Are Christian Youth Camps/Conventions Causing the Young Generation to Leave the Church?

Before reading this post it will be a good idea to read the book, "You Lost Me," by David Kinnaman or listen to our book review via podcast. 

Most of my ministry training has been through working at Youth Camps.  The one question that has plagued my mind the last few years is, "Why do students have a hard time staying with there commitment to Christ?"  I generally, lead towards the conclusion that the church was not doing a great job discipling these students who committed there life to Christ during a camp or convention program.  Now I am thinking, "what if the camps/conventions are the culprit?"

The typical outline for camp/conventions when it comes to the message is: 1.) Sin, bondage, hell 2.) Jesus, freedom, salvation 3.) Growth, discipleship.  In a way, most youth camps and/or conventions follow a subtle pattern to the preaching during the Great Awakenings.  You start heavy with the sin. hell preaching then towards the end talk about salvation and people will flock with tears to the alter and repent from there sinful life.  Conventions and camps do the same thing, some camps are identical to the Great Awakenings pattern while others try to find a healthy balance between the sin and salvation.

The issue that all this boils down to is Guilt.  Students may screw up and because of what they learn from these establishments is that they are sinners which makes them feel guilty for what they have done.  Instead of asking for forgiveness and grace, they hold on to that guilt and feel like they let God down and that He is disappointed in them.  They then carry this lie with them until the next camp/convention where they can finally let the guilt go.  However, once they hit that ripe old age of 18, they carry the guilt with them and never have the opportunity to lay it down at the alter. 

I would love to hear out readers reactions to this post or any thoughts you have about why young adults are leaving the Church.

You Lost Me: Review

Barna group: http://www.barna.org/

You lost me book: http://www.youlostmebook.org

Theology and Film: Dawn of the Dead

Hello Friends,

Today is Halloween, and I have an exciting Theology and Film post to share.  Growing up, I have always been a fan of horror movies.  My love for horror movies came from my mother.  My mother did not like them so she would prohibit watching them when she was around.  As I got older, I bought a DVD player and got a subscription to Netflix (this was when they first started, which means only one location, and no streaming.  Scary!!!!).  With this new found power of watching anything I wanted, I would fill up my queue with horror movies.

One movie I enjoyed was Dawn of the Dead (1978, not the 2004 version).  Watching this film, one of the theories that the dead walked the earth was because "hell ran out of room."  Recently, when I watched this movie, the phrase, "hell ran out of room," lingered in my head.  It made me thing about evangelism.  Now what does a zombie apocalypse and evangelism have to do with each other?  Well, if the reason why the dead walk is because "hell ran out of room," then that means there are more souls going to hell then going to heaven.  Matthew 28:18-20 says,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

As Followers of Christ, it is our responsibility to share the Gospel with everyone we come in contact with.  It is more important that we live out or faith just as much as we profess it.  However, I know for some, evangelising is a hard thing to do.  What is so challenging about spreading the gospel?  One reason is that most people do not know how.  Some people have seen other people evangelizing on street corners handing out tracts and saying, "repent for the end is near."  Some have seen people walk up to people and tell the person that they are spreading the gospel that they are sinners and they need to change there ways or they are going to hell.  For some people these methods work,  however for some, it continues to see Christians as a bunch of crazies and they walk further and further away from Christ.  

Is there a better solution to witness to people?  Yes!  reading through the four Gospels, I notice some things about Jesus when he would talk to people.  First, he would never start off by telling the other person their sins.  Any time Jesus would go to an individual, he would never start the conversation talking about sin.  He always would ask questions, listen to the person, or would talk to an individual with gentleness and respect. When sin was brought up, that is when he would address it.  For example, the woman caught in adultery, Jesus never said that she was a sinner.  when the crowd walked away, He asked her if anyone was left to condemn her, she said no, and then he said he did not condemn her either and to go and sin no more.  What is interesting about this story is that she knew that she had sinned and was feeling the guilt (and fear) of her actions.  Jesus non-chalantly forgave her and told her to sin no more.  No hell, fire, and brimstone sermon from Him afterwards.

Lastly, he never pursued a situation where he was never wanted.  After Jesus drove the demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs, the villagers wanted him to leave.  He did what the crowd asked and left but before he did, he refused the man, who was possessed to come with him because Jesus knew that this man could help lead the village to salvation.  When we share the gospel, some do not want to hear it.  Unlike Jesus, it is hard for us to walk away when people do not want to hear the message, especially if it is in a work or family setting.  However, sometimes it is good to table the sharing of the gospel in order to build up relationships with co-workers, family members, etc.  Eventually, something will happen when that particular person would need to hear the gospel and then not only can you lead them to Christ, but they also have a great support system in place.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

You can find the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi here. ->http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pray0027.htm

Update on Prayer PodCast

ATTN:  For those of you who are waiting for the next podcast on prayer, I truly apoligize.  Ryan recently started school and got a new job and hasn't had time to do the podcast with Scott.  Once he gets everything in order, the podcast will be recorded and posted ASAP.  Thanks for you patience.

Facebook Vs. The Holy Spirit: What/who do you turn to in descision making

              During the past few months, I have had some interesting confrontations with a few people at my church. When they talked to me they all had an issue with my personal facebook profile. The first two people had an issue with a movie that I reviewed.  Some of you know that I love to watch movies and use them constantly in my ministry.  Some movies are better than others, but I never judge a movie by its cover and/or rating.  One movie I was reviewing had a movie title that had a curse word in it.  I reviewed the movie on flixster, and continued with the rest of my day.  The next few days, I had two people at church talked to me about the posting and thought that it was inappropriate and could hurt me in my searching for a position at a church.  Apparently, my settings on the flixster app, posted the movie review to my facebook page without me knowing it.  So I thank them for their concern, changed my app settings, and removed the review off my facebook page.

                Yesterday, at around 11:00 pm, I posted a link on a friends facebook page about a conversation we were having a few weeks earlier.  The link was about a person who makes his/her living by doing something very unusual.  This morning, someone from my church commented on my link, saying that the content could affect my future looking for a pastoral position.  After reading the comment this person left, I agreed and deleted it.  If it wasn’t so late, I would have used better judgment when posting things on a social networking site.

                I tell these stories because it made me think about how much stock we put on material things, and in some cases the past.  On facebook, I have seen people from my church or other church event, post something like, “This girl is so hot (with a picture of a female dressed provocatively),” or “Holy (expletive), you won’t believe what this guy did.”  Now, I know that these poor people have been subject to either their facebook being spammed or hacked.  This unfortunate thing happened to them because they clicked on a link a “friend” gave them or they were clicking around on something that they shouldn’t have.  Now what if this person had a job and their employer saw this on their page and fired them because of the content.   Would that be fair?

                My former boss does not have a facebook page.  The reason why he does not is because, when he was young, did some stupid stuff in college.  One time, a friend posted a picture of him, with a drink in his hand, on his wife’s facebook page.  The wife ended up removing the tag on the picture.  My boss’ reason for not having a facebook page was so that the stupid things he did in the past, would not affect his ministry.  Even though, it has been over 5 years since he graduated, he is afraid of how his past could affect him today.

                I think it is sad on how much power a website has over people.  If a church based its decision on not hiring me because of what I, or someone else put on my facebook page, then I guess that is not where I need to be.  In my life I have seen, pastors look great on the outside, but in reality were a brood of snakes.  My 10 year high school reunion is coming up.  What if someone was taking pictures of me with my former classmates and everyone had a beer in there hand except me.  Would it hurt my chances in finding a job because it was posted on facebook? Let us say that I my entire time there I was sharing the gospel to my class mates.  Someone wouldn’t see that in the picture.  They would see it and think,” this guy likes to hang out with people who drink.  We don’t want this guy as our pastor.”

                As Christians, and those who are in leadership at our church, I think we need to be careful in making judgments on people by looking at their facebook page.  I also think that we need to be accountable to other people and have conversations with them about the content on their page.  I am not angry or upset with the three people who have talked to me about the things on my page.  I thank them for their love, support, and showing me how something could hurt my chances at a career.  However, I also can see how we could be quick to judgments and make decisions on the things we see.  Ultimately, we need to put more stock in the guiding of the Holy Spirit, then on facebook when it comes to decisions.

The Lord's Prayer

Here is a link to the Full Catholic version of the Lord's Prayer.  http://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/Mass.htm.