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On Voddie, Youth Groups and Me

On Voddie Baucham-
Julie from Old Paths asked me what I thought of Voddie Baucham and the sermon he gave on youth groups from a youth pastor view point. First, let me say that I haven’t been able to download Voddie’s sermon for some reason. But have picked up bits and pieces here and there from other sources.

From the American Family Association Journal: “According to Baucham, 36, a return to a Christian consensus of values in America will come only when believers re-evaluate the nature of the church – and more fundamentally – the role of the family as the preeminent disciple-maker of their children.
. . . . . Every new generation of Christian parents must pass their faith on to their own children. He calls the concept "multi-generational faithfulness" and argues that the chain is broken when Christian parents abdicate their discipling duties to church programs.
According to Baucham this lack of discipleship in the home is why statistics show that many young people from church-going homes leave the faith during their college years and why Christianity’s voice in American culture is waning
 . . . . . . I believe the church is a family of families. One way we have gone astray is that we see the church as a corporation that breaks us into individual groups. We have something for this group and something for that group and we are breaking families apart when we get to the church house. We’re expecting church programs to disciple our children rather than that happening in the home in the context of the family.
God has given us a mechanism for multi-generational faithfulness and that mechanism is the family. And so one of the things the Church must do is to rediscover and re-emphasize the importance of the family as that discipling agent and build up the family because that is what’s crumbling.
My message is a call for parents and grandparents to disciple their children and grandchildren. This is the answer. God has given the family to preserve the community of faith! If there is a generation that is not discipled, they will not know God. That is the significance of the family. The role of the local church is to come alongside families and help them fulfill their call.”

First let me say I love the term “multi-generational faithfulness”.
I think what I am understanding is that He feels church programs such as youth groups pull families apart rather than draw them closer together.
I like the phrase “when Christian parents abdicate their discipling duties to church programs”. Youth pastors joke all the time about parents seeing us as babysitters or about them placing all the responsibility of spiritual growth on us.
Let me share with you about my life in youth ministry:
When I first started in youth ministry a couple of parents approached me about why there wasn’t a separate morning worship service for the teens as they felt the regular service wasn’t relevant to them and the teens weren’t wanting to come to church. Let me just tell you that this was the first of many shocks to me as a youth pastor. I honestly don’t remember exactly how I answered these parents- since I was quite new to it all I would guess that I mostly stuttered and muttered something. My true thought was “why are you giving them an option on whether or not to attend?” My parents didn’t and I am better off because of it. There are certain things that I believe are non-negotiable between parents and their children (parenting is not a democracy!) such as a 10 year old driving the car, playing hopscotch in the middle of the street and not attending church with the family- all are against the “rules” in my book.
Another time a parent came to me enraged because I stated that our youth mission trip was about building group unity and service to others and not about boyfriends and girlfriends having time together. He muttered something about his kids likening it to a Nazi Boy Scout camping trip. Gee thanks. I was under the mistaken perception that a mission trip was about spiritual growth and service to the Lord not sitting next to your sweetie in the best vehicle or finding time for smooching by the campfire.
Another time a couple came to me full of anger and frustration because their son had made a commitment to the Lord [at a youth conference we attended] not to date for a year and was now depressed and moping at home because he felt he couldn’t go out on the weekends and to quote the mom, “just what was he going to do about prom?” They went on to say “That the teenage years are all about dating experiences and you are asking a lot of them [teens] by taking a whole year away.” The parents wanted me to talk with their son and tell him it was okay to date. I said no. I stated that I, in no way, urged this kid to make this commitment [it was part of the conference we were at- I didn’t give this talk], was not involved in him making the commitment and that it was really between him and God. They left the church. Sigh.
I have been in youth ministry for 5 years. I have seen the good, the bad and the down right disturbing. When I started in youth ministry about 90% of my youth group was made up of kids who came to church all on their own (either their parents weren’t regular attendees or they didn’t attend at all). There was little to no spiritual discipleship going on in these kids homes. So to Voddie I must ask- What about these kids? Where are they going to get it?
Stay tuned for Part 2.

Here are 2 links...

3:51 PM, 2006-Nov-10 .. Posted by mominpa

Family Life Today had 2 recordings...on 10/2 and 10/3

You can listen or just read the transcript....

http://www.familylife.com/fltoday/broadcast_schedule.asp?search=1&showType=&guests=&strMonth=10&strDay=2&strYear=2006&keywords=&image1.x=21&image1.y=5

Untitled Comment

4:09 PM, 2006-Nov-10 .. Posted by YPAmy5

Thanks ever so much!
Amy W