Family Feud AM Deut. 6:5-7; 20-25

Transcription

1 Family Feud AM Deut. 6:5-7; This morning I am going to go a long way around to make a short delivery. The notion of family feud is not introduced to suggest the topic of family feuding against family in church. Nor is it to point toward the ever-present feuding between parents and youth concerning church. Rather, it concerns the discussion of whether families are best served by being segregated or by being integrated within the on-campus activities of the church, especially worship services, prayer services and active ministry. For centuries, the practice of virtually all churches was for families to attend the same services at all times. Sometimes males were separated from females, but always in the same service. Late in the 19 th and early in the 20 th centuries, however, modern educational philosophy and the drive to be more innovative and effective began to separate adults from children at church. It began with having something special for the kids at some non-service time. But it also was evidenced in special women s circles and men s meetings. Gradually segregation began to creep into worship services, especially in the sixties, seventies and beyond. Today, many churches allow children and youth to absent themselves from the principle worship service of the week to attend separate, ageoriented worship services during the principle worship service of the church (Sunday mornings). What happens with many, then, is that they never worship with the whole church because that is the only service they attend. Increasing numbers of churches are having multiple services not because of over-flow crowds but to appease distinct generations of adults. And its not always at the instigation of the younger set. In some churches where the main service has become more contemporary, older adults have asked for an earlier service for themselves so they can worship apart from the newer music and style of worship.

2 Now, many pastors and others who watch and study trends in church have concluded that things may have gotten out of hand. They are asking questions about how effective this really is. Questions like: If this is so great, why do most young people drop out of church when they graduate high school? Where is the unity that is supposed to characterize a church? What is driving the wedge so firmly between generations that they no longer feel they can worship together? Perhaps one reason is that we see worship services in the wrong light. According to R.C. Sproul (heard this week on his Thursday night radio show, Renewing Your Mind ), a survey of about 2000 former church goers were asked why they no longer attend church: Let s play, the Family Feud!!! The top two answers are on the board! 1. Life is just too busy. / Not enough time. 2. I was offended. 3. People who go to church judgmental/hypocritical. No better than anyone else. 4. Family time takes priority. 5. Just stopped believing. OK, it was a trick question. The two top answers are none of the above. They were: #1: Church is boring. #2: Church is irrelevant. Answers like this beg the question: Why do we attend church? To be entertained? For a religious commentary on world issues and global spiritual conditions? Or to meet with God? How can meeting with God be boring? Was anyone in the Bible ever bored when confronted by God?

3 Isaiah unveiled manifestation of God. "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts" (Isa. 6:5). Job Job 42:5-6 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes." Habakkuk 3:16 When I heard [the Lord], my body trembled; My lips quivered at the voice; Rottenness entered my bones; Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. So, if you are bored at church then you are not meeting with God. If you are not meeting with God in church, then, as far as you are concerned, you are simply coming to a human gathering. First, this should not be, for Jesus said, Where two or three or gathered together in my name, there I am among them, (Matt. 18:20). As I have said many times before, the Lord is always with His children. But when we come TOGETHER in His name He is with us in a very special way. Some argue: I can meet with God anywhere. I don t have to go to church to meet with God. I ask: Why would God agree to meet with us at a place of our choosing if we are not first willing to meet with Him at the place of His choosing? After all, Christ died for THE CHURCH (Acts 20:28), not for the baseball field, livestock arena, Lake Fork, or your favorite TV show. The Church! It is the church on which the Lord has chosen to place His name, and in which He has chosen to dwell. Psa 132:13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: 2 Cor. 6:16 we (plural) are the temple (singular) of the living god. As God has said, I will dwell in them. Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together The local congregation is the only expression of whole body of believers. It is the only outward expression on earth. It is the expression that Jesus committed Himself to for 3.5 years.

4 Although Jesus was always interested in and open to all who placed their faith in Him, He invested Himself in that first little gathering of believers that accompanied Him 12 men, more than a few women, and other men that may have brought the number to 75 to 100 in all. But that is not what we are seeing. More and more we are seeing younger generations appear to be drifting farther and farther from the moorings of consistent involvement in church. This is not an indictment against the young people, but against the church as a whole! Often they see church as boring or irrelevant because they have never (or rarely) been exposed to the whole church as a worshipping, serving body of believers. To them it has always been someone else s church big church or church for the grown ups. And because children and youth ministries are so different from actual, corporate, intergenerational worship services, when they finally start trying to go to church as adults it seems alien to them. From RCA website: Doing Away with Youth Sunday Our suggestion rises out of our response to an extensive research project called the Exemplar Youth Ministry Study. This excellent body of research, with results just released in 2008, traces the history of youth ministry in American churches and analyzes the implications of the trends. The research plainly shows that youth ministry has moved farther and farther outside corporate congregational life. In other words, youth programming no longer takes place in an intergenerational context; young people have their own exclusive programming. This age-group focus has even led some churches to conduct separate church services for children and youth. These exclusive congregations have further isolated children and youth from the rest of the covenant community. Consequently when young people graduate from high school and begin attending adult services, they find themselves adrift in a church that is foreign to them. They experience a service that was designed for a very different demographic. Feeling left out and unengaged, these youth often search for another congregation, one that matches their previous experience, one targeted specifically to them. Many do not find such a congregation.

5 Instead of holding exclusive gatherings that cater to specific developmental stages, perhaps the congregation could become an intergenerational gathering of believers in which every age group has a place, a voice, and involvement every week. Now I think Bro. Matt and those who work with him do a pretty good job of getting our young people involved in total church ministry. But there is only so much that a youth pastor and youth program can do. There s only so much that can be accomplished by AWANA workers and Sunday School teachers. Children and youth ministry is the work of the whole church. But even then, the vast burden of responsibility still falls upon the parents to educated their children in worship, reverence for God, and in the importance of God s church. (Asked of adults who attend church services at least monthly) What is the most important reason why you attend church or synagogue? [OPEN- ENDED] BASED ON 562 ADULTS WHO ATTEND CHURCH AT LEAST MONTHLY (2007 Mar 26-29) For spiritual growth and guidance: 23% Keeps me grounded/inspired: 20 It's my faith: 15 To worship God: (Tied for 3 rd place!) 15 The fellowship of other members/the community: 13 Believe in God/Believe in religion: 12 Brought up that way/a family value/tradition: 12 Yesterday, Bro. Mike Cross was telling me about a sermon he heard some time ago. Pastor Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago told of commenting to a young family friend about how she had grown up in the church. She responded to him that she had never really been in the church. She had attended youth group faithfully. She had met the Lord there and been discipled there, but had never become integrated into the church itself. In reflecting on that conversation, Hybels realized that while instructing his staff to "go build a good youth ministry" that they had never really addressed the next step of making sure those youth were truly part of the church at large. If we were brutally honest with ourselves, we might admit that often we separate the children for one of two reasons: 1. They distract us (adults); 2. Or (we assume?) they are not interested. I don t know if this is part of the problem or just another symptom of the problem probably both, but the trend in starting new churches in recent

6 years had been toward targeting one specific age group, social level (blue collar, white collar, Gen X, etc.), or special interest (cowboys, bikers). It s difficult to study the Bible and imagine Jesus, Paul or others doing that, because what happens when you choose to focus on one group, you are consciously choosing to largely overlook all others. It s hard to imagine our Lord separating the kids for being a distraction, or because His teaching is over their heads. In fact, we know of at least one occasion when Jesus preached with a child in His arms (Mark 9:36). Well To let our Scripture text sum this up for us 1) The responsibility of teaching children about God is primarily that of the parents (v. 7) a) Ephesians 6:4 Parents,... Raise [your children] properly. Teach them and instruct them about the Lord. (CEV) b) Remember that much of a child s learning comes from observation. c) If they are never given the opportunity to observe their parents worshipping, how much is lost? 2) There is a clear expectation that when a child asks a question about God, he will be asking his parents (v. 20). a) Are you your child s go-to person when they need answers about God? About life? About the Bible? 3) The child has every right to expect his parents to be able to answer the foundational questions related to their faith (vv )

7 Shall we continue to have childrens church? Yes Shall we continue to have youth group? Yes Shall we continue with VBS, camps, and special events? Yes But let us never get so far from the biblical model of church that we feel if there is no special event, class, or activity for the kids, there s no reason for them to come to church!!! Let the parents, grandparents and other guardians remember along with the pastoral staff, that (1). young people are not just the church of tomorrow they are a vital part of the church of today; and (2) if they are not treated as a vital part of the church today, they will NOT be part of the church tomorrow. v AM Deut. 6:5-7; This morning I am going to go a long way around to make a short delivery. The notion of family feud is not introduced to suggest the topic of family feuding against family in church. Nor is it to point toward the ever-present feuding between parents and youth concerning church. Rather, it concerns the discussion of whether families are best served by being segregated or by being integrated within the on-campus activities of the church, especially worship services, prayer services and active ministry. For centuries, the practice of virtually all churches was for families to attend the same services at all times. Sometimes males were sepa-rated from females, but always in the same service. Late in the 19th and early in the 20th centuries, however, modern educational philosophy and the drive to be more innovative and ef-fective began to separate adults from children at church. It began with having something special for the kids at some non-service time. But it also was evidenced in special women s circles and men s meetings. Gradually segregation began to creep into worship services, especially in the sixties, seventies and beyond. Today, many churches allow children and youth to absent them-selves from the principle worship service of the week to attend sepa-rate, age-oriented worship services during the principle worship ser-vice of the church (Sunday mornings). What happens with many, then, is that they never worship with the whole church because that is the only service they attend.