c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest in Winston-Salem, N.C., an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter. E-mail him at journey(at)interpath.com)

UNDATED _ This young pastor’s question might sound absurd to longtime churchgoers, but it’s true to the moment.”I’m trying to figure out,”he wrote,”how I can introduce Lent to a group of young people who have never been part of a church, or at least have a very negative idea of what they think Lent is.” He himself grew up in the Lutheran tradition, where the 40-day penitential season is important to the annual rhythm of faith. Lent’s reflective disciplines and somber mood _ beginning with ashes and leading up to the death of Jesus _ prepare the believer for Easter.

But now he serves a young congregation whose members come from that estimated 70 percent of the population who are”unchurched.”Some grew up in churches but lost interest; many are children of a generation that began to drop out of churches in the 1960s.

The unchurched, says a pastor in Michigan, have no interest in churches that seem”wrapped up in their own membership … ministering to the `already convinced,’ just trying to keep existing sheep in the pen.” Church traditions that are so meaningful to longtime churchgoers can be barriers to the unchurched.

What, then, should my friend do? Instruct his young flock in ancient tradition, or allow Lent to join All Saints Day, the Transfiguration and Ascensiontide as festivals that used to shape people’s daily lives but now seem, to many, merely quaint? Does the path to faith require tradition?

I can hear the resounding YES! that will issue from those who have indeed found their way to God by way of traditions like Lent.

But I wonder if those saying yes can hear the voices of the 2,000 families my Lutheran friend called on, who told him church-as-usual meant little to them.

Here is what I want to tell this young pastor:

People will find penitence, even if they don’t find Lent. Life drives us to our knees. On our knees, we might claim ancient words, or we might not. The point won’t be to preserve ancient tradition as having meaning in itself, but to kneel with the penitent, join their cry to God and say something about the one who receives prayer.

If that cry takes the form of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and ashes on the forehead twelve hours later, then fine. But you can’t force it. Chances are the newly penitent won’t be hungry for flapjacks or even for the fellowship accompanying them, a fellowship that seems less friendly to outsiders than insiders. Their hunger is for space to voice doubt, despair and worry, and to question workplace stress, confusing relationships and the search for values.

The issue for you is, can you offer that space? Can you hear heart-cries? Or in the interests of preserving the ancient and serving the elderly, will you cling to the familiar and have no ears to hear and no fresh words to say?

It could well be the life of faith leads inexorably to Lent and its disciplines of fasting, self-denial, study and prayer. But that may not be the entry point, and congregations need to be concerned about entry points. In my opinion, failure to maintain effective entry points has undermined congregational vitality.

People have been visiting churches in great numbers for at least a decade. Traditional congregations get their share, but not enough stay to offset normal attrition through mobility and death. Many move on to faith communities that seem open and accepting, where the language of faith is language they understand.

I visited a Methodist pastor in Seattle who spends hours every week searching for language that speaks to his flock. He offers prayers from Native American, feminist and environmentalist perspectives; he preaches tolerance and minimizes liturgical traditions. Some traditionalists dismiss Wallingford United Methodist Church as trendy and”politically correct,”but its pews are full every Sunday, especially with young people.

The question isn’t Lent or no-Lent. The question is: Are you listening? Are you ready to receive people for whom the beloved traditions that shaped your faith are obstacles? In order to serve them, can you let go of that which you value?

MJP END EHRICH