A case against youth ministry Part 2

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 2: Root and Branches

Life is all about relationships. First and foremost with God, and then with our fellow man. Christ Himself teaches us this truth in Matthew 22: 35-40 where He tells us that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your mind.” This, the greatest commandment, deals with our relationship with God.

The second greatest commandment, Jesus tells us, is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This commandment deals with our relationship with our fellow man, and by far the most powerful and influential of our relationships with our fellow man is that of family. While there are times in which spiritual relationships must take precedence over our physical relationships (Matthew 10:34-39; 12:46-50), the role of the family in the life of our children simply cannot be replaced. So the second greatest commandment has to do with our relationships to our fellow man, the primary and foundational relationship being that of our family.

On these two commandments, Jesus tells us, “Hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words, all of Scripture (the law and the prophets) directs us to the proper fulfillment of these two relationships. Sound doctrine applied leads to sound practice and sound practice leads to sound relationships and strong families. Likewise, bad doctrine and bad practice lead to bad relationships and to weak and broken families.

The state of the family in turn affects the state of the church and the state of society, for the family is the infancy of the society. Listen to some of our Puritan forefathers in this regard:


"...so it is evident that families are the nurseries of all societies. And the first combinations of mankind, well-ordered families, naturally produce a good order in other societies. When families are under an ill discipline, all other societies, being ill-disciplined as a result, will feel that error in the first concoction.”

- Cotton Mather, A Family Well Ordered

“The way to make godly parishes, and godly countries, and godly kingdoms, is to make godly families. When sin as a plague spreadeth abroad, it beginneth in families”

- George Swinnock, Works Vol. 1

“Religion begins in individuals and passeth on to relatives, and lesser spheres of relationship make up greater: churches and commonwealths consist of families. There is a general complaint of the decay of the power of godliness and inundation of profaneness, and not without cause. I know no better remedy than domestic piety…”

- Oliver Heywood, The Family Altar, The Works of Oliver Heywood, Vol. 4

“We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all."

- Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

"Now, the devil knoweth that this is a blow at the root, and a ready way to prevent the succession of Churches: if he can subvert families, other societies and communities will not long flourish and subsist with any power and vigor; for there is the stock from whence they are supplied both for the present and future."

"A family is the seminary of Church and State; and if children be not well principled there, all miscarrieth: a fault in the first concoction is not mended in the second; if youth be bred ill in the family, they prove ill in Church and Commonwealth; there is the first making or marring, and the presage of their future lives to be thence taken"

-Thomas Manton, Introduction to The Westminster Confession of Faith

“The relation of the Christian family to the Christian Church is of the closest and most solemn nature. It is both the type and the nursery of the Church. The Church rises out of the family, to which it is strikingly and beautifully analogous. Thus Christian parents are the nursing-fathers and the nursing-mothers of the Church.

Nor must we entirely overlook the moral relation of the Christian family to the State: it is close and vital. As families compose the fabric of the State, so the State derives its character and stability from the moral and religious character of those families. The Commonwealth will be what its domestic institution makes it. When society cease to be molded into families, and families cease to be sanctified by religion, "Ichabod " may be written upon the State- for its glory and its stability will have departed!”

- Octavius Winslow, The Ministry of the Home

As our society plunges into an advanced state of decay I believe it is simply a reflection of the state of our families. It is in this context that I would like to consider the issue of the education and discipleship of children as it is commonly practiced today. (When I speak of these matters as they are “commonly practiced”, I am simply speaking of the age segregated, special interest, family divisive methods that have been brought into the church from the culture around us rather than from Scripture.)

I would like to make it clear at the outset that I greatly admire and respect some great men and women who have used and promoted some of these methods of education and discipleship. By criticizing their beliefs I do not mean to imply that they are wicked people. I am not saying that these things are being practiced out of evil intentions, and as far as Sunday school is concerned I am not even criticizing all forms Sunday school. I personally believe that Sunday school could be carried out in numerous more biblical manners, if the church so desired.

I also know that many of you could tell me great things that God has done with Sunday schools, youth groups and all the rest. And as someone who spent many years teaching Sunday school myself, I could also tell you a few good stories, but this does not make the practice right. The fact that God uses something does not necessarily justify that something. The end does not justify the means.

I would also like to make it clear that I am not blaming the ills of our society on these methods of youth ministry, but rather on the prevalent mind set that lies behind our practices. It is my own belief that these ministries are more of a symptom than the sickness. But while I believe it is more of a symptom, I also believe that it is of great value to highlight the problem behind it - that of a church that has become molded and conformed to the world around it rather than to Scripture.

It is my own belief that the church has slowly let parents abdicate their responsibilities to the point that a vast majority of these parents are now almost entirely ignorant of them. The children of these parents have followed after the world and have gone on to raise generations that are far worse than their own. As already mentioned, families are now in a state of advanced decay and the society which is made-up of them is suffering for it. It is this decay of the church and family that is at the root of all of our problems!

We the church are the salt (a preservative against decay) and light (a guide) to an unbelieving society (Matt. 5:13-16) when we love, obey and adhere to the Word of God before their eyes and consciences. If we do not do this, society MUST necessarily fall under the weight of its own depravity and thus come under the judgment and wrath of God. Seen in this context, I believe that youth ministry as it is commonly practiced is not some peripheral unimportant side issue, but is part and parcel of society’s larger ills stemming from the same root.