I recall a study being done some years ago by the Scripture Union in Great Britain on the attitude of Pastors, Church members & Christian parents towards the children of believers in their midst.
One important finding was that there was a very different attitude towards children in (a) congregations that practised believers' Baptism and (b) those that practised the baptism of the children of believers.
In (a) there was a constant state of anxiety as they prayed and worked for their children "to be converted" or "to make a decision for Christ" or the like. Though the children were raised in a Christian home they were thought of and spoken to as unbelievers and non-Christians and thus there was great pressure to get to a conversion experience and then on to make a witness before being baptized. Many children felt excessive pressure to conform to expectations.
In contrast, in (b) there was no such anxiety for they treated their children as being already Christians, brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and thus encouraged them to believe and behave as such. They prayed that they would become in daily experience what in God's sight they were, his adopted children. Then at a suitable time they were confirmed (or admitted into full membership.) Unless they actually as adults rejected publicly Christ Jesus, they were always treated as Christians and as such in varying states of disobedience, obedience and consecration. The important point is that there was no anxiety of the kind found in the other church for the children belonged to the Lord and would in God's good time, even on their death bed perhaps, express the Faith to which they were already committed by the promises of their godparents and the action of the Holy Ghost.
Speaking generally, one can say that where children/ young people/adults, whether unbaptized or baptized (that is in situations where infant baptism is not taken seriously as a Sacrament) are in a congregation and perceived not to be really "born again" or "converted" then there is a pressure upon the Minister and elders to make every service or most services evangelistic. That is the worship content is lowered or dumbed down in order to make provision for evangelistic music and talk. The horizontal effort of evangelism takes pride of place before the vertical act of praise of God, because of this unfinished work of converting the youth and others.
In contrast, the congregation where infant baptism is taken for all that the Church has said that it is [and such are rare in the USA today in the charismatic/evangelical camp], has a greater potentiality for having and retaining an emphasis upon worship as truly addressed to God the Lord. For since the chief end of man is to enjoy and glorify God for ever, it is in true, godly worship that the baptized person not yet fully practising his faith is the more likely to begin to do so in such an ethos and atmosphere. True spiritual worship in the beauty of holiness wherein is the true ministry of the Word, of prayer and of Sacrament is the most likely to awaken the seed sown in the hearts of the baptized and thus raise their hearts to the throne of grace on high.
Evangelization is a vocation of the Church. Yet it is second unto the vocation to serve the Lord our God, the Holy Trinity, in the sacrifice of praise, prayer and consecration. The Church is to love God with all her being before she starts to love the neighbour in evangelism.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon
Minister of Christ Church, Biddulph Moor,
England & Vice-President and Emissary-at-Large
of The Prayer Book Society of America
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