Abstract
The Geloofsreis herontdek research project, led by Malan Nel, undertook extensive research on the state of faith formation in four Afrikaans-speaking churches: the Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk), the Netherdutch Reformed Church (Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk), the Reformed Churches (Gereformeerde Kerke), and the Afrikaans portion of the Uniting Reformed Church (Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk). The researchers concluded that a radical “stop-and-restart” approach was necessary – not merely technical adjustments to existing models, but transformational change requiring fundamental systemic shifts in how these churches approach faith formation.
This article concurs with the diagnostic findings of the Geloofsreis researchers but argues that the transformation they propose does not go far enough. The recurring phenomenon identified in the research – adolescents “dropping out” after confirmation – may reflect something more fundamental than programmatic failure. The central argument is that these young people may never have been fully “inside” the faith community in the first place. When children are excluded from the Eucharistic table, and when the Eucharist itself occupies a peripheral rather than central place in weekly worship, the ecclesial practice communicates a theology of “partial belonging” that undermines formation from its very foundation.
The research question driving this reflection is: Why is the restoration of the unified initiation rite and the Eucharist to the heart of the worship service the radical reform that faith formation in the NG Kerk requires? The word radical is used here in its etymological sense – a return to the radix, the roots of patristic theology and the consistent practice of the early church.
This study employs a liturgical-theological approach structured around four foundational premises: first, the liturgical assembly is where the church most clearly manifests itself as the body of Christ; second, the liturgical gathering assembles the faithful in prayer around the altar, the Scripture read and proclaimed, and the meal shared; third, this liturgical assembly is both the source and summit of Christian life; and fourth, the core practices of the church flow from and return to the core practices of the liturgical assembly. Central to this approach is the principle of liturgical congruence – coherence between what is prayed and what is believed, captured in the ancient formula lex orandi, lex credendi. The methodological framework is one of immanent critique: the article does not argue from an external theological standpoint but evaluates the NG Kerk’s own stated theological commitments against its actual liturgical practice, identifying theory-practice inconsistencies.
The anthropological framework employed is that of James K.A. Smith’s liturgical anthropology, which holds that human beings are fundamentally desiring, embodied creatures whose identities and loves are shaped by the narratives embedded in daily and communal rituals. Christian liturgy, on this view, is not primarily the transfer of information but a formative pedagogy that cultivates a distinctively Christian imagination through rhythm, aesthetics, and repetition. This framework is particularly apt because it has played a significant role in shaping NG Kerk thinking on faith formation and the worship service, and is explicitly operative in the Geloofsreis researchers’ own understanding of the worship service as the heart of missional congregational life.
The article proceeds to demonstrate that the NG Kerk has, through its own synodal decisions, already committed itself to the theological principles that necessitate the sacramental reforms being argued for. The 2015 General Synod affirmed the importance of the worship service for faith formation; the church has approved children’s communion; and the Geloofsreis research itself proposes roetemerkers (milestone markers) as sacramentally inflected moments of faith affirmation across the life course. The argument is therefore not for the NG Kerk to adopt an alien theology, but for bringing the NG Kerk’s practice into congruence with its own stated convictions.
The article argues for the restoration of the unified initiation rite – baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist administered together – as was the consistent practice of the early church and as is still practised in the Orthodox tradition. This is not a primitivist archaeological argument that the most ancient is automatically normative. Rather, it is argued that the unified initiation rite is congruent with the NG Kerk’s own theological convictions about the nature of the sacraments, the covenant, and the full belonging of children within the body of Christ. When children are baptised but excluded from the Table, the ecclesial practice communicates a contradictory theology of conditional or deferred belonging that undermines the very formation the church seeks to nurture.
A further proposal concerns the reconceptualisation of roetemerkers as “baptismal affirmation” (doopbevestiging). Rather than functioning as a once-off rite of passage culminating in a first confession of faith, each roetemerker would serve as a renewed affirmation of the baptismal covenant, celebrated within the context of the Eucharist. This yields a comprehensive sacramental ecology spanning multiple temporalities: the weekly rhythm of Eucharistic celebration as implicit baptismal remembrance; the annual liturgical cycle, with its explicit baptismal emphases at Easter, Pentecost, and the Baptism of Christ; the personal rhythm of annual commemoration of one’s baptismal date; the pastoral rhythm of roetemerkers at life transitions such as early adolescence, young adulthood, marriage, retirement, and leadership; and, finally, the funeral service as the ultimate completion of baptism – dying finally into Christ to rise in him.
This sacramental ecology is not merely a liturgical programme; it represents a theological reorientation in which formation is understood as the lifelong unfolding of baptism within the Eucharistic community. It is congruent with the NG Kerk’s covenantal theology, with the holistic anthropology proposed by the Geloofsreis researchers, and with the model of faith formation as the unfolding of baptism advocated by Nel and his colleagues.
The article concludes that the possibility of the radical “restart” which the researchers envision lies not primarily in the development of new programmes, but in the radical – and orthodox – practice of restoring the unified initiation rite and restoring the Eucharist to the heart of weekly worship, in which all the baptised, including children, participate fully. In the words that close the Geloofsreis collection, the invitation is “to keep the main thing the main thing”.
Keywords: baptism; Dutch Reformed Church; Eucharist; faith formation; faith journey; initiation; liturgical theology
- This article’s featured image was created by Pavel Danilyuk and obtained from Pexels.