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A Weed in the Church
I recently went to a youth worker conference and began talking to a group from "The National Center for Family-Integrated Churches." They gave me a video called "Divided" and a book "A Weed in the Church." The weeds in the church as they see it are Sunday School, AWANA, Upward, & of course Youth Ministry. They say that Youth Ministries are a mistake and aren't Biblical. Evangelism should be done by the church in the community and by the father in the homes. Discipleship should also only be done in the home. I want to see what you all have to say about this. Would be a great discussion. I'll reply to your comments out of their book when applicable.
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- 1 year ago
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This discussion might have been relevant 100 years ago. But these "weeds" were created to meet the needs of a specific need of the church. Youth ministry exploded during the baby boom when WWII families had all of these teens and the church had to think quickly on its feet how to meet the needs of a changing population. Sunday School began as an effort to teach children reading and writing on Sundays and evolved into what it is today. In a perfect world, their model might be effective. How many dads do you know who are evangelistic? It is a great idea (and even biblical), but our culture is too compartmentalized. AWANAS and youth ministries should supplement what is taught at home, but I rarely see a home where that's true. That's kind of their argument. When we started Sunday Schools and Youth Ministry in the 50's, we were stepping in and taking the place of the parents when we should have been equipping them to disciple their kids and evangelize with them. Their remedy in fixing it is to eliminate all non-Scriptural positions, YP's, SS, AWANA, etc. and to revamp the church biblically. This lack of involvement of the church inside homes (they say) attributes to high divorce rate and the post HS dropouts |
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Wow, I haven't heard it to such an extent but I did get into a discussion recently with a friend of mine. Their youth pastor moved out of state and instead of hiring another one they were restructuring their church loosely similar to what you're talking about. They wanted a Family Minister who would shepherd students but more from within the context of the family dynamic. They moved away from "youth group" and have intergenerational teaching on Wednesday nights. Their thought is that it would strengthen the family rather than the individuals in the family as "traditional church" seems to do with it's approach. Do you think that youth ministry is at the beginning of being restructured into family ministry? I know that Tim Schmoyer blogged about a multi-generational mission trip and that he wouldn't do them any different know. In YS's Youth Ministry 3.0 it speaks of the third generation of youth and not knowing their needs. Do you think that Family Ministry is the key to the 3rd generation? |
