Preface
Series Preface
These are the journeys of the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. At the Lord’s command, Moses recorded the stages of their journey. These are the stages listed by their starting points. Numbers 33:1–2
Moses wrote their goings out—When they set out, God ordered him to keep a journal of all the remarkable occurrences in the way, that it might be a satisfaction to himself and an instruction to Others. It may be of use to Christians, to preserve an account of the providences of God concerning them, the constant series of mercies they have experienced, and especially those turns which have made some days of their lives more remarkable. John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
Growth in life and faith occurs in stages of development. Just as there are common markers for biological maturity, so can we discern noteworthy milestones in spiritual formation. In order to help individuals and communities mature, we do well to mark and celebrate these milestones. Even better, to foster intentional spiritual formation that coincides with natural life development is a compelling vision to help establish believers and churches in the faith. Such a process would offer a helpful means of passing down “the faith entrusted once for all to the saints” (Jude 3). Certainly, maturity in the faith has an intergenerational scope: delivering the ancient faith intact and unalloyed to the future generation. As such, processes and strategies of Christian formation must pay special attention to natural phases of human development and commonly discerned dynamics of spiritual growth.
With this vision of Christian spirituality, one can imagine a number of ways to foster Christian maturity across the generations. In fact, faithful parents and church leaders have diligently discharged this duty through the ages. We must learn from them as humble apprentices while we also consider the unique context of our contemporary world. Christians have a duty to both preservation and innovation. On the one hand, we must heed Paul’s instructions to Timothy: “guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us” (2 Timothy 1:14). On the other hand, we must be like the men of Issachar “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). The Christian life is lived at the intersection of timeless truth and contemporary dilemma, where God’s inspired word addresses the great need of mankind. Until the return of Christ, a time we long for with great anticipation, we will constantly live at this crossroads. And, the complexity of the crossroads for each age serves as a fortuitous opportunity—an ever-ripe ministry occasion—to prove the relevance and veracity of God’s timeless truth in all cultures and generations.
To this end, we offer this series as a tool in Christian formation. Essentially, it is a Christian approach to rites of passage. The title of the series speaks of its fundamental aims: Passage: Crossing Thresholds in the Sojourn of Life. At its core, this tool views the Christian life as a sojourn. More than a temporary excursion or one-time outing, the voyage of life is an extended pilgrimage that encompasses our whole life. This sojourn is also a journey of advancement, development, and maturation across successive stages. The overall forward movement of the Christian life—even if it is necessarily fraught with its detours, roundabouts, diversions, and wanderings—occurs across various phases of progress. Because there are phases of development in life and faith, we are (at times) able to mark the thresholds when we cross from one phase into the next, from one region into another.
To become aware of your current location in the journey and to be cognizant of upcoming legs of the pilgrimage is quite helpful. It can provide encouragement for the weary, humility for the proud, motivation for the slothful, and hope for all. Crossing thresholds together with other travelers—a company of pilgrims—provides camaraderie, companionship, and solidarity for the difficult terrain that we must traverse. As we cross these thresholds together, we are making passage into new territory. These passages will be myriad in life. To mark the successful arrival at each juncture in a journey affords a time of reflection on the past, celebration in the present, and preparation for the future. Marking these milestones of life and faith helps pilgrims remain oriented to the road ahead, focused on the final destination, and vigilant against many dangers and snares they might face. Said shortly, this series aims to help Christian disciples mark, measure, and make passage through important milestones for life and faith.
Many cultures and societies have rites of passage. Typically, these ritual-based experiences assist a person (and the community) in explicitly marking a change of status in life and development. Broadly speaking, these rites of passage can mark many seasons of life: birth, puberty (coming of age), marriage, childbearing, vocational achievement, eldership, and death. Commonly, the rite itself involves a temporary separation from society, an initiation through a challenge, and a reintegration with the community under a new status.
It must be said that Christians are not beholden to cultural rites, rituals, and ceremonies. In Christ, believers have been set free from the man-made tradition (Matthew 15:1–20). Nevertheless, to ritualize an experience is nothing other than attempting to invite community members to participate in an experience with regularity, repetition, and patterned form. Participation in such an experience helps to shape us. For the church, Christ has only commanded two ritual practices: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (communion or the eucharist). Baptism is a one-time initiation rite into the community of faith. The Lord’s Supper is an ongoing revitalizing ritual to sustain and support God’s people through an act of covenant renewal. Even though other rituals are not commanded in Scripture, we offer this Christian approach to rites of passage as a way of marking major milestones of life and faith. These are not ever to be held with the same status as baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Nevertheless, they offer a concrete way to guide people and communities in faith formation.
By labeling this series Passage, this curricular approach to rites of passage focuses on the borderlands: the liminal moments and crucial junctures when we cross over into a new phase of our faith journey. Different than an establishing process or catechetical course, this series aims to measure, mark, and commemorate transitions across seasons of life and faith. Sometimes people cross into new life seasons without realizing it. When we remain unaware that a major life transition has happened, we can unnecessarily prolong immature habits and life patterns from an earlier phase of life. On the contrary, to prematurely encumber a child or youth with adult responsibilities before they are ready can be overwhelming (at least) and detrimental (at worst). Consequently, this series has a preparatory and demarcating function. It seeks to help a person understand to consider what an upcoming season of life might entail while it also helps to make this seasonal transition explicit and noticeable.
Over the course of this series, we hope to provide concrete and flexible tools for navigating the transitions in life and faith. This curriculum is unapologetically Christian. While people may be able to use the tools to discern general principles of life formation, this series is explicitly a summons to faithful Christian pilgrimage across life’s thresholds. As such, the composition of this tool is designed to be church-based, family-oriented, biblically-rooted, and theologically-reflective. In the end, we humbly offer this as a gift to the church so that believers and communities might join the psalmist’s words as a refrain of life: God’s “statutes are songs to me in the house of my pilgrimage” (Psalm 119:54).
July 2024 York, Pennsylvania
Preface
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:25–26
As to our life and death, we must know God is wise, and will never gather his fruit but in the best season … He that would not die when he must, and he that would die when he must not, are both of them cowards alike. To desire to live, when one is called to die, is a sign of cowardice; for such a one is afraid to enter the list with the king of terrors. To desire to die, when one is called to live, speaks a faint-hearted creature; for such a man dares not look an affliction or disaster in the face, therefore would take shelter in death … He is the most valiant person that can die willingly when God would have him die, and live as willingly when God would have him live. George Swinnock, The Christian Man’s Calling
The life of faith is lived with wholehearted and unalloyed trust in God. Such unreserved faith is constantly tested by the pressures and predicaments we experience in the world. In one sense, genuine faith is lived in the ordinary and mundane day-to-day realities of life. There is an unheroic nature of the Christian life that involves daily faithfulness to God in the hundreds and thousands of small areas of responsibility. But there is another side to Christian living that involves sacrifice, courage, and resilience. In this other sense, believers take up their cross and follow Jesus regardless of the consequences. A life of daily faithfulness is balanced by a loyalty of unflinching fortitude. On the edge of life’s challenges, at the precipice of threatening danger, and in the face of innumerable risks, believers maintain trust in God.
The world is a dangerous place. There is no biblical guarantee for a life of faith that is untroubled or carefree. On the contrary, Jesus promises his followers: “in the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). According to the Bible and lived experience, life will be filled with difficulty, hardship, and challenge. Enemies of God will oppose God’s people. Cultural trends, political dynamics, and societal values will exert pressure against believers. Following God’s commands will prove challenging in a world hostile to the faith. Temptations to sin abound. Personal insecurity and inner fears can haunt. People oppose the faith. Often, faithfulness to God will cause us to trust God in the face of great sacrifice. Intrinsic to genuine faith is a life of wisdom and boldness to face risk, danger, and threat with deep trust in God. At the same time that Jesus forecasts trouble, trial, and tribulation in the world, he also enjoins us to a bold and venturesome faith: “take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). To this end, this resource attempts to assist youth, parents, mentors, and churches to mark the transition into the initial teenage years with exploration of courage and valor.
This tool is a subsequent installment in a series on Christian rites of passage called Passage: Crossing Thresholds in the Sojourn of Life. This specific tool helps teenagers transition into a season of emerging adulthood, encouraging them to be bold and courageous in their faith. Aimed at youth ages 13–15, this specific resource is designed to mark a youth’s initial teenage years. The rite of passage is organized as an adventure camp experience to facilitate this life season, often labeled as a “coming of age” moment. This resource follows a prior tool called BaseCamp: A Rite of Passage into Christian Responsibility and Accountability. Building on this foundation of Christian responsibility, the current resource seeks to outline key elements of how Christians should faithfully, wisely, and valiantly live out their faith in a dangerous and threatening world. As such, this present tool is called Venture: A Rite of Passage into Christian Risk and Valor. As youth face risk, danger, and threat in the surrounding world, this community-based rite of passage leverages outdoor and adventure experiences to teach lessons on what a bold and courageous faith entails.
Similarly to the other resources in this series, the overall structure of this rite of passage is threefold. The first section (Part One) studies key elements of how believers face risk with faith and courage. Specifically, youth will complete a six-session study that outlines key areas of risk and valor: courage, obedience, integrity, valor, sacrifice, and faithfulness. Throughout this wisdom-based and gospel-centered exploration, youth will develop a biblical framework for a life of Christian risk, providing a theological and practical foundation for life development and faith formation as youthful years transition into emerging adulthood. The second movement of this process (Part Two) is an outdoor adventure camp experience. During this experiential phase of the process, youth will spend time in communion with God, participate in specific adventure experiences, and cultivate relationships with others in their community. These outdoor experiences are meant to be challenging in order to stretch faith, form memories, and build deep relational bonds. Undergoing challenging experiences helps to mark a moment in life that serves as a reference point for each person’s future. Although these adventure experiences will involve risk and calculated danger, youth will be given a supportive environment to grow in competency, character, and understanding. The final phase (Part Three) of this process is a celebration and ceremony. After the adventure camp trip, youth will prepare a personal testimony, reflect on their faith commitment, and participate in a celebration ceremony to mark their completion of this process. Since the overall process of this rite of passage is aimed at spiritual formation, the back portion of this tool (Part Four) provides journal space for youth to record their learnings, capture their experiences, and reflect on their own spiritual formation.
Throughout his life and ministry, Jesus faced danger and threat with faithfulness to his heavenly Father. His life of perfect obedience, miraculous healing, gospel preaching, and scriptural teaching culminated with a selfless death on the cross. More than anyone, Jesus knew suffering, danger, and threat. For Jesus, faithfulness was literally a matter of life and death. Jesus’ faithfulness in the face of unspeakable pain and unthinkable danger is our best example and model. But it is more than a model. Jesus’ faithful resolve to embody courage, endure suffering, undergo persecution, resist temptation, display integrity, and sacrifice his life makes it possible for us to develop a courageous faith.
Youthful, teenage years represent a fitting season to explore Christian risk and valor. The desire for thrill and adventure must be tamed by a measured and uncompromising faith. Experiences common to many youth—pressure from peers, testing of boundaries, and resistance to authority—provide an opportunity to explore the consequences of a life unsubmitted to God. At the same time that youth face external pressures, they are wrestling with internal insecurities. Mature faith and godly wisdom demand situational awareness and risk assessment to navigate complex situations in a challenging world. The risk-averse might seek to evade difficulty, take the path of least resistance, and conform to their surroundings. The hasty and imprudent may rush into danger without thought or reason. While the Christian faith is unavoidably lived out amid danger and threat, God wants to form youth (and all disciples) to have a daring devotion harnessed by God’s guiding will.
The only sufficient guide for developing a theology of Christian risk is God’s inspired word. In light of this truth, this tool is structured around key passages of Scripture that help to depict and display key characteristics of a wise and daring faith. However much a person comes to understand these teachings, courage and boldness will only take root when a person’s life is fully submitted to God and his word. While we “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling,” it is only “God who works in [us] to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). A genuine faith—manifested in a healthy fear of God—is the means to overcome all other fears, to face innumerable dangers, and to place our lives on the line for God’s glory and his good purposes. It is a matter of heeding Jesus’ call for each disciple to “deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow [Christ]” (Luke 9:23). Only when we do this can we “be steadfast and immovable” and to “always excel in the work of the Lord, because [we] know that [our] labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
May 2025 York, Pennsylvania