The Tectonic School Philosophy - Part 2

A series of posts outlining the background and purpose behind Tectonic School

This series of posts come out of the draft document that, combined with a sizable number of devotionals, will eventually comprise a book to help launch Tectonic School programs.

It outlines particular problems that are present in our society, our local churches, and in the lives of individuals and families. The solution offered is a plan to integrate a severely disenfranchised and undervalued group - young men - into meaningful involvement in local communities through training and employment in trade jobs and the life of the local church. This will be accomplished through cooperation in mutually beneficial relationships with local businesses, local churches, and local families. 

This is the second post in a series. The first post is available here:

1: Diagnosing The Problem Of Our Current Institutional Framework

The Great Commission: From the Master to The Disciples

Jesus final instructions in the Gospel of Matthew are as follows:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

These instructions were given to the eleven remaining disciples who had stayed by His side for the last three years, absorbing and following everything that He said and did. 

For the past many decades the meaning of this command has been reduced to obtaining a confession of faith from as many people as possible, with the corresponding baptism. Many have criticized the evangelical movement for this emphasis on simple conversion, but real solutions to the problem have been lacking. 

A more recent emphasis has been placed on the concept of “baptizing nations”, which is a laudable goal for its ambition, but in so far as is its focus has been on change through governmental and legislative action, or a “Christianization” of the government itself, the victories achieved are likely to have an effect of similar depth to the shallow evangelism described above. After all, many nations were fully baptized for centuries prior to the reformation, but life in medieval Europe was not synonymous with the Biblical vision of the Kingdom of God.  

The idea best represented in the great commission is that self-replicating communities of strong believers would grow across the globe; that these eleven would each take on the role that Christ had played in guiding them, and from this example, many more would take the place of the first group, and new disciples would eventually learn and emulate the same roles for themselves. 

This natural progression between the master and the apprentice was a common practice in many parts of the world, and in many disciplines. The master would take on one or more apprentices, and in time they would have the opportunity to go out on their own in a limited fashion, and gradually gain autonomy with their growing expertise. True mastery was only conferred upon those who could not only do all the things their teacher could do, but could also excel in teaching the next generation. 

This model was the way that men have learned the skills of manhood - farming, blacksmithing, carpentry and more; women likewise learned the skills to keep a home and raise a family from the women of the previous generation. Some things may come directly from a father to son; others may be learned by studying under a master of some other discipline. 

The Abandonment of The Relationship Between the Master and the Apprentice

Sadly, the young men of our generation are neither learning from their fathers or their teachers in an effective way. The wholesale export of education and training to the department of education and the public schools has failed boys and men. Except for the few who excel at the particular set of skills which are needed for the world of formal academics, boys are failing at an alarming rate.

The church has not done much better. For those young men who may have felt the calling of God in their lives, two seemingly different paths are available, determined by the nature of their churches. 

In the older traditional denominations, only those who can excel in the realm of academia have received the encouragement and support to make it through college and seminary all the way to a life of vocational ministry. 

In many of the newer evangelical churches, post-high-school ministry training programs have sprung up, often associated with mega churches founded by charismatic and influential leaders. These schools attempt to reverse engineer the success of these institutions through analysis of the methods and practices, yet in this circumstance, it is only those with the prerequisite personality traits of extraversion and agreeableness, similar to the founders, that truly flourish. 

The effect of this is that in almost every church in America, either a good-hearted but bookish pastor, or a charismatic but superficial preacher presides over a congregation of women. The boys who are there are accompanied by only a mother in most circumstances, and of these young men, most will feel disconnected and unable to relate to the man in the pulpit, who feels more comfortable behind a keyboard (of one variety or another) than he would behind a workbench. 

Of course, exceptions to these rules are not too difficult to find, and fortunately, there are still many godly men in various churches who can help fulfill the roles that the pastor is not able to. But these laymen are undervalued and unappreciated for the spiritual importance of their role, and for the far greater potential that they can fill. 

If a young pastor finds himself working at a small congregation that does not employ a full staff, he will soon find that his ability to preach, teach and lead worship is of secondary importance to his ability to fix and maintain an aging and ailing building. If the congregation has no men with expertise in the areas of building repair and maintenance, the pastor will be forced to make difficult decisions about the use of church funds to pay for repairs. This may affect his own livelihood. 

That is a noble sacrifice if he choses to make it, but if he is being ripped off because he has no concept of what is needed or how much it should cost, his naivety obscures his nobility. Or he may have to make the decision to downsize the use and functionality of the building. Will his congregation be willing to suffer through an under-heated building? Will they be happy to worship with their jackets on, or meet in a tiny classroom with a space heater, while the sanctuary remains dark? The faithful few may endure these trials with a joyful spirit, but it will not bring seekers into the building. 

The results of the church going along with the societal decision to emphasize academic knowledge and success over other forms of learning, and the increased reliance on expertise and specialization in various fields of study have left the church (in its broadest sense, as a cultural and societal force) weak, impotent, and irrelevant.

When we look back on the history of the church, we often wonder in amazement. “How did a rag-tag band of working class men, many of them untrained and uneducated, start a movement that resulted in the conversion of the roman empire, and the lasting achievements of western civilization?” 

What is often marveled at in such statements is that they lacked the expertise of the other religious and political factions. The traditions of the Rabbis; the knowledge of the Greeks, the discipline of the Romans. But what if it was precisely because they “lacked” these things that they achieved their high level of success? What if the “lowly” nature of their positions as carpenters, fisherman, and tax collectors (who were seen as thieves and criminals,) was not a bug, but a feature? 

The next post in this series is available here: