A recent book on youth ministry by Scott Brown is causing quite a stir.  Here’s the title…


A Weed in the Church:  How a culture of age segregation is harming the next generation, fragmenting the family and dividing the church.


What’s the weed?  


Age-segregation.


“There is a crisis among the Christian youth. They drop out of church. They remain childish. They are biblically illiterate. The church is losing the next generation. 


Church youth ministries are failing to reach children and teens at an unprecedented rate. Depending on what survey you look at, these ministries have a failure rate of somewhere between 70 and 88 percent. We are losing 7 to 9 out of every 10 kids to the world. This is a time of emergency. People are wondering what is wrong with the youth.”


What’s the answer according to Scott Brown?  


Stop age-segregation and start age-integration (especially get the fathers involved).


Our view?


As a former youth pastor, I completely agree with Scott Brown.  This is a huge step in the right direction of restoring the biblical values for church and family.  My only concern is that it doesn’t go far enough.  In the New Testament, families didn’t “go” to church together. Rather,  it was understood that the home, and not some church building was the center of spirituality.  In other words, the marriage, and then the family, was the first and most foundational expression of church.


Our motto?  


Every home a church.


This is a biblical value that the LK10 Community is seeking to restore.  Coming in January, a new course called “The Family Blessing:  Reclaiming the Home as the Center for Spiritual Training”.


John White