Youth Groups? | Divided the Movie

By on July 15, 2011 in Culture, Video, Youth Ministry

A friend of mine sent me a link this morning to a new video he thought aligned well with what I am trying to promote through my site…he was right. A young Christian filmmaker just released a video called “Divided the Movie,” which  is about the unbiblical aspects happening in many youth ministries around the country and why young people are leaving the church. Not long ago Ken Ham and Britt Beemer did a study and wrote a book called Already Gone: Why our kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. I read the book and wasn’t as shocked as I should have been after reading it. This documentary seems like a follow up to that book (notice I said “seems,” not “is”). There are some  positives to the documentary and there are some weaknesses. Let me share with you first what I think are the positive takeaways from the documentary:

  1. There were many things identified as to why kids are leaving the church, most of which were identified in Ham and Beemer’s book, but need more promotion.
  2. The focus of ministry should be drawn away from program oriented youth group, back to the mandate of the family, specifically fathers.
  3. Strong focus is placed upon there being no Scriptural mandate that a church have a youth group or a youth ministry.
  4. Strong focus is placed upon the mandate of the family to train up their children. Parents simply need to lead their children and disciple them.

Now here are some of the weaknesses:

  1. Rock music is labeled as worldly, dogmatically. (It is pretty obvious the main guy of the movie is from a pretty conservative upbringing)
  2. It appears, though is probably not what was desired, that non-christians are rock concert going, believes the earth is old, or believes in evolution. Now I am by every means a young earth guy, but to present these stereotypes as people not being Christians is dishonest.
  3. Frequently the Bible is spoken of and frequently in terms of how youth ministry is not biblical and how the family aspect of ministry is (all positive by the way), but rarely is actual Scripture used or quoted. It could have been more powerful with the actual reading of the Word.

So the obvious question about youth ministry is then, “what about the unchurched kid?” Who is going to reach him if there is no youth group or youth ministry. To answer this question we have to go back and answer the fundamental question of why the church exists? Fundamentally I believe the church exists to equip the saints (believers). The church exists to equip it’s people for evangelism, missions, family living, discipleship, etc. So who will reach the unchurched kid? We all can! When you meet unchurched kids you take them in and teach them and treat them as one of your own.

There certainly is plenty more that could be said and I’ll leave that for another time or for things to come up in the comments. If you are interested I would encourage you to check out the video from their site. The video is free to watch until September.

HT: Byron Aynes

  • http://www.craighurst.wordpress.com Craig Hurst

    I watched this today and it really got me thinking. I already had some of these thoughts in my head but this really clarified some things for me. I dont have time to make all the comments I want to right now but I will come back later this weekend. So much to be said here!

  • Ross

    I’d recommend chapter 13 (I believe) in Andreas Kostenberger’s new edition of God, Family, and Marriage. The critique of American evangelical churches and youth groups by family integrated folks certainly resonates on some levels (as does the family integrated model proposed), but the problem is one of ecclesiology ultimately–and it is theirs. What is the church? And what is it’s relationship to the family? If the church is called to disciple Christians, youth groups can be argued for principally (from the Bible) as appropriate means.

    Read Kostenberger for possible negatives to this model before discarding the concept of youth ministry.

    • Anonymous

      Thanks for chiming in Ross…I am not anti youth ministry per se, but I would be anti youth ministry that replaces the responsibility of the parents in raising up their children. Unfortunately that is what youth ministry by and large has come to function as in today’s church. There are surely exceptions, but I would say they are few. The same exact thing has happened by and large with education and the Christian school. Parents are neglecting the training of their children because “that is what I pay the school to do.”

    • Carl

      I had the privilege of sitting under Dr. Kostenberger’s teaching at Southeastern Seminary and enjoyed him immensely. He was/is a thorough researcher and a well prepared instructor/author. Overall, his book is very good. However, his research and subsequent critique of the family integrated church in God, Family, and Marriage was errant. Read the chapter again and you will notice he does not quote a single primary source; that fact is even more egregious when his office sits just 2-3 miles from the NCFIC office, thus giving him full access to a wealth of data that he chose (inexplicably) to not use. The “main voices” of the family integrated movement were and are just a phone call away, yet there is no quotes from them from conversations, articles, messages or books. I’m not criticizing the book – for the most part I benefited from it. But, I would not suggest anyone trying to get a grasp on the family integrated church to use that chapter to get a fair or accurate view of the FIC. For a much more thorough review, go to ncfic.org, and scroll down on the right hand side to “featured articles”, then click on “A Response to Andreas Kostenberger…”Nor trying to pick a fight, just wanted to put the information out there

  • http://twitter.com/beltechi Dan Beltechi

    Not convinced that “extra-biblical” necessarily means “un-biblical” (which is what I was left with from the trailer; will try to watch the whole thing tomorrow). Sounds like an expansion of the regulative principle to… well, the whole of ecclesiology. I wonder if such a concept can be sustained consistently.

    • Anonymous

      I would not agree with his use of “extra-biblical.” I wouldn’t say that extra-biblical means un-biblical either…for example, I’m on a church pastoral search committee and we have come up with extra-biblical qualifications for the man we want. These are things that are important for our church and vision, however, are not chapter and verse from the Scriptures. For example, we want a man committed to biblical counseling. This is extra-biblical, however, not un-biblical.

      Watch the video and let me know what you think. I agree with much of it, however, not all of it.

      • http://twitter.com/beltechi Dan Beltechi

        Might give it a go later today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big fan of youth groups either (at least not the kind you often see here).

  • Anonymous

    I should have waited for Tim Challies to post his review of this first. He could be a little harsher on it than I would be…but he has some great thoughts on this. If you haven’t seen his review then check it out, http://www.challies.com/dvd-reviews/divided-the-movie