The Baton (Part 1)

The Baton (part one)

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise." Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NKJV)

The Pastor of my church had given me a chapter to read from the book, Already Gone by Ken Ham, Britt Beemer and Todd Hillard. The chapter was entitled “Sunday School Syndrome” and discussed the belief system of today’s 20 somethings who had attended Sunday school regularly. There was a survey taken of 1,000 twenty-somethings, who attended church as teenagers, and they were asked if they had attended Sunday school. 61%said yes with 39% saying no.

To quote what was written in the book, “That’s about what you would expect, isn’t it? After all, not everyone is committed enough to make the effort to get to Sunday school, right? Only those who are more concerned about the spiritual and moral health of their kids, right? Because we all assume that Sunday school is good for them, correct? The ritual is so interwoven into American church life that it’s hardly worth mentioning, right? Wrong. Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children.”

I can’t get into all the things that this chapter stated but questions like “Does the Bibles contain errors?” were asked. The percentage of 20-somethings that said yes was 39%. How would you like to hear “I don’t know” after asking, “Do you believe you are saved and will go to heaven upon death?” Biblical stories like what happened in the Garden, at the Tower of Babel, the Flood and the story of Sodom, Gomorrah and Lot’s wife seemed not to be a help to these 20-somethings but it was not detriment either.

The authors of this book apparently did some research on the Reformed Baptist Church’s website and gave a quote about youth pastors and youth ministry and used enough of it to make their point but I went there as well and found out what was written in its entirety. “Eradicate youth ministry as we know it. This is by far the most radical suggestion/solution, but I think a necessary step if we are to have much hope in stemming the tide. It seems as if we are always trying to fix what is broken with youth ministry.

Has it crossed anyone else's mind that maybe youth ministry shouldn't be fixed because youth ministry IS a major part of the problem?! If youth pastors are spending all of their time ministering to teens, training youth leaders, planning activities and preparing lessons for youth group, then when will they have time to train parents? And isn't it odd that the very pastors we are now asking to train parents are usually young men in their 20's who have little to no parenting experience, especially of teens. [I do believe that anyone can share biblical principles on an issue, even without corresponding experience!]

As long as youth pastors and youth leaders continue to teach, disciple, mentor and train teens why would parents have any motivation to fulfill their responsibility? I think everyone would agree that Deuteronomy 6:4-10 & Ephesians 6:1-4 is commanding parents to teach, train and disciple their own children. If we believe this, then why would we even develop and offer a "ministry" that would directly contradict Scripture!? Why would we give parents the option of abdicating their God-given, biblical responsibility? I believe it is time to put the ministry of the youth back into the hands of those to whom God gave it - the PARENTS of the youth.”-- Quoted from the Reformed Baptist Church’s website.

This last sentence spoke volumes to me in terms of us…men, fathers, husbands and the spiritual heads of our homes. Are we practicing a measure of apologetics in our homes? What are we doing to guide our children to use those spiritual weapons that would help them defend the faith? Here is what my Nelson’s Study Bible had to say about the verse I have used today.

“Verse seven comes right out and says: “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” God regards the direct education of children by their parents as vitally important, with that education to be founded first of all upon the words of God. And when we as fathers have that intimate relationship with God, as in Genesis 18:19, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him." Our Heavenly Father will be motivated to accomplish His purpose for us and our children with genuine righteousness.”

I will wrap this up in part two. Until then, think about these words from Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley: “The parent who studies to subdue self-will in his child, works together with God in the renewing and saving of a soul. The parent who indulges it, does the devil's work, makes religion impractical, salvation unattainable, and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body forever.” -- -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and a frequent Freedom Fighter contributor

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 21; Ecclesiastes 7-9; 2 Corinthians 13

Great Quote: Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things -- he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil. -- Oswald Chambers