New Voices: By and about young adults

Sometimes you need to calculate when you’re planning on announcing it. Making a personal church announcement during the sharing and reflection time can elicit a whole range of emotions from the congregation: tears, laughter and applause.

Some announcements are held private as long as possible for fear of or concern about the community’s response. Announcements naturally elicit approval or disapproval, and those sharing personal news may be reluctant if there is uncertainty about the response until it’s almost absolutely necessary.

This brings me to my family’s news: a new pregnancy. Yes, I’m pleased to announce that we, the Elizarraraz family, are having our fourth baby in September. I was well into my second trimester (beginning my fourth month of pregnancy) when we made the announcement, and it took strength to share our wonderful news to my Mennonite congregation. Why would it be necessary to have courage and find an appropriate way to share what would seem to be such life-giving and joyful news?

The immediate congregational response was applause. Many surprised and excited wishes came our way after the service, but a few days later, some members asked me privately if I’d received any negative or sarcastic responses. This didn’t surprise me, since I thought that could be the response of a handful of members.

Our shared values of simplicity, poverty awareness and environmental awareness can or does lead some to conclude that parents should try to limit their families to one or two children—and adopting if they want more than that. However, no one questioned me and my husband for having four children in our modern times.

In other Christian denominations, individuals ask God to reveal the number of children they may or may not have with the added biblical benefit that with more children come increased blessing. My sense is that to be a young adult Mennonite in this generation, having a large family may be viewed as selfish and problematic for society, and to truly love your neighbor is to limit your family’s size. However, I wonder if a large percentage of The Mennonite readership, those in their golden years, had families of four or more and what perspective they may have about the benefits or disadvantages of increasing the arrows in the quiver.

In his profile of Mennonite Church USA, Road Signs for the Journey, Conrad Kanagy addresses the numerical growth, or lack thereof, among Mennonites—in particular the differences between white and ethnic/racial Mennonites, and most noted are Latino. White Mennonites average 1.4 children, while Latino Mennonites are at 2.0.

Kanagy challenges readers to consider the “bleak future” of the denomination if this trend continues (and new membership numbers don’t increase) while seeing some hope in racial/ethnic groups and their fertility rates. What challenges or blessings might this offer to a changing church in the next 25 or 50 years if Latinos like me have or desire larger families?

I do see a local concern: Our congregation has at least 17 children ages 5 and under attending Sunday services, 14 born to San Antonio Mennonite families, and three women, including myself, are currently pregnant. All this occurs in a congregation with a membership of 30 and attendance around 70. Our church is exploding with children, and I’m sure to the outsider this is amazing.

The problem with this eruption of children is greater needs and accommodations from the entire congregation, and I’m pleased with our church’s creative solutions for keeping children engaged in the service. However, finding accommodations for four children when there are only two adults officially responsible for them and trying to meet each individual’s needs in a service is a daunting task, to say the least.

My hope for the church is that we will come to a place where each family chooses what is best for them and that all who plan on having a family with many children or no children at all can find a home among Mennonites today.