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To: NYer; lightman

Just to let you know, we have similar problems in the Lutheran church. It is always a parent problem. Christian training of the young needs to start at baptism.


6 posted on 11/20/2008 4:44:03 PM PST by Charles Henrickson (Lutheran pastor)
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To: Charles Henrickson
Christian training of the young needs to start at baptism.

I think that Christian training should start well before a candidate seeks to be baptized (immersed as practiced in the early years of the Church of Christ). One must believe before being considered a Christian. Today we have it backwards - baptized (by a little water applied to a part of the body in most cases), and then later on "confirmed" in the faith one never knew as a baby (often less than two weeks old). The NT tells us that belief comes first, period.

9 posted on 11/20/2008 5:47:30 PM PST by Truth Defender (History teaches, if we but listen to it; but no one really listens!)
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To: Charles Henrickson
The post-Confirmation exodus occurs in congregations large and small, irrespective of the rigor or lack thereof of the confirmation class curriculum.

It is generational. I looked over the anniversary booklet of a Pastor of thirty years ago (spanning the "glory years" of WWII and just beyond) and found that there was generally only one person in each confirmation class who was still active in that congregation.

Christian training of the young needs to start at baptism.

No, I'd say it needs to begin pre-natal--as in Christian parenting classes (with Baptismal instruction) during pregnancy.

11 posted on 11/20/2008 6:11:57 PM PST by lightman (BHO: I'd rather defy than deify.)
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