Helen came 15 minutes early to Sunday night service. “Pastor,” she said, “I have to get saved!”
What was up with Helen?
This seventy-something Missourian certainly hadn’t stopped by my office on the spur of the moment. Her coming to Christ was like a pot on slow boil, and the “flame” had been two years of friendship from others in the women’s ministry group. In short, women in our church loved Helen to Jesus.
I thought about Helen when reading George Hunter III’s The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West Again (Kindle edition; Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 2000, 2010). Hunter reports on John Finney’s 1992 study, examining how people come to faith in Christ. Finney discovered that most people today come to faith gradually, as they are folded into the life of the Christian community. Hunter calls this the “ongoing contagious life of the congregation” (location 795) in contrast to “special event preaching.” Summing up this philosophy, Finney uses just four words:
Belonging comes before believing.
Yet Finney’s and Hunter’s insight has implications not just for adult conversion but for how we bring up our children in Christian faith. The Anabaptist view dominates in North America, reversing the “belonging/believing” order to “believing/belonging.” It reserves the waters of baptism (the sign of belonging) for children old enough to make a conscious decision about their faith. Practically, this means most children aren’t baptized until at least ten or older. It is an essentially individualistic view, where the person is seen as prior and superior to the group. (Contrast this with the dominant African ethos, which says: “I am because we are.”) Whether intentionally or not, does this give the message to our children: “You don’t really belong to the church until you believe”?
Surprisingly, many Nazarenes coming from a Baptist background do not realize that our DNA includes a strong strand of the Finney/Hunter “belonging before believing” idea. This is passed down to us from our Methodist heritage and the covenant theology espoused by John Wesley. A newborn child (as symbolized by infant baptism) is early folded into the loving community of faith. Later in childhood, he or she through careful Christian education, including catechism, comes to a personal understanding of saving faith. Just like circumcision “marked off ” the Jewish male as part of the faith community, so baptism “marks off” the male and female infant of Christian parents as belonging to the covenant New Testament People of God (Colossians 2:11-12). It announces to one and all: “This child, through prevenient grace, belongs to the church, even before he or she believes.”
Hunter and Finney (location 797) contend that the postmodern mindset is much more receptive to the belonging/believing pattern than the dominant evangelical opposite. As Wesleyan people, are we not well-positioned to appropriate the best from both Evangelical and covenant traditions? We must continue to invite unbelieving adults to a place of personal conversion followed by baptism. Likewise, we encourage those bringing up their children in the Nazarene community of faith to present their infants for baptism. Baptism (like circumcision) is a one-time sign of initiation. Whether later as an adult or earlier as a little child, it’s an amazing thing to belong to the People of God. Let’s joyfully celebrate it!
UPDATE: There has been some excellent feedback to this piece over on Naznet.com. The “nub” of the debate is this: Does a Baptist -like ecclesiology really reverse the order from belonging/believing to believing/belonging? Not everyone accepts this premise. Is it simplistic for me to call this ecclesiology “individualistic” and that represented by baptizing young children “corporate”? What do you think?
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Image credit: The Good Book Stall
Gregory Crofford 
Greg,
It is interesting that Diana Butler Bass in one of her books addressed this issue of acceptance, belonging, and believing verses believing, belonging, and acceptance.
The book is Christianity after Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening
HarperOne, 2012
Thanks, Gary. I’ll look into it.
Thanks for this post Greg. I like the line of thinking. However, I would want to offer one critique. I think we do a disservice to baptism (and to grace) when we link infant baptism to prevenient grace. Not only is that not a biblical move — biblically, baptism is always a mark of conversion — but it is also theologically problematic. In linking infant baptism to prevenient grace, we essentially are making infant baptism a different type of baptism than the baptism received as an adult. I don’t think we can do that. I don’t think we should do that. I think baptism has to be baptism. No matter when it is received it is the one and the same baptism. It is entrance into the community. It is covenant. It is sacrament. It is salvation. It is grace. We need not nuance or parse it. We need simply to receive the gift.
Eric, in the near future, I will likely be doing some more research on baptism and Eucharist for upcoming clergy development seminars here in Africa. I will have an eye to your question of prevenient grace and the baptism of young children. Thanks for your comment.
The Celtic way of evangelism radically changed the way I approach ministry. In the past eight years we are trying to implement the apostolic model of ministry. This incidently is the same model I witnessed on the mission field in Argentina on my three missions trips there.We must be the living gospel where the people live. How do we reach them there?. How do we bring the concept of the Abbey into the local church? As tribulation and hardship increase in this generation of americans there are needs all around us where we the church can be the solution.The posssibilities are endless! What a great read thanks for sharing Greg!
So good to hear your positive feedback, John. Blessings to you and your ministry.
The Celtic Way of Evangelism radially changed the way I approach ministry. Since I read it eight years ago we have been trying to follow and implement the apostolic model of ministry to all that we do, by creating a community within our community that is concerned with addressing the needs of the opressed, downtrodden , and outcast of our community. I have believed that Father is calling us back to the heart and ministry the early church ever since I witnessed the apostolic model’s of ministry that we are implementing on the mission feild during the three mission trips to Argentina I was priviledged to be a part of. I have taught this book as a Sunday school class three times since reading it.
As tribulation and trial continue to increase during this generation and economic downturn, George Hunter offers truly relevant concepts for taking advantage of the sociological parameters that are facing the church today.How do we bring the church back to the crossroads of our communies? How do we transform our worship and preaching from the Roman model to the Celtic? How do we go from pastoral centric to apostolic team ministry? How do we implement the concept of the Abbey into our communities and fellowships? When we begin to consider solution to these questions the possibilities are endless! What a great read! Thanks for sharing Greg!
Forgive me for overlooking this excellent comment! I agree that the Celtic Way of Evangelism should be a paramount model for ministry today.