Your Church Is Too small

Abstract

"I echo the editor's sentiments (BMJ Vo 1.251 July 1995.21 ff): it was good to see Jon Green, theological student, addressing the much debated question of the relationship of children to the sacraments; but I suggest that addressing a prior set of questions concerning the nature of the Church is both necessary and helpful. Jon's article included these two sentences, What then, in a believers' church with clear in and out boundaries, is the status of infants and others who do not have the capacity to express personal faith? Are they in the Kingdom or out of it? These words betray not simply a confusion in thought concerning the Kingdom and the Church, but also state that a believers' church has in and out boundaries. This widely-held assumption needs to be challenged, and can be seen as flawed on a number of grounds - Biblical, theological, philosophical and experiential"