Mark is a Lecturer in Theology and Youth Ministry at St Mellitus College. He holds a PhD in Theology from Durham University and an MA in Youth Ministry from Kings College London. Mark is also a former Crusaders / Urban Saints Field Team member. |
"As a youth worker himself, Mark has lived the practical wisdom he amplifies in his writing. Youth workers will find their 'ecclesial imagination' recognised, championed and refined through this valuable contribution to the youth ministry literature. Churches too will find themselves enlarged in all sorts of ways, through paying attention to what happens when two or more teenagers gather in the name of Jesus." - Lucie Shuker, Youthscape
Mark's book is available to buy from the Urban Saints Shop: