The BBC recently posted an article titled: Why travellers are choosing holidays that hurt and wondered at the phenomenon of people choosing (can you believe it) to use their precious holiday time to run ultramarathons or some other endurance event rather than just relax by a pool somewhere.
What were people looking for? One female participant said “I want people to see what an ordinary 47-year-old woman can do when she puts her mind to it” and a race organizer said, “They are trying to achieve something complex and, at the end, deliver something extraordinary.”
But why? Two explanations were proffered.
CONNECTION WITH NATURE
One mountaineer and tour organizer believed,
“It’s about connection with nature – for a lot of people, the gym environment doesn’t really cut it,” he said. “We are living in a world… where we understand the benefit of a connectedness with nature. Many people working in the outdoor adventure sector are experiencing a tsunami of people coming to engage with these activities for mental health reasons.”
Two things there. Connectedness (whatever that means) with nature and a recognition that the natural environment is beneficial for mental health in relation to ways many people’s built environment is detrimental to their mental health.
SEEKING ADVENTURE
It is not very surprising that someone should suggest that, “The ultimate gain at the end is not speed-related metrics: it’s about how cool the course was, what you saw along the route and the stories and adventures you bring back.”
Running through the desert or high in the mountains is memorable in ways sitting on a beach is not. You will forever remember these adventures but the ordinariness of most family holidays blend one with the other, even though they are themselves historically remarkable.
THE PRESENT BUT MISSING PIECE
What was interesting to me was that the answer was littered throughout the article but never highlighted. Five times these adventures were described as ‘challenges’ and that’s what I think people were and are looking for.
Much of life in developed economies has developed in such a way as to often remove as many challenges as possible from life and for many, many people their work may be interesting but rarely challenging. I would suggest that the majority of jobs are not ones that give people a sense of significant accomplishment and rarely if ever provide them with a challenge. This can be very unsatisfying for one of the richest and most highly educated cohorts of people to ever set foot on the planet. For tens of millions of people there is no corner of the planet that is essentially out of reach. And so people seek meaning in their life by seeking a challenge, something that will test them and show them and others what they can accomplish ‘if they put their mind to it.’
CHALLENGE BASED DISCIPLESHIP
Interestingly enough there are some who think this is also a missing ingredient when it comes to spiritual formation. For Pastor Jon Tyson and his collaborator Jefferson Bethke at Forming Men, they boldly declare that, ‘MEN ARE FORMED THROUGH CHALLENGE — NOT INFORMATION.’ Their full caps, not mine.
In one of their marketing emails as they launched their challenge-based materials they put it like this:
I want to ask you something honest.
Think about the last time you really changed. Not “inspired-for-a-week” changed. Actually different; in your habits, your character, your daily life.
What caused it?
I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t a sermon series. It wasn’t a podcast. It wasn’t a book or a retreat where you felt fired up and then came home to the same routine.
Real change, in my experience and watching men up close for years, comes from one thing: sustained, defined challenge. Something you had to show up for every day. Something that had teeth. Something other men were doing alongside you and would ask you about.
The problem is that most of what the church offers men is the opposite of that. We give men content to consume and events to attend, and then we wonder why the needle doesn’t move.
Here’s what I believe: you cannot inspire a man into transformation; you can only challenge him into it.
That’s the conviction behind the four Challenge-Based Discipleship courses Jon and I just released. Each one is six weeks. Each one gives a man something concrete to do, a group of brothers to do it with, and a finish line on the other side.
Not a study. Not a series. A challenge.
I don’t know that they’re wrong. In fact I think they may be putting their finger on a malaise in modern life and how specifically it hurts a man. I’m sure there are plenty of women who also want a challenge, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of men to whom this resonates was disproportionately high. I’ve certainly benefited from Tyson’s challenge to fathers so I might try one of Tyson & Bethke’s courses over the summer. I think they’re correct in their diagnosis, so I’ll see if they’re also right (or at least helpful) in their prescription.
Jesus, it seems to me, regularly put his disciples in testing and challenging environments. Storms on a lake, amidst crowds both friendly and hostile, on mission, in urban and rural environments and then gave them the highest compliment of all by entrusting them to take his message to the whole world. They rose to the challenge.
We want people to experience real, noticeable growth in their walk with Jesus. Challenge-based discipleship might not be the whole answer — but a church with nothing to rise to, no sacrifice required, no finish line in sight, probably isn’t the answer either.
Leave a Reply