Why lockdown is so challenging for faith development: Performativity in a pandemic

As we signed off the last of our Zoom youth sessions at the end of July, I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not that the term hadn’t gone well. After all, we’d managed to make it through to the end with all but one of our young people still logging on each week. We’d also managed to transition from a fortnightly meeting to a weekly one, so on paper it was something of a ‘success’. But I can imagine that, like me, you felt relieved to have a break over the summer from what has been – let’s face it – a shocker of a few months.

I’m profoundly grateful in this season to be a small church and youth group, which means that we will be able to meet up face-to-face in the near future. I know, however, that many of you will not be in this situation. Many churches, youth groups, and especially bigger events like festivals have not been able to happen and may not be able to happen for the foreseeable future. The longer the pandemic and restrictions continue, the more of an effect they will have on the formative years of teenagers’ lives.

From propositions to performance

This is true not only of their friendships, their wellbeing, and their educational prospects, but also of their faith development. Many of the young people we work with are exploring faith; we all know that the teenage years are an essential time of testing out the identity of being a Christian, and seeing if it works. It is a time for trying Christianity on for size, to see if it fits. This can be summed up by saying that faith is performative, a reality that embraces all of us who would call ourselves Christian.

Performativity is not the same as performing or pretending. Rather, it’s about acknowledging that our actions not only reflect an interior reality but actually create new realities. For example, I might struggle to believe in God. But if I begin to worship, and to sing songs about God’s reality and goodness, my belief in God might strengthen. To say that faith is performative therefore acknowledges that it’s not always a sequential process from believing in something to acting on it. Yes, belief begets action, but action also begets belief. We explored this concept in much more detail in our We Do God research, which you can find here.

Helping faith take flight

Thinking back now to the pandemic and life in lockdown, this presents an additional challenge to faith development beyond simply keeping young people engaging online. What we have lost in the transition from corporate settings to a digital offering (particularly if it is a live-stream and not a Zoom) is the opportunity to participate and ‘perform’ faith. We have lost the safe spaces to step out and try something new.

During any other summer, at festivals across the land, countless young people may have tried raising their hands in worship, or speaking prayers out loud in front of others for the first time. These opportunities and spaces for trying things out have all but disappeared. Sitting and watching a live-streamed service in your living room with the rest of your family is incomparable with being surrounded by peers singing their hearts out. Many young people won’t have sung or prayed out loud at all for six months.

Without opportunities to try faith on for size, it is possible that young people’s fledgling faith will not take flight. They may feel that they don’t really believe in God anymore, and aren’t really sure why. It’s hard enough for those of us with slightly more faith miles on the meter and who have learned regular rhythms of faith practice to keep faithful in this time! We therefore need to give young people as many chances as possible, despite the limitations, to stretch their faith legs and dive in. Whether it’s via Zoom or in person, why not give your young people the chance to try new things and step out in faith?

We have several resources at Youthscape that may be a good starting point, and you can find them all at our Store: