It has occured a number of times: A mother calls, she has an infant, they regularly attend a non-denominational congregation that does not baptize infants, and she wants the child to be baptized. What is an individual to do? We want the child to be baptized and we bring up the problems with the theology of the church they attend. What is a confessional Lutheran to do?
The issue comes down to a number of issues. First, younger people today have less denominational loyalty and more personal loyalty (a pastor they know well). Secondly, people don't see the connection of doctrine and practice. They don't like how they don't baptize infants, but they like the worship service, so they keep going even if they don't believe in what they believe. Thirdly, younger people don't value membership. So they probably won't "join" that other church, but still consider themselves Lutheran.
Any thoughts? I am working through this and want some ideas of how to proceed.
1 comment:
In case you haven't seen this, here is a post from "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" on the subject: http://four-and-twenty-something.blogspot.com/2009/08/baptizing-and-teaching.html
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