Many years have passed since I left high school. I’ve made a number of right and wrong choices since then, and so have the peers that I graduated with. I don’t keep in touch with many of the people I grew up with at church, but within Mennonite communities, it’s usually pretty easy to at least know what happened to people.

A few of us went off to secular schools. Of this group, most moved away and return only on holidays. There are a few who returned and involved themselves in the church and are strong participating members, there are a few who have stopped attending church altogether in their new towns, and the rest have some sort of connection with other churches, with varying attendance, commitment and adherence. Some found jobs that they love and some still feel stuck in a rut. No real pattern, no strong adherence rate, no strong rejection rate.

A large number, who were neither particularly inclined to spirituality or academia, who stuck around, found jobs, and grew up. Slightly more than half of them kept their ties to at least some church. A few switched churches, a few gave it up all together. A high, but not surprising number succumbed to the influence from their work place and got into one or more of sex, drugs and alcohol, to the point where they rejected the church and were quite happy to have the church reject them.

So those were the ones bound for trouble anyway, so it’s not all that surprising that “the world” won over a few of them. A few of them did remain loyal, so there was some success, but what about the chosen ones who chose correctly?

Almost all of them loved Bible college, embraced the content of their teaching and found strength in their newfound community, meaning they pass, graduate and get married. So here, as expected, is the success right?

Well, after that it gets a bit foggy, mostly because, very few of them return home. Part of the problem is that they leave a community in which their Mennonite ethnicity makes them a member of an immigrant minority group and join a community where the Mennonites were the original settlers and where Mennonites are a dominant force is local religious, cultural, business and political spheres. It is safe to say that a majority stay away, but a few do return. They come back advocating a more energetic worship style, which doesn’t float well. They expect to be given leadership positions, or at least some respect for what they’ve learned, which they don’t always get. These people are natural candidates for youth pastor positions, but they don’t fit as well into the predetermined molds as much as people originally dreamt.

A while ago, that church went through a major leadership turmoil, and subsequent church split, and a few of the forces behind it were products of the officially sanctioned Bible College.

The church is almost empty of people with Bible College education. Besides the twenty- and thirty-somethings that are there raising families, the majority of the members don’t even have full highschool education. This is partly because of the realities of being a first and second generation immigrant community, but partly also because of a suspicion of higher learning, and those who have attained it.

So what am I getting at? Small town churches are bound to lose their youth, that’s not surprising. It is interesting to see how the officially sanctioned college has failed this particular congregation that has supported it so much. Factories and secular schools can’t be expected to strengthen the church, not at all.

The people I’ve talked to since that didn’t do the Bible college route, who have kept the faith, have been asking good questions and view their faith through a new and interesting worldview. Those who went to Bible College and came back were disillusioned by various things, and found that their time at the school didn’t really prepare them for real life. Those who went and didn’t come back, are still out there, “living the Word”, or whatever Christian-ese line you want to use, and very often participating in other small town churches, just not the one we grew up at together.

Maybe small-town churches should withhold their support until they see what their money will get them. Maybe the church should be in a “Pray for Me” poster hung up at the Bible College.