Proverbial wisdom from the ancient Israelites suggests, “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” I was reminded of this at THE MOUNTAIN Retreat & Learning Center during the spiritually enriching and fun experience of MountainCON!

While conservative religious traditions often draw upon this biblical passage to support a model of religious education based on a methodology of indoctrination, the UUA and other progressive religious traditions employ a methodology more akin to exploration. In fact, we of the UUFEC actually characterize our religious education program as Religious Exploration. And “path” is an excellent metaphor as it implies a shared responsibility of the developing student as an explorer and the mature teacher as a guide. But let us not consider this metaphor for spiritual development rigidly in terms of either chronology or physiology. Jesus, with his subversive wit, proposed the trusting “faith of a child” as an exemplar above that of the older and powerful religious leaders.

The youth from our congregation to attend MoutainCON included Nina and Lindsay Brown , Mikayla Hodge, Johann Lavandier, and Wesley Urbanzyck. These courageous five, like strangers in a strange land, were lovingly guided through the thicket of stony mountain paths, personal anxieties, and social challenges. MountainCON enabled them to experience nature, our “beloved community,” and themselves in a deeper sense. Even as our youth experienced spiritual transfor-mation, it seems they also might serve as our models and guides. Josh Billings, an American humorist contemporary with Mark Twain, seems to have captured this insight as he put a provocative spin on an old proverb, “To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.”