Friday, December 02, 2005
It Is Young Life!
The other day, I mentioned that "seeker sensitive" church was really a "Young Life club." Imagine my surprize when Tim Challies made my point for me yesterday.
In a typical Young Life ministry, at least when I was doing it, it has changed some, involved a "Club," that's your evangelistic meeting -- the program? -- sing cool songs, a skit, and a "talk," very much along the lines just described. Then there is "Campaigners" -- a very light introductory Bible Study for kids that wanted to probe deeper, just to give them enough vocabulary to feel comfortable IN CHURCH!
After reading this, I think Young Life ought to sue for program infringement, but I digress.
In my day, we called what we did in Young Life, the para-church. "Para" from the greek for "beside," generally to help. In other words. the para-chruch was designed to stand beside the church and help with one portion of its ministry, but it is not the church itself.
Tim's post is about evangelism as the primary focus of the church. He is quite right, it is not -- it is one portion of the total minstry of the church.
A few years ago I spoke to a pastor of a small church that had been formed largely on the basis of Purpose Driven principles. I asked what their discipleship process involved. I was shocked when the pastor told me, without any remorse, that "if you are really looking to grow as a Christian this isn't the church for you." He went on to explain that his church was geared almost entirely towards evangelism. The Sunday morning services were stripped of almost anything that might offend: congregational prayer, the celebration of the Lord's Supper and so on. The music was done in the style of what was most popular in the town and the preaching always presupposed almost no knowledge of biblical principles. There was a small amount of discipleship training, but only on a very basic level. In other words, this church was driven by unbelievers. Their tastes, their likes and dislikes and their desires were considered the foundation for all the church was and did.Folks, if I had to describe Young Life ministry activity, I couldn't do it any better than the descriptions Tim's conversational partner gave, "The music was done in the style of what was most popular in the town and the preaching always presupposed almost no knowledge of biblical principles. There was a small amount of discipleship training, but only on a very basic level."
In a typical Young Life ministry, at least when I was doing it, it has changed some, involved a "Club," that's your evangelistic meeting -- the program? -- sing cool songs, a skit, and a "talk," very much along the lines just described. Then there is "Campaigners" -- a very light introductory Bible Study for kids that wanted to probe deeper, just to give them enough vocabulary to feel comfortable IN CHURCH!
After reading this, I think Young Life ought to sue for program infringement, but I digress.
In my day, we called what we did in Young Life, the para-church. "Para" from the greek for "beside," generally to help. In other words. the para-chruch was designed to stand beside the church and help with one portion of its ministry, but it is not the church itself.
Tim's post is about evangelism as the primary focus of the church. He is quite right, it is not -- it is one portion of the total minstry of the church.
