Re: Anabaptist Evangelism
Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:40 am
It really bothers me though when people knock groups: Amish, Hutterites, and some Mennonites for not "reaching out" when these groups are retaining their young people and their population is booming. If you have real faith, I think your kids will want the same, right? Or am I being too simplistic. For me, this is proof that the faith is alive and well.
Maybe we need to differentiate what "faith" we're talking about here, faith of our fathers, aka traditions and culture, is NOT the same thing as the "faith once delivered to the saints" that Paul talks about. For a church group to point to their ability to keep their young people as proof of a living faith, can be quite misleading, as Wade alluded to. Many times, those same groups would ostracize their young people if they would ever leave, so are they staying because of the healthy living faith, the saving faith of Jesus Christ, or simply because they'd be too scared to go elsewhere?It's actually quite easy to retain one's children in their culture and religion. That is why few people of any religion are converted to a religion different from that of their parents. It is not at all proof of any healthy living faith. If so then Islam and Mormonism are healthy living faiths.
I don't recall Jesus, at any point in His mission among us, suggesting that we should restrict our children's contacts, language, education, or style of clothing in order to make disciples. But he did say "Go and make disciples of all nations..."