CHURCH YOUTH CRISIS - Have You Seen This?
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-RevivalSchool Forum
KEN C writes:
This Saturday morning I met with a group of men for prayer, for the
nation and to hear what the Lord is saying to his church.
One man started in hurt and anger about his daughter. He said I
raised her to walk with the Lord, to the best of my ability. She just
turned 18 years old and has taken off with a young man and is
living with him.
Another said, My son turned 18 and told me to take my Bible and
stick it where the sun does not shine.
Another said, My daughter turned against her Christian values.
Everywhere I go I hear the same report. I believe it is a national
epidemic; the Church is losing our young people, even though
they have been raised in church.
IF YOU HAVE HAD A SIMILAR EXPEIRIENCE IN YOUR FAMILY,
PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS. I feel strong in my
spirit the Lord is teaching us something about this issue.
MARK B replies:
We are now OOCC, but in our many attempts to find a church
family before we opted out, what you have written about was
prevalent; we were appalled at the spiritual condition of the youth,
or the absence of them from the age of maybe 16 and up. The
details that we learned over time were consistently sickening
where the youth were concerned - dabbling or worse in the occult,
sexual sin, secular and "of this world" in most all of their lives,
other than the few hours that they were forced to attend.
The battle is intense spiritually where our children are concerned;
Hitler knew this - if you can win a generation of them to either side,
you have all but won that society. Because they are so
impressionable when young, they soak up whatever thay are
exposed to like sponges.
I want to word this carefully, because both in families on this forum,
and people that we know personally, this has already happened
with one or more of their children, and my heart breaks for them. If
this has already happened with your children, all is not lost, but
the battle to win them back will be fierce. On a similar thread,
Maizie advised prayer and fasting for children in this situation, and
I totally agree - we need to learn the power in combined prayer
and fasting, and with grown children walking away from God, I
don't think that anything less will break the spirit that they are
under, and win them back.
In NO way do I intend this to bring condemnation on any parent
with one or more children in this situation, but it needs to be said
for parents with children young enough to yet "be trained up". A
while back, having a talk with a Christian brother about our young
children (we have two under the age of five), I said that while the
world, and many in the church will say that "you can't shelter
them from the realities of life", I have every intention of sheltering
ours, to the point that they are not even aware of what might be on
the other side of the fence, until they have been "trained up".
Watching the world as we go even just to the grocery store, or
hearing the horror stories of what is taking place in public schools,
I don't know how a young child could ever stand against what is
out there today, while still in their formative years, so what we
have done is a total separation from the world for them, that will
continue until they are young adults.
They are never out of our sight, and have never been babysat,
other than one night for the oldest, when the younger was being
born, at the home of the "safest" Christian friends we could find.
We have kept them separate from the children of most all of the
professing believers that we know, because their children are
immersed in a world of television, public school, videos and video
games, lots of time at the mall, community childrens' programs,
etc., all of which are manifesting early in ways that should be
causing alarm bells in the parents, but don't.
We watch no television, other than BBC news for 20 minutes with
no commercials every great once in a while, we are very careful
about the toys they have - mostly older things from garage sales
and thrift stores that have no "agenda" behind them. We will
homeschool, we discipline along biblical lines, and as
uncomfortable as it has been at times, we "just say no" when
neighbor parents suggest that our children get together and play.
We have lots of music in the house, but no radio, other than a
show on Saturday morning for a couple of hours. We don't go to
the mall, and I can't remember the last time that we went out to eat.
This will, and has kept us poor - we will always be a one income
family because this requires one of us to physically be with our
children at all times, but also eliminates the need for daycare,
which is a topic all its own. Even at the young age that they are,
the difference in our children from the children their ages around
them is more than noticeable - they know what we as a family
believe, and expect, because they have never been exposed to
anyone or anything that competes with these values. They are
separate, we have to answer to God for them.
My heart also breaks for single parents, separated parents sharing
the custody of their children, grandparents raising children, and
people who have lost their children altogether, at least for a time,
parents who have to work, and have no access to a good private
school, etc. The challenges that these situations present are huge,
and very real, but the Lord is always able to provide a way of
escape, when we seek Him for it.
I really didn't want to post all of this, but felt that I was supposed
to, for maybe just a few, and I have really tried not to sound
insensitive, which I am not; this is a really complicated issue in
today's society.
TY E replies:
I want to say THANK YOU for posting this... we thought we were
one of the few. We are homeschoolers also - a one income family
sounding very similiar to yours except for a few things.... we are
still in church but am amazed at the things he learns there.....I am
not being judgmental but no one in our "church" seems to have the
same standards as us for what we allow... I feel the same as you
about sheltering our kids... even people in our "church" think we
are out there.... we have long since stop worrying about it and
make the best choices for our family that God is directing us. I
guess I just don't understand what the "other parents" will allow
such as movies, games, music etc....among the leaderships kids...
we are searching as to whether we need to leave this system as
well. The stories we heard about camps in our denomination is
just bad.. I am just simply talking about common courtesies that
are not held up... practical jokes that could be harmful to the kids
and the leaders letting it happen and even participating.... and this
is the 12 and under age.... the "church" environment is getting just
as scary as the public schools... Do we become hermits with our
kids? the balance is hard to find...
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