initiation events

What we need in the church is to reclaim some of the initiation events that mark the milestones in our lives we can celebrate. Every cultural group has a sense of this idea of initiation. Bar-mitzva for Jewish boys, baptism or confirmation for christians, merbership or citizenship ceremonies are some examples.

For men in the church this seems even more urgent. We don't know when one stage starts or finishes, when or what one has to do to be considered ready for the next level. There is no sense of progress or growth.

In school we mark progress and success by moving on to the next grade, by graduating from one school level and going to the next. There are clear metrics and defined ceremonies with the acknowledged tokens: a diploma, a degree, a public ceremony.

The church used to have those events, but the Reformation did away with many of them as a reaction to an old and corrupt institution.

So we are left with no markers. Even Jacob used milestones, markers to remember point sin his life when an important event had happened like having a dream that changed his life.

Where are our milestones? How do we get inititated into the next stage?

FC