What's the Point?

Hello, Everyone! I posted this on my page and Matt asked me to post it here, as well.

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Last night I watched a documentary on Amish teens. It is called Devil's Playground, and it absolutely captivated me.

As I sat in staff meeting this morning, it was all I could think about.

At 16, Amish teens are released into a period of exploration of the "english" world called rumspringa. During this time, teens are allowed to participate in anything the outside world has to offer them. Sex, drugs, parties, alcohol, jobs, cars, english clothes, television -- if you can name it, they can do it. Rumspringa does not have a carefully set timespan, as one might expect of such a rigorous community. Rather, the teens decide when to return to the community (though most live with their parents during this time) at which time they must declare whether or not they want to join the Amish church. If these young adults choose not to join the church, they are not shunned at this time. However, if they join the church and then choose to leave later, they are shunned by family, friends, the church, and the entire Amish community. Interestingly enough, 90% of Amish teens choose to join the church after rumspringa.

How do we explain this?
What do we have to learn from them?
How are the Amish building a community that encourages young adults to choose a completely counter-cultural lifestyle over the simple pleasures that often occupy the young adult mind: entertainment, pleasure, and accessibility?

As we talked over a great many things in staff meeting, I found myself wondering if there was a point to all of it. Because if we aren't doing anything to create an intentional community in the life of the church, how long will the community survive? Is there a point in trying to maintain what we're doing if no one chooses to commit to it?

Now ...lest you hear me wrong, I want to clarify.

I'm not saying that we should close up shop and head for the hills.
I'm asking the question about community in our churches.
Do we have community at all?

If we sent all of our 16 year olds out to do whatever they chose - without consequence - for 2 years, would they return to us completely committed to living the life we try to live? I suspect the answer is no.

Because 2 years is a long time to change your mind about your priorities.

And somehow the Amish have managed to teach their children the point of what it means to live as an Amish adult before they are faced with that decision.

Are we making the point to our children?
Are we encouraging them to think very seriously about their commitment to the community?
Or are we allowing them to waft in and out of our buildings without ever fostering true community for them?

Do we have community among ourselves?
What is the point we're trying to make?
And how do we make it?

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To add a little more depth to the conversation, I have a friend who is a former Mennonite and is now a layperson in my church. She had this to say in response:

If you are going to scrutinize the conservative plain people (aka, most forms of Amish and Mennonite), you must start with their fundamental basis for everything, and that is, religion.

The Amish, and Mennonites, DO NOT believe in eternal security, the Amish, going one step further, don’t believe in the hope and assurance of salvation. They believe that you can strive to practice good works, but it is eventually up to God at the end of your life whether you will be accepted into God's Kingdom. (Revelation 2:10 says that....be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.) They believe that if you are faithful throughout your life, you have the hope to securing an eternal life with God. They believe that it is pretentious to assume one’s status of security of salvation. Modern day interpretation of assurance has opened the door for a lax and unmotivated attitude in our churches. Whether we like it or not, we have adapted to parts of the Calvinistic viewpoints on eternal security. The early Baptist church, and primitive ones, were/are still Calvinists. Modern day Christianity believes that once you are saved, you are always kept in the fold of God, which I believe is false teaching, based on the following scriptures…Gal. 5:19-21, Rom. 11:21-22, Hebrews 12:14, 2 Peter 2:20-22, ect…. Personally, I think that it is “better safe than sorry”, what damage can it do to me to think that I could potentially lose my salvation? Wouldn’t it make me strive harder to walk in the path of godliness? These teachings make you accountable to God and to the brotherhood.

Accountability is what is lacking in modern day churches. There is little, if no, discipline enacted towards those members who are not producing good fruit. Members of our church are greeted with respect and gladness on a Sunday morning , when they have not been in church for months, are actively pursuing the world, i.e., drugs and extreme alcoholism, and NOTHING is said…we don’t want to offend, because that would mean “driving people away”….but don’t we want a refined church? Read Revelation 3:14-22.

“Community” is responsibility. Are we demanding the accountability with our youth and adults? Church discipline is an active role within the plain churches.The other thing is, they have an 8th grade “education”, minimal at best (I speak from first hand knowledge) that their spiritual education far exceeds the” three Rs”. Pages of their dictionaries are literally torn out, or pasted together or over. The ministry does not want to make the world accessible to the hands of easily molded young minds. When the teens are experiencing the world, it really is for the first time, and it can be scary! The “three-fold cord” that cannot be easily broken, which is so often preached on, is the Church, School and Home.

You have to understand that church is these peoples’ lives. It is EVERYTHING to them, from what type of clothes they make (within church discipline) to what type of vehicle they have, they are church driven and minded. You cannot take the teachings out of your head, trust me, I still don’t own a single piece of red clothing, years later.

Accountability, Discipline, reverence for God. These things are instilled and driven into every child and potential member of a plain church. It is what they know, it cannot be easily shaken. Unless you have been a member of these churches and communities, you cannot understand the value that they place on brotherhood and how much they depend on each other. They are involved in each others’ lives, my grandmother is dying, we are no longer members and we are still receiving food every other night and having offers to have our laundry folded, our lawns mowed. When one leaves this fold, especially as a young adult, they leave their families (which are all pretty much in the church) and they leave the security of their lives.

Who wants to turn down that for what? Drugs, anger, drunkenness, deceit, guile, and all the things the world has to offer?