I ran across this article called Stupid Church Tricks awhile back (like a couple of years ago), and I thought it was interesting. In light of the fact that I have at least two friends (one of whom promised me she would read this blog) that are becoming youth pastors in the next month or so, I thought that I'd introduce this article to the world. Here's an excerpt:
What do teenagers learn from these youth group activities? Christianity is stupid. Status-conscious teenagers know that those who are so desperate to be liked that they will do anything to curry favor are impossible to respect. Young people may come to off-the-wall youth group meetings, but when they grow up, they will likely associate the church with other immature, juvenile phases of their lives, and Christianity will be something they will grow out of.
I'll spare you my own personal commentary; as if I could add any points to the article anyway. But, I will tell you this short story that I think illustrates the point that this article is trying to make:
There is a cult retreat center in North Myrtle Beach. It's called the Meher Spiritual Center and it's situated on 500 acres of untouched land that is bordered by Hwy 17 and the Atlantic Ocean. One day some of my friends and I decided to go check it out and see what it was like there. We had heard that the land was beautiful and that they would let you hang out on their property if you would just take a tour of the facilities and listen to their spiel. So we went and listened and met a few people before we enjoyed the land (if you disregard the constant feeling of spiritual oppression, it really is a nice place). One of the people we met was a guy who had been in the cult for awhile. We asked him how he came to be with this group and he said something that was incredibly sad to me because it seemed to be a very true statement and his life seemed to be a very real testament to how screwed up people can get if we try to mix worldly philosophies and entertainment strategies with the gospel. He said, "I grew up in the church and I really liked it. I read the Bible and I loved what I read about Jesus and about God's whole story for the earth. But when I went to youth group as a kid, all anyone wanted to do was to play volleyball or go skiing or play some other crazy game. No one seemed to want to talk about Jesus or God and so I went to try to find somewhere where they took God seriously. And that's how I found Meher Baba."
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