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.
The movie starts off by giving us stats of how many students are leaving the church from high school through their college years and then from there goes to blame all of this leaving on age-segregated programming within the church (i.e. youth ministry, children's ministry, Sunday school). The filmmaker goes on to find experts to back up his theory while using sound bytes from top youth ministry professionals to add value to it. The filmmaker ends by saying age-segregated ministry is unBiblical and that father should be doing the discipling of their own children.
As I watched this movie, I didn't know whether to cringe or applaud. I wholeheartedly agree that the students are leaving our churches but I do not believe that youth ministry or Sunday school is the soul cause. I felt almost that the filmmaker and the main guest, Scott Brown, were on a crusade to destroy current youth ministries. I believe like any documentary, it had an agenda from the beginning and twisted everything to fit that agenda.
My personal response is that yes, our children are leaving the church in droves but I believe the fall of the family to be the biggest cause. The film says that fathers need to be the one teaching their children the Bible and not youth ministry, to that I say Amen but how many fathers are actually doing that and how many churches are pushing fathers to make that stand. I am a youth pastor who whole heartedly believe the parents are the pastors to their kids and my goal is not to take their place. I wouldn't want that for my own kids. I believe the film should have taken a more wholistic approach to changing the church rather than attacking one specific segment of it. Where is the outrage of church leaders who aren't speaking the truth from the pulpit or pushing adults to live the life that God has called them to.
The point of the film is true, we are losing a generation of students but their reason way is completely off. We need to look at all the causes not just a single piece of it.
2 comments:
Remove your support for Harry Potter and you will have a far more effective platform to speak on. Harry Potter trains youth to have a fascination for the occult. Bear in mind: you must love God or love Satan. We are temples that shall be filled one way or another. Children ought to learn to love God exclusively, or we can expect nothing for them but judgment.
Jonathan S.
Divided’s main purpose is not merely to tear down the modern practice of age segregation, but to encourage and urge fathers to take up the mantles themselves, in their own homes. The Gospel ought to so move parents to see the preciousness of their children’s souls, that they realize the enormity of their calling as Christian parents.
Inevitably, when the duty of parents to train their children is shared with a youth group leader or the equivalent, we are diverting attention from the means that God has ordained (family discipleship) to a human invention (youth groups). It is this straying from the “old paths” of the Scriptures that is at the heart of Divided – and it is a clarion call that the church must heed to.
Post a Comment