Written by: Judith McCartney on February 1, 2025

A Baby Blessing Threshold

We ran a wonderful ministry in the projects of Toronto.  We called it ‘The Drop In.’  The Drop-In was a basketball drop-in at our local church on Monday nights. I had a group of 10 volunteers from that local church that would run this exciting program. Young men and their girlfriends would come out, the men would play basketball, their girlfriends would adoringly watch their boyfriends play, or they would learn to cook a simple meal in the kitchen. The nutrition program would teach these young adults how to cook for themselves on a budget instead of eating a bag of chips with a soda for their dinners. This program grew quickly, and after a few years, these kids grew to trust us because they felt a purity in our hearts for them. Some of these young adults started having young children, and when that happened, they had a true concern about their personal faith. They wanted us to bless their babies. How exciting it was to see that our ministry was sparking an authentic curiosity about Jesus in their lives.  Our leaders were stoked and could not wait to bless their babies on the Sunday our local church was baptizing people and also doing baby blessings.

We had a few young families from our Drop-In program come on a Sunday. They were excited and went all out to dress beautifully and they even invited their families for this special occasion. The young families had their babies blessed. Afterwards, we enjoyed cake and a potluck lunch. Everyone was happy, and we, as volunteers, were thanking God for such a joyous event and that so many young families attended church, had their babies blessed, and their families attended and raved about our church.

That Tuesday was the elder’s meeting, and the baby blessing was brought up. we were excited to make a report and share about all the families from the community that attended church! We were excited to hear the excitement of the leadership, but after we shared about the Sunday experience, we were told never to do that again! These folks were not from our Sunday community. We explained the Jesus way and how Jesus would welcome the little children, and we communicated how it was biblical and that even Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”  The elder’s board conceded; they said, “Well then, if ever you want to do a baby blessing again, you can, but make sure this happens in the basement of the church!”

That was a turning point for us, a profound moment where the concept that we all had a mutual understanding that we had the same grace-filled, loving posture for those who needed Jesus outside the walls of the church was no longer a reality. We were one church, we initially felt the only difference was we were younger than the older folks in our church. There was a shift that evening at the elder’s meeting. There was A shift that we all were the same, we all loved Jesus the same way, we all had a deep desire to have those who needed Jesus were welcome in our space. We had to unlock a new way of thinking, there was a deeper knowledge that we were no longer aligned with our theology, our hospitality and how we served. We realized that there was a true barrier, although we were all from the same church. What a difficult concept to accept. This was an integrative process, it was difficult to know where we fit in now and how we were going to engage with those who had greater power than us. After this profound experience, it had taken many years to wrestle, to question what we believed, how to engage with the local church and shift our thinking patterns of belonging, knowing, and unknowing.

We were in a liminal space for many years, feeling somewhat abandoned but not wanting to feel abandoned. What we desired was to feel a comradery in the service of God in our community. There was a huge discomfort; we needed a time of deconstruction, and there were feelings of anger and, at times, craving to be where we used to be before we realized the shift in our thinking. The tension allowed us to investigate what God’s clarity of call was for many of us. The tension also allowed us to be courageous to thank those who were catalysts for our growth with those who are like-minded in serving our community outside the walls of the church.

Some items of learnings from my readings I’d like to put here for future reference. The main concepts I want to remember to mobilize are the following:

• Threshold Concepts
• Troublesome knowledge
• The teacher’s role with threshold concepts
• Transformational learning
• Cognitive and Emotional Aspects
• Having strategies for teaching Threshold concepts

I’ve learned a great deal from this reading. Still trying to grapple with the concept and its application. I’m grateful for this learning as it’s stretching my mindset.

About the Author

Judith McCartney