My parish is currently in the process of hiring a new Children’s Education Director. Hiring someone isn’t simply about just finding the right person for the job. It’s also about refining what the job actually entails. In part, this work is done before the whole process gets started, but it continues even until the interview. Those who apply for the job come with their own expectations and hopes for what the work will be. In this, the “job” itself becomes a conversation between employer (in this case the church) and the potential employees.

This time, I had the chance to sit down with our prospective hire (we only have to check references) and talk about just this topic: what does Christian education mean. It came up when I was telling the hire about how we give Bibles to children at important milestones in their education: once when young, then at second grade, again as they start high school, and finally at graduation from high school. That’s a lot of Bibles, and I began to think aloud about how I’d like to do something to help the children and parents approach the Bible at each different stage. The hire, though, turned the question around, asking, “Do the children need that many Bibles? What other things could we give them and their families that will help them understand what it means to be Episcopalians?”

The thought had occurred to me, though only vaguely. Our prior Christian Education Director was experimenting with different gifts for graduating seniors, and for the past few years she had been giving them a small book of wisdom from the Bible. The new hire pushed this onward by suggesting that there is a lot more to know about the Christian faith and how to be an Episcopalian than just another Bible.

It took a while for this idea to sink in. As Christians, we go to the Bible for everything; or at least we say that we do. What else do we need other than the Bible? Of course, we need a lot. The Bible can give us important knowledge and wisdom about God, but we also gain edification, wisdom, and hope from many other sources. I myself was brought to a deeper faith in Christ by playing video games and watching Japanese anime. Like Steinbeck, who learned about how to be a better human by reading Le Morte Arthur (a long medieval poem about King Arthur), I learned what it meant to be human by reading both Christian, secular, and non-religious authors. To put it in gaming terms, I learned about things like patience, dedication, and rewards through grinding XP and taking down end bosses by the skin of my teeth. While the Bible may be our Scriptures, it is not the only means by which we learn about God’s presence in our lives.

Which asks a further question: what do we teach our youth? What do we pass down as Christians? What should we pass down? A book that we call Scripture and that children have to learn to interpret on their own? Or a set of modes by which we use Scripture? What else? As Episcopalians, we also pass down the liturgy, the prayers, the Sacraments and especially the Most Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion. We pass down not only the sayings and actions of Christ but also how the Church has responded to those sayings and actions for the past two thousand years. Shouldn’t we be teaching these two thousand years of wisdom to our children as well?

I certainly think so, and I appreciate our new hire for reminding me about this (how easy it is to forget). I remember growing up as a Christian and wondering, “What else?” I was looking for a sort of “thickness” to Christianity that I did not find in my upbringing. I searched for that thickness and depth outside of Christianity for a while, and I found it in other religions, but I knew it wasn’t for me. I wanted to be Christian, even if the sort of depth I sought could be found in, say, Buddhism. It was only when I encountered the liturgy and the Sacraments that I learned about this depth in Christian tradition, and I have found that depth to be endless. Just when you think you’ve come to the end of a particular avenue of our tradition, the Holy Spirit opens up new doors and new ways of thinking that you’ve never considered before. Being a Christian really is an amazing journey.

So, to return to my question: what do we pass down to our children? The new hire and I are talking about how to teach liturgy and the Sacraments to our youth at Church, but what can we do as parents or relatives or fellow church-goers to younger generations. I think there’s a lot beyond the important wisdom and truth found in the Bible. We can pass down proper modes of reverence, especially for others but also for the holy objects in the church. I think we can pass down wonder at the mystery that is Holy Communion. We can point to modern writers and ancient ones who still speak to us, even hundreds or thousands of years later. We can encourage in our youth a desire for the depths of things. For me, that was through reading fantasy literature. For others, it might come from traveling. Indeed, for others it may be setting up for Communion with the Altar Guild or digging in the garden or walking in the forest. But most of all, we have to teach our youth that God is constantly speaking to us, and that most of the time God is encouraging us, not condemning us (actually, I think God is never condemning us; note John 3:17). Where else will children learn that they are eternally loved by the creator of all things but in the Church?