Promoting Christenings
The Church of England has simply launched a new website for those interesting in having their children baptised, or 'christened' equally the website mostly calls it. (The language hither is a little odd: at one point information technology says 'Baptism is the heart of the christening'; I had idea the two words were usually used synonymously.) And very impressive it is as well. Or is it?
The reason I knew near it was because a friend of mine posted a negative comment on his Facebook page:
Church building of England manages to produce a website for baptism without mentioning Jesus on whatsoever of the main pages! Who on earth puts these things together?
What followed then was an interesting debate between three of us who had trained together (plus others) on what the purpose of such a website should exist. Should it tell the whole story? Or should it be an appetiser, giving the basic data and leaving people wanting more? Should it only the positives, and exit more challenging questions to subsequently, where they can properly be dealt with in the context of a personal relationship with a minister? As ane person put it, the purpose of this site is just 'to atomic number 82 people to the vicarage door.'
Some people will feel unsettled by this. Are nosotros actually disguising what baptism is actually about? By calling it 'christening', are we perpetuating the widely-held myth (within and across the Church building of England) that there are ii practices and 2 theologies, infant baptism and adult baptism, in the Church building? (In instance you were in doubt, in that location is but ane!). If the material on the site is misleading or incomplete, is it and then harder or easier to correct these incorrect impressions when you come across?
I as well discussed the site with Arun Arora, the Church of England's Director of Communications. It turns out the design of the site was based on extensive research with church members and with ministers, so the decisions on what to include and exclude were well informed, at to the lowest degree from a user'south indicate of view. It seems to me that the arroyo shares something with widespread marketing wisdom. As I write this, I am munching a 'Wheelie', a small version of the Wagon Wheels that I loved as a kid. It turns out that I have (inadvertently) just eaten my fourth—so I have consumed more Carriage Wheel past taking a little at a time than I would accept if I had been presented with a whole big Wagon Bike at the start. Perhaps this website is offer infant baptism one pocket-sized bite at a time. This isn't a problem—unless the new 'baptism lite' liturgy as well fails to really set out what baptism ways. You might never actually encounter the whole Wagon Wheel!
Whatever the problems nosotros might have with it, it is worth noting one of import affair: information technology looks peachy and works well. Only pause at that place for a moment. The Church of England has produced a website for the ordinary user which is clear, well produced, is like shooting fish in a barrel to empathise, and is well illustrated. If you lot don't think that is important and pregnant, just call back back a couple of years to the myriad of seriously naff church websites out in that location. I was too excited to run across the really expert cloth that the site linked to, including Scripture Matrimony, Bible Reading Fellowship, Bible Society, Panthera leo Hudson, and others.
Having said that, it seems to me that in that location are iii surprising omissions.
Beginning, as the Facebook comment said, Jesus doesn't brand much of an appearance. In fact, given that baptism is (theologically) baptism 'into Christ' (Romans 6.3), this is a really surprising gap. If the aim of the site is to lower the cultural and theological barriers in order to allow people to explore, I still think that Jesus could characteristic more. After all, even if people don't similar church building or religion much, they are all the same fascinated with the person of Jesus, even regarding him as a 'great teacher' (until they read what he taught near himself!).
Secondly, there is very little mention of baptism equally becoming part of community. Given the fractured nature of many relationships today, it could be very attractive to talk virtually baptism as discovering a new community of which to exist role. This is, of course, why baptisms should 'normally' take identify in the main service of the day…
Thirdly, there is trivial mention of baptism as the start of a journey of discipleship. Instead, the language used is of 'a journey of discovery about faith.' This is, perhaps, the about general phrase you lot could mayhap invent! And 'faith' does not for most people hateful what information technology does in the New Testament; instead, it suggests a vague notion of something reasonably respectable which might involve God somewhere along the line. In my experience, parents often beginning asking about baptism for their children precisely because they realise the need to have values in which to bring them up. So a mention of discovering values for living could hands be made in a way which would nonetheless brand the site an attractive 'sell' for baptism.
I would still like to be positive about the practiced features of this site—but also note its significance within our current missional dilemma. It seems to me that the approach here is part of a softly, softly, lower the barriers, one pace at a time approach to mission—bold that those who then form relationships with enquirers meet faith and discipleship as the end betoken. And this strategy does work; information technology is the matter which is seeing omnipresence at Cathedral worship grow. The problem with this approach tin exist the lack of explicit exploration of discipleship; I am not aware of any Cathedral running an Alpha course, for case (though do, dearest reader, correct me if I am incorrect). This strategy seems to be assuming that Christendom is non equally dead every bit many call back.
But in the C of E there is too another, quite different, strategy at work. Final calendar week I met a friend who leads a church in Lincoln, and he told me that Christopher Lowson, Bishop of Lincoln, has invited a team from HTB to institute a church in the city, every bit part of a wider diocesan strategy for growth. The same day, I saw on Facebook that HTB are planting a congregation into a disused church building in Bournemouth. I daresay this is happening in other places too. This is a very unlike strategy—but it is one which has been responsible for turning round decline in London diocese.
The question is: are these 2 strategies compatible? Are we, in reality, growing two different kinds of Church of England? Or should we simply be pleased that, by whatsoever ways, 'Christ is preached' (Phil 1.xviii)?
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