Passing on the Faith

The last couple of months I have been thinking a lot about faith. How do we “get” faith? Where does our faith come from? How do we keep from losing our faith? In my exploration of what we call faith, I began to ask questions about my own faith. Where did I “get” my faith? How is it that no matter what has happened in my life, I still have my faith when I get to the other side of the storm (even if it gets tattered and bounced around a little bit)? How is it that even when my faith is challenged and attacked, I am able to hold on to it? After a time of reflection, thinking, and prayer I figured out the answer to all of my questions: I was taught. I was groomed. I was immersed in the faith from the day I was born.

I was born into a Christian family. Along with being in a Christian home, I was born into a family of clergy. I am the 3rd generation Lantz to be called into ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church; I plan to join my grandfather and aunt who are already ordained clergy in the Indiana Conference. My great – grandfather Lantz was also an active Methodist as well. At one point, 3 generations of Lantz’s were delegates to the Old North Indiana Conference:Great-Grandpa Lantz, Grandpa Lantz, and Aunt Ann.

In addition to being “born into the faith,” my parents and all my grandparents made sure that I LEARNED the faith from a very young age. I was baptized into the faith as an infant by my grandfather and from then on, I began to learn and absorb the faith and what it means to be a Christian. When I was six weeks old, my parents moved to Syracuse where they began attending Calvary United Methodist Church.
Calvary United Methodist is the church that nurtured me in the faith of Christ. My church family at Calvary taught me what is was like to be immersed in the faith, and what it is like to be a part of a community of faith, surrounded by saints. At that blessed and sacred place, I was taught about Jesus and the Bible by saints like Betty Appenzeller and Shirley Bobeck, who faithfully taught Sunday school every week. Dorthea Littler, Mary Margaret Willard, and Naomi Colpitts were wise and strong widows of men who had given their lives to ordained ministry and were convinced that I was heading that same path of ordained ministry. Harriet Deterling introduced me to handbells and how music can be a true expression of worship. Jim and Lena Siens and Bill and Beth Fowler were couples that loved me and watched me grow in that church. These saints not only watched me grow up they also profoundly impacted my life’s journey and my understanding of church, religion, and faith.

As I grew up and moved on to college and the rest of my life, the faith that formed in my church at Calvary in Syracuse has stayed with me. Just because I have grown up and moved away, doesn’t mean that they have forgotten me, leaving me to find my way alone. In fact, Calvary is the church that is sponsoring me on my journey in the ordination process, helping me advance my call into ordained ministry. That church is still involved in some way in my life as it enters a new phase. The faith my parents, grandparents and church family passed on to me has become the foundation of who I am. It is this foundation that strengthens me to continue doing what I do in my life today. This faith, passed down to me from all the saints who surrounded me, taught me, and encouraged me is the rock that I lean on in tough times. I thank my home church and family for passing the faith to me, allowing me to grow and hear my call into ordained ministry.

I have never forgotten my faith and I credit my parents, grandparents, and the saints at Calvary United Methodist Church in Syracuse, IN for passing the faith on to me. But my question is, What good is faith if we do not pass it on to our younger generations and others? If we as a church, as the body of Christ do not teach the faith, the good news of the love, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ will not spread and continue on in future generations. It is our job to pass on our faith, just as those who cultivated our faith passed their faith on to us. Passing on our faith is why Sunday school for children and youth is so important. In passing on our faith, we must allow our children to watch us and to learn from us. This is why we encourage children from a very young age to not only be in worship, but take part in the whole worship experience. In passing on our faith, we need to be intentional about creating opportunities for everyone to experience the love and the grace of a church family. Even when they are infants, welcoming them into our church family, embracing them as a church family, surrounding them with love and grace, models how a church family should operate. The more we involve our younger generations in our church, the more we teach them about the faith. The more we teach them about the faith, the more likely it is that they will have a strong foundation to cling to when the storms of life come. In turn, they will grow up and teach the faith to their children and their children’s children, creating a body of Christ that is strongly rooted in the faith.

Not only was Jesus our Savior and the Son of God, but he was also a practicing and well taught Jew. Even though Jesus is our Savior, He still had to be taught the Jewish faith and the traditions of His people. A great example of this is seen in the Gospel of Luke 2: 41-52 where “boy Jesus” is sitting among the teachers “listening and asking them questions.” Son of God learned and formed his faith from watching and learning from his elders. Even Jesus was passed on the faith from his elders and as Luke 2: 52 says, Jesus “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” Jesus didn’t grow in his faith out of his own ability, he had to experience the faith lived out by his elders.

As a church we must stop assuming that the generations younger than us will learn the faith and the faith traditions of the faith will learn simply by being told. Children need to EXPERIENCE the faith and the faith traditions. They need to EXPERIENCE the Bible and what it means to us as Christians. They need to EXPERIENCE the love, grace, and mercy that come with the faith. It is our charge, as adults, to help our children and the children in our church grow, not only physically, but in their faith as well. We must be deliberate in creating time, space, and opportunities to pass on our faith to the younger generations by sharing our faith with them by modeling love, service, and grace in our interactions with them and with others.