"Taking Our Cues From the Youth"
Proverbs 23:13 - 'Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest
him with the rod, he shall not die.'*Remember Sunday School? Remember the lessons, scriptures, answering*the questions in class and before the church? Remember when we enjoyed*the simple things about going to our church and working with the youth group?*I can remember car washes, candy sales, youth trips, etc. but my most memorable*church experiences are the scriptures that I know now! Back then, the church would*instruct the children and youth instead of appease them. They would discipline us*instead of encourage our foolishness. The church was likeour home back then! Everyone*cared about our well being and whatever they had to do to make sure we were quiet,*attentive, and receiving the Word, they would. But they would never cater to our fleshly*wants or desires just to lure us into the church. No baseball caps, doo-rags, or men with*earrings on Sunday Morning. No hoochie or ***** clothes and definitely no text messaging*and video games during service! The church would just be church and whether we liked it*or not, we had to go. We live in a different time now of course, but are children and youth*that different today? Will they obey, and follow rules if we teach them to? Can they learn*and grow in Christ if we properly train them up, or do we just take our cues from them*and cater to the secular, fleshly side of them to lure them into church for the sake of*numbers?
*Whenever a culture takes its cues from the youth and conforms to the ideals of the youth,*it is a sign of bad leadership! Just like in your home, if your children dictate your actions*and cause you as a parent to behave like their peers, then you have lost the respect*and position of leadership and are now equivalent to a friend or buddy in their eyes.*This is a bad move, and yet it's happening more and more because the leadership of*our communities and churches are catering to the young in a way that is causing them*to lose their authority in the eyes of the young. I watch Kirk Franklin, who went from*singing Sunday Morning type songs, to head banging contemporary dance, to repenting*for ever doing those club-styled performances, but now break-dancing, sagging, and*talking in old school Hip Hop ebonics? I am using him to prove a point. The more he*recreates himself, the more our churches are beginning to look ridiculous because*whenever churches want to draw a large crowd, who do they call? And because these*recording artists are the biggest influences in the direction of most black church youth*groups, they are changing the way the youth feel about respecting authority and*following proper leadership. Youth now feel that if they can't do the club-styled dances,*the BET parties, and the electric slide in church, then the church is not youth oriented!*This is why God would not allow Lucifer to exalt himself in heaven because being a*musician, his influence would have been too great and his desire to sell himself would*have changed the course of worship and praise in heaven. But we are now allowing*the enemy to change the very flow of our church services by following recording*artists and performers that are trying to sell CDs? The way we reach out to youth*has been totally recreated because of the secularized antics of Gospel Recording*artists instead of the leadership of their parents being their essential means of*instruction. Now we feel to reach the youth, we have to cater to them by allowing*them to "express" themselves and secularize the church. So we have to let them*dance, sing, and learn through their secular identity or else, they won't come? Have we ever thought that if we could teach their parents to make them come, they*would be there? Have we ever thought that if we show and model proper leadership,*their parents would become their own children's leaders and lead them to church?*Why are we luring children and youth to church when it's the responsibility of the*parents to bring them? Why are we constantly taking our cues from this generation*when this generation is lost? Shouldn't we be the models, the leaders, the examples?*I'll tell you this, whenever a youth feels that you are thinking, acting, and behaving*on their level, then you have forfeited your position to lead them and in their mind,*your authority is equal to theirs.
*Suggested Reading: Prov. 7:7, Psa. 32:8, 1Tim. 4:121Cor. 13:11
Proverbs 23:13 - 'Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest
him with the rod, he shall not die.'*Remember Sunday School? Remember the lessons, scriptures, answering*the questions in class and before the church? Remember when we enjoyed*the simple things about going to our church and working with the youth group?*I can remember car washes, candy sales, youth trips, etc. but my most memorable*church experiences are the scriptures that I know now! Back then, the church would*instruct the children and youth instead of appease them. They would discipline us*instead of encourage our foolishness. The church was likeour home back then! Everyone*cared about our well being and whatever they had to do to make sure we were quiet,*attentive, and receiving the Word, they would. But they would never cater to our fleshly*wants or desires just to lure us into the church. No baseball caps, doo-rags, or men with*earrings on Sunday Morning. No hoochie or ***** clothes and definitely no text messaging*and video games during service! The church would just be church and whether we liked it*or not, we had to go. We live in a different time now of course, but are children and youth*that different today? Will they obey, and follow rules if we teach them to? Can they learn*and grow in Christ if we properly train them up, or do we just take our cues from them*and cater to the secular, fleshly side of them to lure them into church for the sake of*numbers?
*Whenever a culture takes its cues from the youth and conforms to the ideals of the youth,*it is a sign of bad leadership! Just like in your home, if your children dictate your actions*and cause you as a parent to behave like their peers, then you have lost the respect*and position of leadership and are now equivalent to a friend or buddy in their eyes.*This is a bad move, and yet it's happening more and more because the leadership of*our communities and churches are catering to the young in a way that is causing them*to lose their authority in the eyes of the young. I watch Kirk Franklin, who went from*singing Sunday Morning type songs, to head banging contemporary dance, to repenting*for ever doing those club-styled performances, but now break-dancing, sagging, and*talking in old school Hip Hop ebonics? I am using him to prove a point. The more he*recreates himself, the more our churches are beginning to look ridiculous because*whenever churches want to draw a large crowd, who do they call? And because these*recording artists are the biggest influences in the direction of most black church youth*groups, they are changing the way the youth feel about respecting authority and*following proper leadership. Youth now feel that if they can't do the club-styled dances,*the BET parties, and the electric slide in church, then the church is not youth oriented!*This is why God would not allow Lucifer to exalt himself in heaven because being a*musician, his influence would have been too great and his desire to sell himself would*have changed the course of worship and praise in heaven. But we are now allowing*the enemy to change the very flow of our church services by following recording*artists and performers that are trying to sell CDs? The way we reach out to youth*has been totally recreated because of the secularized antics of Gospel Recording*artists instead of the leadership of their parents being their essential means of*instruction. Now we feel to reach the youth, we have to cater to them by allowing*them to "express" themselves and secularize the church. So we have to let them*dance, sing, and learn through their secular identity or else, they won't come? Have we ever thought that if we could teach their parents to make them come, they*would be there? Have we ever thought that if we show and model proper leadership,*their parents would become their own children's leaders and lead them to church?*Why are we luring children and youth to church when it's the responsibility of the*parents to bring them? Why are we constantly taking our cues from this generation*when this generation is lost? Shouldn't we be the models, the leaders, the examples?*I'll tell you this, whenever a youth feels that you are thinking, acting, and behaving*on their level, then you have forfeited your position to lead them and in their mind,*your authority is equal to theirs.
*Suggested Reading: Prov. 7:7, Psa. 32:8, 1Tim. 4:121Cor. 13:11
