Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 09/08/07 01:24:33 PM |
Age 46, IRELAND |
Praise God
keep these coming, we have been saying for years that God would not give you a ministry for you to lose your own Children. Jesus says "Father I have not lost any of those that You have given Me" These are our children, they are our inheritance, blessings from the Lord. Our responsibility to Disciple them and rear them before the Lord. God did not give us them to give them to someone else to rear spiritually or otherwise.
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/28/07 04:23:16 PM |
Age 41, MS |
I totally agree with Pastor Ray. He was our youth pastor while our family lived in IL.
Praise God for his williness to say what needs to be said. Our children are leaving the church in droves and we are entertaining them with pizza parties.
I pray more of us will wake up to our responsibilities as Christian parents and quit expecting the church to do our job.
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/28/07 12:52:01 PM |
Age 35, IN |
I must agree 100% with this article; particularly with the statement, "The church is failing in youth ministry because it has segregated the family." Our church is a perfect example, and it hasn't been until the last year that we've really put things together. For four years, our church had two church services: traditional (the first service) and contemporary (second). The junior and senior high students met for Sunday school the first service, leaving them to attend second service. I served in the 3 year old room every other month during the second service, leaving me and my husband to attend the first service. I am NOT proud to say that for four years my husband and I attended church services APART from our two teen daughters. We homeschool our children so we felt being apart from them on Sundays was not a problem since we are together all week, but we have become more and more protective of what youth group activities our girls participate in. The Youth Minister has organized Fear Factor and Amazing Race activities, all in the name of having fun as a youth group. To be fair, he has tried to tie these activities to the Christian life, but why do we need to go the way of the world in order to teach God's Word? My husband and I have not allowed our girls to attend youth group over-nighters anymore or anything else remotely questionable, like midnight Capture the Flag games, scavenger hunts, and the like. We feel like such a minority, as it appears all other parents don't have a problem with it. While the initial purpose for Youth Ministry was to bring families together, I think the opposite has occurred. This coming Friday night our church is having an all family potluck and game night. Sounds great, huh? But guess what? An hour later, the youth group is going on another Amazing Race adventure. Is our church intentionally taking our teens away from the game night? Who knows. I can assure you our teens won't be going.
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/23/07 05:27:51 PM |
Age 20, TX |
Wow. I totally 100% agree with this article. I am so thankful to see other people that believe the way I do about this. Thank you for having the boldness to speak the unpopular truth in this day and age. God Bless.
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody
| Posted On: 03/21/07 02:14:13 PM |
Age 43, MN |
I am a Christian mother of 3 who loves to pray with my children too. I used to sing to them also when they were little. They all still want/need me to pray with them. My yet unbelieving husband says they are old enough to pray by themselves. I disagree. I want this to be a life long 'activity' I do with them. He doesn't get that yet. Our tiny church doesn't have a youth ministry to speak of and I would like it to stay that way. When we do actually plan events aimed at the 'youth' it is always a family thing. We are so small that it just won't work any other way. I agree that too many of us (Christian parents) look for 'youth programs that are big enough'. Too many people go church hopping to find a 'good' youth group when their kids get to tween/teen ages. I believe that is wrong. I would choose not to be involved with the small group thing too if we had some. I cannot handle too much activity. In many ways I suppose I'm finding that this ADD label is good in only one way. It limits me so that I HAVE to rely on God. What do you know? I FINALLY found the one good thing in my weakness! Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow! Thanks brothers and sisters in Christ. DP
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/19/07 11:34:52 PM |
Age 45, KY |
I agree that we can't cede the spiritual education of our children to churches. No where does scripture direct us to do that.
I know I am mostly preaching to the choir from here on out. I feel compelled to comment on the issue of kids leaving church, as it has been mentioned in some of the posts.
Children leaving church and no longer practicing the faith of the Bible is ultimately not the result of too many/not enough programs. I think it's the result of well-meaning, but wrong teaching on salvation that has produced so-called "false converts". People who haven't truly understood their deep, deep sinfulness, that they are breakers of God's Laws. As a result they don't see their need for repentance, in conjunction with a trust in Christ as their Risen Savior that means more to them than a prayer they said once, or twice, or fifty times. Unfortunately, in many churches and families, and individuals "salvation" has been reduced to an almost pagan repetition of a "sinner's prayer". Just saying some words will not change a person. It will not make them want to continue going to church after they move out from Mom and Dad's house and have the friendship of the world and enmity with God. Even worse, it will condemn them to Hell. That is the bigger issue.
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/19/07 04:00:35 PM |
Age 27, IL |
I agree in part to this article. Yes, parents will give account to God as to how they've raised there children, and truly Godly parents produce (generally speaking) Godly kids. I agree 1000% with that. That is the way I wish it to be and it should be! But what of the children from ungodly homes, the bus kids (like myself) that never had the gift of Godly parents. Doesn't youth ministry have a role toward that end, can't youth ministry be an addition and support to the work of the parents. That kids can hear from two sources the truth! My only point is let us not throw out the baby with the bath water. It is possible to have both Godly Parents, and Godly youth ministries, working toward the end of "birth to death ministry" in the lives of believers.
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- Wrong Assumptions...
| Posted On: 03/20/07 02:10:28 PM | | Age 47, CO |
The origin of "Sunday School" was rooted in a desire to reach the unchurched children. Reaching these kids through the families of believers will always be more fruitful than youth ministry. What we've seen inherent in our attempts to copy the government schools classroom, age-related model of school in reaching our youth is simply a pooling of ignorance and a cleaner version of the worlds failures. What we need are the families in the church to be about the work of the Kingdom, not the latest passtime or hobby. That opens them up to the heart of the matter, that being a hunger for the lost and a desire to reach out to their neighbor. I have no interest in singling out the kids who are unchurched. I want the whole family. Ministering to our neighbors means loving them as a whole and praying for true repentance. If in the course of this journey we are blessed to have only the child(ren) of our neighbor as disciples then we adopt, so the speak, them into the family and disciple them accordinly. What would we rather see? The neighborhood kid(s) hanging out at youth group or hanging out at the home of a faithful family, intergrated into a life of faith that isn't kid and fun centered, but is Christ centered? The right answer is obvious. The problem now becomes the lethargy of the parents in the churches who want others to disciple. Fathers need to get off their hindquarters and get about the work of leading their families biblically. Is this easy? Hah... NO WAY! But Christ never said it was. Dads (and their wives as helpmeets)... pick up the cross, deny yourself, and follow him! For the way is narrow and difficult. God seeks generational faithfulness and America teaches individualism. May we first repent, then turn away from the way of death and run the race, fight the good fight, finish the course. May the Lord turn our hearts to Him!
Bondservant of the King,
Jim
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/19/07 03:02:09 PM |
Age 52, OR |
I thought the author brought up a lot of good points. I have been in youth ministry as a youth pastor's wife and also as a worker and a mom of 4. I wonder has anyone else experienced secretive and suspicious youth pastors/workers? Younger people usually work with the youth and sometimes do not work very well with parents. I have enjoyed working with youth and have enjoyed my own kids being in youth groups, however when there is not a really close partnership between the leadership and the parents, there are serious problems. The best youth group I ever experienced is one where the youth pastor had parents as helpers and small group leaders and chaperones.
What does this concept say about Missionary Kids' Schools--away from home at age 5 or 6????
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/19/07 02:37:06 PM |
Age 47, OH |
This article really made me stop and think and then I realized that in my church, MOST children have little to no spiritual training in the home. In fact, my church is trying to get parents to see how much they need God by 'feeding' their children. With so many children buying into today's culture, youth groups provide an alternative to what the world is offering. Thank God!!
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Re: Don't Give Spiritual Custody of Your Children to The Church
| Posted On: 03/19/07 12:28:35 PM |
Age 45, MI |
Hurray for you for writing about this. I truly believe that the Parents are the ones to raise up a child in the knowledge of GOD, Jesus Christ and the holy spirit. It is not easy to do this. Single parent, a married single parent or married together parents. But it can be done. I am blessed with a child who is not perfect, but is strong in the LORD. He learns from his wrong and right choices. WE try very hard to read a Proverbs a day and than we both spend in the evening time alone with the LORD. Though I have a child, I am raiseing a man, husband and than a father. So very glad you wrote this article. Bless ya.
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