Seeing children as part of the church

A new kind of Christianity is spreading across the globe, and the Mennonite church can be a leading voice in discerning what that means for how Christians pass on their faith to their children, according to a researcher of children’s spirituality.

“People have realized that the old paradigm doesn’t work,” says Dave Csinos, a doctoral student in practical theology at Emmanuel College at the University of Toronto and author of the 2011 book, Children’s Ministry That Fits: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Approaches to Nurturing Children’s Spirituality. “There’s a sense of trying to create a new paradigm, but we’re in this shifting middle time where the new paradigm hasn’t fully emerged yet and there isn’t a consensus of what it is. . . . And we don’t know what to teach young people because, in a sense, we’re learning it for ourselves.”

Csinos says that amidst all of this, the Mennonite church is something of an “oddball.” While conversations about things like nonviolence and social justice are happening in the emerging church, they are not new conversations for Mennonites. “It’s a denomination and tradition that a lot of people are looking to right now,” he says. “People are realizing that Anabaptists have a lot to offer this new paradigm that’s emerging.”

Csinos was one of the key organizers of Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity, a conference that took place in May in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of church leaders gathered to talk about the spiritual formation of young people and children.

Csinos believes that in the past, when it came to passing on the faith to children, there was too much of an emphasis among Christians on passing a particular type of faith or a particular set of beliefs. “It’s a lot of cognitive knowledge, in my opinion,” he says, “and there’s a sense that once children know that Jesus died for them, then they’ve crossed the threshold.”

When the emerging church began looking at what it means to be a Christian, or to believe and yet have doubts, those conversations were not getting translated to children and youths.

Csinos says that as Mennonites think and talk about what it means to pass on their faith to children in 2012, there are three main things to keep in mind:

• First, the Mennonite church got its start as a radical, countercultural church.

“We should be radical in the way that we are raising our children,” Csinos says, giving the example of a family he knows that does not purchase Nestlé products because they do not agree with some of the company’s business practices. That sort of boycott can be an opportunity for adults to speak with their children about what their beliefs are as Christians and how those beliefs ought to be lived out.

• Second, as Anabaptists, Mennonites are part of a tradition that other
denominations are looking at to lead the way.

“People are looking to Anabaptists and finding a wealth of insight,” Csinos says. “If we can become adept at passing on that authentic faith to young people, then we can really drive the boat here. As a denomination, we would be poised to help others.”

• Third, the way Mennonites understand children is going to affect the way they teach them.

“If we see them as little devils, then we’re going to focus on teaching them the right way to live,” Csinos says. “But if we see them as innocent little beings, which is how middle-class society typically views children, we won’t deal with the complexities of being a child.”

Finding a middle grouund

A middle ground needs to be struck, where children are viewed like anyone else: beings whose sinfulness can be overcome by God’s grace.

Barb Smith-Morrison, pastor at Bloomingdale Mennonite Church, Ont., attended the conference and says that much of what she heard resonated with her experience as a mother and church leader. “Our children have the capacity to have very lively faiths and very lively imaginations, which is what our world needs, I think,” she says. “Our children already have relationships with God. They don’t need us to come and introduce them to God, they need us to nourish that sense of the spirit that’s alive in them. We need to create spaces that aren’t about ‘we’ and ‘them,’ but space that is really about us together.”

Csinos agrees. Ultimately, children should be invited to be a part of the church community, rather than simply sequestered in church basements to learn Bible lessons so that they one day “become one of us.”

“It’s about having them be a part of the community,” Csinos says, “rubbing shoulders with them and walking the journey together.”