Sermon Sunday---Divided

Have you heard about the movie Divided? For some time, my husband and I have been convicted that the currently popular model of youth church is not the way the Lord wishes our family to pursue. One signal we had that we needed to rethink the whole idea of youth church was when we were attending a large church in Florida and began to see negative attitudes and behaviors in our oldest son. We prayed about it and the Lord showed us that some of them were coming from some of his experiences in the youth group at church. We decided to leave the large church and sought a smaller fellowship with a different vision for youth, and within a month we began to see a positive change in him. 


I am not saying that every youth group or youth group activity is inherently bad, but I am suggesting that maybe folks need to step back and objectively look at what their individual church is doing with their youth, and how it compares to what the world does...is the difference discernible, or does your "youth church" look like something you might mistake for MTV if you take out the lyrics? Every individual needs to pray and make a decision based on the Lord's leading, but a bit of research is always a good thing. Take an evening with your spouse (or by yourself if you are a young person, or with a friend) and watch this interesting, well-researched video about one young man's investigation into the true calling of Christ on today's youth while the movie is still available online for free. Let me know what you think.


Official Divided the Movie (HD Version) from NCFIC on Vimeo.


As you look on the church landscape, youth are leaving the faith in droves. The modern church, overall, is struggling to reach the next generation with the gospel. What has happened? Whether for good or bad, for many years men have been inventing solutions without fully relying upon the foundation of God’s Word. 


God, however, is greater than man, and as the heavens are above the earth, so are His ways higher than ours and His thoughts than our thoughts (Is. 55:8-9). We have substituted the greater for the lesser – God’s wisdom for man’s ideas. Jesus said that he who hears His Word and does it, is like a man that built his house upon a rock, and when the storm came, it stood firm. On the other hand, he who rejects His Word, is like a man who built on the sand and when the storm came, the house fell (Matt. 7:24-25). 


Shouldn’t the church, as a whole, abandon the sandy ideas of man and shamelessly return to the firm rock of the Word of God? God’s Word sufficiently identifies how youth are to be reached. 


For more information on this issue, please see the film Divided, which is a documentary on age-segregated youth ministry in America. Watch it for free (for a limited time) at www.dividedthemovie.com. For an in-depth study, the book A Weed in the Church delves into the topic and more thoroughly handles the Scripture passages that address ministry to young people. For other details or to help spread the message, visit www.dividedthemovie.com.


(from the Divided website)


Blessings,