The Fabric of Faithfulness, by Steven Garber

Well, what better way to start off reporting on some of my reading than by sharing from Steven Garber, a man who will be one of my primary mentors through the D.Min. program? The premise of The Fabric of Faithfulness is so simple, the goal of the book so clear, the vision, … stunning. Originally this book was written in 1996 to a university audience. In fact, the subtitle in the original edition was Weaving Together Life and Belief During the University Years; however, the book received such a wide readership over the next decade, that the "re-title" in 2006 left out the "During the University Years." What does it mean to give to a young person the tools to connect his presuppositions about life to life and behavior? First of all, what does it mean to give to that young person a worldview that is rich and complex enough to help anchor him in truth in an ever-changing, pluralistic, cynical and broken world? Next, what will it take to find “mentors” who have embodied the connection between worldview convictions, behavior and life? Finally, having observed those who have done this, what does it mean to live among friends and peers who have this same vision of life and conviction that life in this world that God has made is so profoundly meaningful and full of moral goodness, the pursuit of a “good life” as Garber puts it. 


Being in a church that has many university students, I was struck with the amazing privilege we have at Grace Chapel to influence young people, to encourage them to form “habits of the heart” at a time when they will be setting off into the world either to do something “meaningful” with their lives or simply to pursue fame, achievement and riches for their own sakes. Do we spend time understanding our education to be more than a “passport to privilege”? Do we see at the heart of true education, “moral formation” and the rigorous work of cultivating virtue? This was an extremely challenging book to me for a couple of reasons: 1) as said, our congregation is filled with college students, yet how myopic can I as a pastor can get at times, wondering how the “bills” are going to be paid? Instead, how I need to be reminded that our church continues to have a profound stewardship opportunity to invest in young people and to give to them a “moral vision” for life, that what they choose to “do” matters terribly and 2) to think about my own life as an almost-forty-year-old person, to wonder, … having “passed” those “critical years of moral formation,” where I am today. Where has integration and moral formation (or lack thereof) brought me to this point in life? What are the "habits of the heart" formed in my youth that continue to define my life today?