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, men, for many years, have been inventing solutions or brainstorming ideas 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.
The film raises some important questions about the effectiveness of modern youth ministry. When you consider the staggering statistics about the number of Christian youth group kids who drop out of church in their 20s and 30s, it seems that the fruit of modern day youth ministry may be rather rotten. Dispersed throughout the video are interviews and commentary from a number of influencers in the Christian Home Education movement including Ken Ham, Scott Brown, Doug Phillips, Voddie Baucham and others. I would highly recommend this film to parents, pastors and others who are concerned about the spiritual formation of youth and children. NCFIC has made Divided available free online through September 1, 2011. You can watch it below.
Official Divided the Movie (HD Version) from NCFIC on Vimeo.