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Worldliness in youth ministry


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I have a problem with my church, Im not sure whether Im overreacting or not.

 

We started awana club recently and I was really excited to be a cubbies leader. I still am. But our youth pastor and his wife have been allowing worldliness into the ministry. For example they had a superhero themed night last week where they dressed as super heroes, and all the games were superhero themed, and all the food. It was so over the top. I saw this on Facebook and was thinking "where is the Gospel?". And coming up they are doing a Disney Frozen night and a football team night where you wear your favorite team gear.

 

I feel like our church is trying to lure kids in by trying to fit in with the world. And anyone who says anything negative gets made fun of behind their backs. I've seen this before. Several families have left our church because of our youth pastor's immaturity. And he has been confronted several times. I think we are changing churches. But Im not sure what else to do. I feel like I need to stay in awana this year because they might not be able to find a replacement for me, and I really care about these kids. 

Should I confront the youth pastor and his wife and just say I don't think we should be mixing wordliness with ministry? Am I overreacting? 

There are way way more examples. During youth camp last summer the youth pastor went out for a drink for lunch and then came back to teach camp some more and he boasted about this on Facebook. He also takes selfies of himself because hes getting into shape. How can a youth pastor be so worldly? I haven't been a Christian for very long so I don't know how else they should be. I understand they should be able to relate to the kids etc. But it seems like he wants to be their buddy too much. 

I don't want to just gossip about him, but I don't know how to voice my concern without seeming like a gossip.

What should I do? How can we help him?

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You  might ask them if they had ever repented and asked God to forgive them, and if they had surrendered to Jesus as Lord of their lives.  Many pastors are searching for God as well.  

 

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Hi bornagain2011,

I'm not a Pastor or qualified to give you spiritual advice, but I'd pray and ask the Lord what He would have you to do.

With that said, and your description of what is going on, I'd say the world has entered your church, replacing Jesus and the Gospel of Christ with worldly and carnal entertainment (itching ears). I hesitate to offer any advice other than what the Bible says in Ephesians 6: 10 - 17, to put on the whole armor of God. If you'll read and notice in these verses, there's no protection for you back, we are to face and 'stand' in the face of adversity. 

I assume you have a born again qualified Godly Senior Pastor, clergy and deacons in your church?

Your church / denomination is not the first to experience real or perceived apostasy, its become an epidemic of Biblical proportions in this day. Again, take it to the Lord in prayer and dig into His Word for answers. He will surely direct thy path. 

God Bless You.

Edited by Dennis1209
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.....

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Where I live, it is called seeker friendly.  You see, most of those who attend are in the world, so they act like to world to get them to even enter a church.  This draws them in so they can inject a little of scripture here and there, trying to get them to take in what they are being taught.  This group believes that they have to spoon feed the people a little at a time or they will just spit out what they are giving them.  TO me, that is not trusting in the power and working of the Holy Spirit to do His job.  Does it work? Probably for a few, but for the most part, I doubt it.

I follow after Romans 12:1-2

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For the most part, many do not follow verse 2, but are more then happy to show how they follow verse 1.  From their lack of faith, they allow the world in as they do not believe fully in scripture.  Cherry picking scripture is not something new.  You can see it everywhere, and now, even in the churches that were designed to bring people from the world to God.  Now, it bring the world to God.

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Some of it doesn't sound so bad. Dress up in your favorite team's gear? I mean, that's pretty harmless and fun. But there's such a thing as too far and too much, and it sounds like he's probably crossed the line.

The real problem is that it sounds like he's just trying to get people to show up. If people are there and having a good time, he feels like he's done his job. But youth ministry today has become a joke. Kids are going off to college utterly unprepared and falling away from the faith in droves because they aren't prepared to have their faith challenged. They don't know why they believe what they believe. Sometimes they don't even believe anything, having just shown up to church for years because their parents made them. The only truly effective youth ministries have a strong focus on apologetics and creation science. They have to, or liberal, atheist college professors will shred their paper-thin "faith" within the first semester.

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It feels like the youth pastor isn't trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring people in. It's like he thinks if we don't have angry birds VBS or other worldly things people won't be interested, they would be bored and leave.

He actually comes from a church that believes you choose God first and then He sends the Holy Spirit, and it shows in his ministry, like it's up to him to bring them in.

I was doing some reading online about different alternatives to youth ministry. Some churches just have the kids with their parents. And some churches do more of a discipleship or Bible study with the youth.

I was reading also about how youth ministry keeps teens in the child thinking mode with all the games and immaturity. I think what the teens need is discipleship training. The women mentoring the young females, and the men mentoring the young males.

 

I wonder how God can use me at this church? First i need to confront the situation and show how there is error with what they are doing. 

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Wow. Yes, I have seen this. There is so much world in the kids' daily lives, that leaders often try to be more fun than the world's fun.

It is very tricky.  You can argue that it is better the kids are in church than on the streets etc. But as far as it goes I do not see that much of it has any lasting effect on the youth of today.

Since most of the church is 'in bed' with the world, this is hardly surprising really. Someone here mentioned the 'boiled frog' syndrome.

That about sums it all up really. The blind leading the blind. So it is a far, far greater problem than just the kids, the leaders or that particular assembly. It is a church-wide issue. Yahweh has been left in the dust of media hype, sensationalism, lukewarm 'doctrine' and most sad of all, the average Jo's lack of real understanding and commitment. I have to own up to all of that myself too. I have had little or no good effect either. I see the issues and to some extent I see some solutions - but they are quite radical and will not be well received by most.

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Thank you Justin.

I have a feeling that if I were to confront the situation I would be going it alone. I know some of the older people in the church don't like what is going on in youth ministry, but they aren't really involved in it either. 

Its like people become desensitized to what's going on, it just becomes normal. I bet it was also normal for the money changers to be at the temple, some people probably thought it was messed up. But Jesus went in there flipping tables. He was angry. And im a bit angry about this as well. The leaders are turning the church into a club or hangout place where kids do whatever they want.

I have been gathering some evidence before I confront the leaders. I don't want to go to them with nothing. I took some screenshots of last summer at Christian camp when they painted their faces like zombies. I couldn't find the post where the youth leader boasted about drinking while at camp. 

I was thinking about confronting the leaders if we have an Awana meeting on Tuesday. We don't ever have meetings, but I suggested to the youth pastor that we start having a meeting before club begins so we can share ideas or talk about things needing improved. He said that was a good idea, but that's usually what he says but never follows through. We will see. 

Its hard to not make this about him and his character, im trying to focus on his actions instead. But it's hard. His actions show his heart. He throws fits at his kids, he is rude to his wife and fights with her infront of people, he makes crude jokes, there is so much more. But then it becomes gossip. Several people have complained about him to the senior pastor, and the deacons have discussed letting him go. The hard thing is he is a friend to a lot of them, it would be hard to see him get fired and lose that income. But I think the souls of the teens and children are more important.

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11 hours ago, bornagain2011 said:

I was reading also about how youth ministry keeps teens in the child thinking mode with all the games and immaturity. I think what the teens need is discipleship training. The women mentoring the young females, and the men mentoring the young males.

Discipleship is the 'normal' life of members in Christ , but lacking most places so it will be a new thing wherever you go unless you find one different than most, or start one somehow in God's Grace....

16 minutes ago, bornagain2011 said:

I have been gathering some evidence before I confront the leaders.

Be aware of the evidence apparently (reading online),  showing the awana groups have as a whole gone astray with the world, 'everywhere'?  See online reports aobut awana. (end ecumenical, which is unrecoverable practically is seems)...

11 hours ago, bornagain2011 said:

I wonder how God can use me at this church? First i need to confront the situation and show how there is error with what they are doing. 

See Corrie ten Booms Testimonies on youtube, and get any of her books you can - she had a faithful and true testimony all of her life and  a gentleness and truth in her own witness that remains blameless and unspotted. 

Also of note, if you can find anything about them, her lessons for teens and younger, and for handicapped persons,

were better than anyone else I've had the joy of reading about online, in any reference far as I remember.

Strict discipline is needed (for children and adults),  but rare,  so there's not many if any examples to be found,  that may be found, Yahweh Willing.

Printing out the books/ lessons from WORTHYCHRISTIANLIBRARY.com may be worthwhile and the most cost-effective (free except for printing cost) , true, right, and pure teachings tested and proven you can find.(for yourself and for others)

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