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Part 2 of 2 of Review of Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016

In this second part of a 2-part review, having recorded the highlights, I will note some reservations I have of early church practice before offering some reflections about what principles may be still applicable to today’s church.

Reservations

• Withholding of baptism for catechumens

One practice I had reservations about is the ancient practice of withholding baptism for catechumens until they attained a certain (high) level of Christian behaviour.

We may be guilty in our day of applying baptism too quickly, but New Testament baptisms were not delayed. Over time, some proved to be unfaithful e.g. Simon the magician (Acts 8); Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). Even if the early church argued that Gentiles required a longer period of catechesis, we still have the example of the Philippian jailer (Acts 16). The apostles, it seems, took one’s profession of faith at their word.

The practice of applying baptism early in the life of a Christian better accords with biblical data (and is indeed part of Reformed doctrine): baptism is the entry sign into the covenant people. We cannot expect very much in terms of maturity at the beginning of one’s spiritual life, but believers progress and mature from baptism resulting in a sanctified life.

• A false dichotomy between reason and mystery

Kreider speaks rather negatively of the introduction of reason to Christianity, particularly during Constantine and Augustine, as if suddenly “rational” bases were taken to be the grounds for mission, rather than patiently trusting in God to work out the growth in “mystery”.

Surely, this is a false dichotomy. Of course, reason ought not to elevate human wisdom to the extent that mystery is nullified. But reason itself defends mystery! Biblical reason warns us of the limits of human wisdom. Reason calls us to patience and to refrain from taking impatient approaches to mission.

We indeed have a proclivity to rely too much on our own reason, but reason is not ultimately against mystery.

• Ongoing mission

Kreider mentions on a few occasions that the church believed the mission to the nations was completed. Catechumens were not instructed to engage in mission in the belief that it had been completed by the apostles.

On the contrary, mission and evangelism are activities that remain central to the purpose for the church’s mission. The Westminster Confession states:

WCF 25.3 Unto this catholic visible Church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and does, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.

Reflections on how the ancient practice of patient ferment applies today

Notwithstanding these reservations, I think there are number of principles that can be safely applied. I offer the following reflections on how the strategy of “patient ferment” applies today:

1. I think it rightly critiques today’s church that we spend too much time “strategizing” and not enough time in patient prayer. I have been involved in a few conferences whose avowed purpose is to promote healthy gospel-centred growth (and would strenuously deny that we can achieve anything apart from God). But I’ve still come away with the distinct feeling that above-all what was communicated was our need to employ the “right” methods!

Thankfully, I think there is a growing self-awareness among ministers that the average western evangelical’s embodied “habitus” is still too shaped by our world’s “impatience” for results.

• I think it rightly critiques the church that we are overly focused on growth.

True, every organism (and by extension organisation) has one of its primary aims to grow. An organism by definition has growth as part of its agenda.

But cancers have growth as well! The mark of a healthy organism is that it aims to grow in healthy ways. Taking the analogy of a tree, perhaps healthy growth means not growing (in its trunk and foliage), but healing for a season. Perhaps it means to send down roots. Perhaps it means to conserve energy for the winter. Only pathogens have the aim of simply growing.

True, it may be that growth in numbers is exactly what God desires for a church for a particular season. But Kreider’s work exposes our modern obsession with growth. We might not be motivated by self-glory, but we are not balanced in thinking about health. Most of my serious mistakes in ministry have come out of an impatience for results.

This leads me to my next point:

• The book rightly critiques the church that we spend much less than we should catechising our members.

The early church recognised that the integrity of the church depended on the quality of its members. The church would no longer be Christian if its members merely spoke like Christians but acted like pagans (p.176). This is why catechesis was seen to be critical.

The following is an exaggeration, but hear me for the point I’m making… Evangelical churches today measure maturity if their members are evangelistic. Forget about how heathen their lifestyles are. We are merely interested in whether they want more numbers at church. We are too easily satisfied with our churches being filled with mass-produced Christians of the fast-food kind.

We need deeper, longer catechesis of our members. We have become too fearful of being called legalists that we no longer seem capable of insisting upon a radically changed life for those who profess to be disciples.

• I think it rightly critiques the church that we need to do a better job at teaching sanctification.

The content of early church catechesis, was, we might say, sanctification. But sanctification, in my view, is a poorly understood doctrine today. Too often, I hear preachers say something along the lines that “sanctification is by faith” in the same way as “justification is by faith” (as if to exclude effort). Sometimes I hear a sermon on a passage primarily concerned about sanctification, but the point is dulled with words to the effect: “But we inevitably sin. Thank God that we can be saved by faith”. As if the only thing we need to know is the possibility of salvation apart from works.

If sanctification was taught rightly week-in, week-out alongside justification – much would change! Seekers would know what they are getting themselves in for, and believers would know how to glorify God.

Can this be done while still emphasising grace? Absolutely! How great the grace of God that the penalty is paid for not being sanctified as we ought. How great the grace of God for the power to progress toward sanctification, as we apply ourselves in faith.

– Bryan Kim