Over the last few weeks I kept seeing links to this movie coming from my youth pastor friends. I blew it off for a while and then decided to watch it. I think the movie was well done for what it was but I believe the message is off.
Here is the overview from the website: DIVIDED follows young Christian filmmaker Philip Leclerc on a revealing journey as he seeks answers to what has led his generation away from the church. Traveling across the country conducting research and interviewing church kids, youth ministry experts, evangelists, statisticians, social commentators, and pastors, Philip discovers the shockingly sinister roots of modern, age-segregated church programs, and the equally shocking evidence that the pattern in the Bible for training future generations is at odds with modern church practices. He also discovers a growing number of churches that are abandoning age-segregated Sunday school and youth ministry to embrace the discipleship model that God prescribes in His Word.
I have been thinking a lot about the current state of youth ministry and youth pastors within the church. It seems like almost every week I hear from a friend or two who are leaving their church for any number of different reasons. Since I resigned my own position in March, I have been thinking about youth ministry in the local church and whether it is really working or not.
The other day I got into a conversation with some friends of mine on Twitter and then eventually Facebook about this exact topic. I really enjoyed talking and thinking about this and getting confirmation of my own thoughts. Over the next couple weeks I will be blogging more about it but for now, here are 3 articles written by friends with a couple different view points.
Tony Myles - Putting Your Senior Pastor in his Place - Part 1
Tim Schmoyer - Youth Ministry is Crippled
Mark Riddle - Change in the Church
