When training (as I did again this weekend), I often ask participants to take a look at the character of John Keating in the movie Dead Poets’ Society.  Keating teaches his students about Carpe Diem / Seize the Day; but that, in no way, was Keating’s own teaching philosophy.  He was about seizing tomorrow / Carpe Mañana.  (This is a concept I picked up from Leonard Sweet.)

So often our talk regarding adolescent faith formation revolves around “meeting them where they are at.”  That implies that our young people are not in constant motion – physcially, emotionally, spiritually.  Watch a little football.  When the quarterback fades back to throw to a wide receiver streaking down the side line for the “long bomb…”; where does he throw the ball.  When I ask this in a workshop (with a little animated powerpoint magic going on the screen,) the answer is invariably to point to “where the receive is at” during exactly the same moment the QB releases the pass.  And, my friends, that answer is . . . wrong.

We need to recognize where they are at, but throw to where we want them to be, encouraging them forward so they they / we might continue to advance.

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