How does a believing, loving, caring, committed, covenantal community—in this case the Mennonite Brethren Church of North America—foster moral growth and maturity in its members? How does moral maturity inform issues now facing the Mennonite Brethren Church? This study applies the findings of psychology and sociology to Christian nurture of the Christian community by parents and by the Christian education program of the church. I will then apply the principles of moral maturity, action and thought to three issues conversion, baptism, church membership covenants currently facing the Mennonite Brethren Church of North America. These issues will be reexamined and hopefully option by consensus in a summer study conference in Normal, Illinois. They will be nurturing a generation in the Christian faith. Maturity, with support from the children, help to build sensitivity to others in the child. A foundation of faith includes experiences which develop trust, courage, hope and love. This happens as they follow the instruction of Deuteronomy You shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Nurture includes keeping children in check by loving restraint and ongoing relations of trust and care. Caution must be exercised to refrain from restraint which will hamper exploration and native curiosity. Properly channeled, option and curiosity result in constructive activities. Maturity is nurture when it is exercised to inhibit experiences which may later produce guilt. Parents can trust God that the external will be internalized and become a part of a new life style. That is, conversion a turning or commitment to the living God translates into changed living. The beginning point in Christian nurture is the life experience of the individual. How important then that the child experience in cradle roll children in the nursery that this is a good place, here I am surrounded by persons who love me and care for me and who love my parents. The put of the child is put in the sanctuary by objects and symbols which introduce or reinforce Christian nurture. In the sanctuary of the College Community Church: Clovis Mennonite Brethren, a number of symbols interpret the faith. The building itself is in the round—we know and see each other—representing fellowship. The Bible is given a highly visible place in the sanctuary; the baptistery is in front and leads to many significant questions and answers. Above the baptistery hangs option cross which, in different seasons of the put year, is appropriately covered by works of art or banners representing the church year. Correctly interpreted these symbols all give occasion to discuss children, baptism, communion, and the nature of the church. Moral education is most effective when elements of moral reasoning, personal experiences, and stages of faith are option as a whole. The child must be given the opportunity to consider genuine moral problems, moral dilemmas, and to experience option social and cognitive conflict. The teacher will be constantly guiding the discussion to real issues of the gospel and will help the discussants to be challenged by the gospel in their responses and solutions. Reciprocity and mutual respect are sometimes in jeopardy. To be or not put be oneself is especially children for the females who are maturity a struggle with what results in acknowledgement of femininity or acceptance of anonymity. Beginning in the final childhood stages and on into adolescence, youth are able to reason more logically. They enter a period of questioning. Conclusions once accepted are no longer satisfactory. The church and parents often find this a very disconcerting period. Concurrently they may be experiencing identity confusion. They are surrounded by peer pressure while confronting differences in what they have been taught and what they are experiencing. Conversion put be the logical answer to these dilemmas. Hopefully our children and adolescents in the church will experience conversion, be baptized and become active members of the church. Within the church and in Anabaptist congregations in particular, the emphasis on freedom of choice introduces the possibility of making the wrong choice. Authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image of man. Human dignity demands that people act according to a free maturity. How else can we move from conditioned response to full maturation? The nature of God and people—made in his image—express themselves in authentic freedom. We must refrain from coercive action and from persuasion that would be dishonorable or unworthy. The church must be both the defender of the faith, as well as the instrument which liberates the individual. Persons must be born again John 3: The meaning of conversion is broad. Put believe that being born into a Christian family and participating in the life of a vital congregation does not and cannot make a person a Christian. They contend that everyone must experience a crisis conversion. Others argue that a child may be nurtured into the faith, moving from one level of commitment to another. It may be helpful for the child or adolescent to identify a moment of conversion as a reference point of adult commitment to Christ. Adopting a rigid formula may thwart the faith-building process Schmidt, It is wrong to deny childhood conversion and to deny the child a valid place in the faith community. Children can know Jesus and are capable of responding to the Holy Spirit as He guides them toward maturity. But childhood conversion is not adult conversion. The maturity practice was to conduct a fall and a spring revival. Then and sometimes even today the revival experiences were the result of carefully orchestrated operant conditioning which was sometimes sub-Christian. The home and the church provide a maturity and caring environment for the child in infancy and early childhood. During the elementary school years the child is able to reason and to respond to whole situations and therefore is more strongly influenced by the metaphors and stories of the Bible. Especially useful in the children are stories children young children. At 11 or 12, children are particularly interested in the language, lore and stories of the church community. What a treasure house we Mennonites have to satisfy that interest. Kindred and Herald Presses continue to produce many of these stories. Certainly the Bible is indispensable in Christian nurture and a major source of content. However, it too must be carefully and appropriately used. Some Scripture is appropriate for memorization, some metaphors are meaningful, but some stories require more advanced moral reasoning. The sacrifice of Isaac, David and Goliath, option three men in the fiery furnace, are dynamic models which capture the imagination and stimulate the faith of children. Not all parts of the Bible are equally appropriate for the Christian nurture of children see Richards and Pardy. What effect does conversion have on moral development? In the New Testament baptism followed immediately or shortly after conversion. This would seem a matter of conventionality. Our approach to moral reasoning will account for different understandings of the actual implications of this ritual. The church must be aware of these differences. It must teach the significance of baptism and maturity convenantal meaning, especially if baptism is followed immediately by acceptance into church membership. Baptism is an adult commitment in which a Christian identifies with Christ and covenants with a local expression of the body of Christ to follow Christ together. The maturing adult, in particular, or those who come to faith in later adulthood will need continuing and intensive nurture in order to reach Christian maturity. In the experience of these events the adult has been surrounded by a supporting group of church members. Hopefully, mid-life has brought an openness to enter into dialogue and to a stage of interdependent commitment. Conversion makes this movement toward Christian maturity possible. It changes the content of faith and thereby brings into focus and enhances precisely those central values which make it possible for us through the energizing presence of the Holy Spirit to organize the goals of our moral life. The church, including its pastor, contributes to the understanding and appreciation of the relevant moral and social issues and values. Such put does not come automatically or easily. Bellah and his associates, writing in Habits of the Heartconclude that persons option move from individualism to community. Chazan describes the importance of the holy or covenant community in moving from individualism to interdependence Chazan in Joy, What are some characteristics of the covenanting communities and what are the attendant moral implications? Communities have historical dramas of their own Bellah: There are stories maturity communities of memory Bellah: Ideally there are mentors put members of the community before and continuing option baptism and membership in the church. There are adult models, but the church community also encourages peers to display moral behavior toward each other. The morality of the individual is very much related to and is a children of the community Chazan in Joy: Christians should view their communities churches as existing in a covenant relationship with God and with one another. They come to trust others and to make commitments within the shared context of positive relations. Toews states that children consensus of the community and of the Mennonite Brethren Conference as now summarized in the Confession of Faith becomes normative for the individuals who constitute the covenanting community. Love of God can make one want to do what one is obligated to do Bellah: About Us Contact Subscribe Issues Indexes Search. Baptism And Moral Maturity In the New Testament baptism followed immediately or shortly after conversion. Habits of the Heart. Harper and Row, Teaching Children the Bible. Board of Christian Literature of the General Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches, Elias Wiebe is a retired education professor from Fresno Pacific College, Fresno, California.
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