Generous Orthodoxy and Christian Hospitality

Youth Ministry as a Case Study

Abstract

“Generous Orthodoxy” traces its coinage to the influential post-liberal theologian Hans Frei, but it was not popularized until the publication of Brian McLaren’s 2004 book with that phrase as its title and its, shall we say, generous subtitle, “Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/ conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.”

Because generosity is only generosity if it is instantiated in the courage and personal formation of young people who have themselves surrendered whatever conventional aspirations they may have had for social glory and associated themselves with the lowly, the annoying, the dangerous, and the different, this is joyful but not easy. Generous Orthodoxy does not come into activation if it does not cost or at least risk something.

Is it possible for the Church, its leaders, and its ecclesiologists—generous or otherwise—to learn from this one limited example? One wonders, since, as Brian McLaren would likely say, Generous Orthodoxy as expressed in this model does not represent an innovation or even a strategy, for that matter. Rather, it seems to be the way the church has operated from the beginning, yet this seems to elude leaders and practitioners across the Christian spectrum.