j*******7
发帖数: 6300 | 1 Stop Teaching Young Christians About Their Faith
In my last post, I summarized the studies and publications that describe the
flight of young people from the Church. A compelling cumulative
circumstantial case can be made to support the fact that young college aged
Christians are walking away from Christianity in record numbers. What can we
do about it? What can be done? Whenever people ask me this question, I
always say the same thing. STOP TEACHING YOUNG CHRISTIANS. Just stop it.
Whatever Christendom is doing in its effort to teach it’s young, the effort
appears to largely be a failure. In fact, Ken Ham (in his book, Already
Gone:Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It) found
that young Christians who faithfully attended Bible classes were actually
more likely to question the authority of Scripture, more likely to defend
the legality of abortion, same-sex marriage, and premarital sex, and more
likely to leave the church! What’s going on here? I think I know. It’s
time to stop teaching our young people; it’s time to start training them.
There’s a difference between teaching and training. Training is teaching in
preparation for a battle. Boxers train for upcoming fights. In fact, boxers
are sometimes known to get fat and lazy until the next fight is scheduled.
Once the date has been signed, fighters begin to train in earnest. Why?
Because they know that they are going to eventually get in the ring and face
an aggressive opponent. We train when we know we are about to encounter a
battle. Imagine for a moment that you are enrolled in an algebra class. If
the teacher assured you that you would never, ever be required to take a
test, and that you would pass the class regardless of your level of
understanding, how hard do you think you would study? How deeply do you
think you would come to understand the material? How committed do you think
you would be to the material?
The problem we have in the Church today is not that we lack good teachers.
There are many excellent teachers in the Church. The problem is that none of
these teachers are scheduling battles. Make no mistake about it, there are
battles looming for each and every young Christian in the Church today, but
church leaders are not involved in the scheduling of these battles. The
battles are waiting for our sons and daughters when they get to University (
or enter the secular workplace). The Church needs to be in the business of
scheduling battles and training our young people for these battles. Teaching
without a planned battle is little more than “blah, blah blah.” This is
the problem with traditional Sunday School programs. They are often well-
intended, informative and powerfully delivered. But they are impotent,
because our young people have no sense of urgency or necessity. There is no
planned battle looming on the horizon and the battle of University life is
simply too far away to be palpable. It’s time to address the problem not
with our classes but with our calendar. It’s time to start scheduling
battles so our teaching becomes training.
Years ago, as a youth pastor, I started taking annual trips to Salt Lake
City and Berkeley. Why? I was scheduling theological and philosophical
battles to help prepare my young Christians for the larger looming battle
they would someday face on their own. If you want to teach your young people
theology, there is no better method than to put them in direct contact with
people who believe in a very sophisticated heresy. Mormons use the same
terminology as Christians but deny the basic tenants of our faith. In order
to dialogue with Mormons effectively, we first have to understand what we
believe. When we train young people in preparation for an evangelism trip to
Salt Lake City, we give meaning and purpose to the content of our teaching.
In a similar way, our evangelistic trips to Berkeley (where we contact
notable atheist speakers and atheist groups on campus) require us to prepare
ourselves to answer the myriad of atheistic objections we will inevitably
encounter. Once again, the content of our teaching in preparation for this
trip takes on purpose and meaning when we know the level of our
understanding will eventually be tested.
These trips are not easy, but they are essential. They require us, as
leaders, to become good apologists. They require us, as pastors, to
prioritize our calendars to make room for the trip and for the important
training that will take place for months prior to the trips. One last thing;
I’ve learned the importance of this approach first-hand. My first year as
a youth pastor was perhaps my toughest. As a former designer with a strong
interest in the arts, I spent my first year focusing on the artistic nature
of the Sunday gathering. I incorporated music, video, art and drama to
create compelling Sunday experiences that were more entertainment than
content. The kids who graduated from my ministry that first year were not
prepared for what they encountered in college and all but one walked away
from their faith. This impacted the way I did ministry from that time on. I
began to schedule battles and train young people for these important tests.
I don’t think I’ve lost a student since.
If we want to do our young people a service, we need to stop teaching them.
It’s time to start scheduling battles so we can turn teaching into training.
http://coldcasechristianity.com/2015/stop-teaching-young-christ | J*******g
发帖数: 8775 | 2 谢谢分享。
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【在 j*******7 的大作中提到】
: Stop Teaching Young Christians About Their Faith
: In my last post, I summarized the studies and publications that describe the
: flight of young people from the Church. A compelling cumulative
: circumstantial case can be made to support the fact that young college aged
: Christians are walking away from Christianity in record numbers. What can we
: do about it? What can be done? Whenever people ask me this question, I
: always say the same thing. STOP TEACHING YOUNG CHRISTIANS. Just stop it.
: Whatever Christendom is doing in its effort to teach it’s young, the effort
: appears to largely be a failure. In fact, Ken Ham (in his book, Already
: Gone:Why Your Kids Will Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It) found
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