A case against youth ministry Part 3

A Case against Youth Ministry and Education as it is Commonly Practiced
Part 3:The Sufficiency of Scripture Part 1

The Sufficiency of Scripture

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”
-2 Timothy 3:16, 17

“The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man's salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from scripture…”
-The Westminster Confession of Faith and The1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 1, Paragraph 6

“The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
-The Westminster Confession of Faith and The 1689 London Baptist Confession Chapter 1, Paragraph 10

Dear Brethren,

The ultimate question in any matter of controversy is this: What do the scriptures reveal about this subject, what does God say to us in His Word? For those who profess to be the children of God this ought to be the only real question of any significance. Ultimately this should be the beginning and end of every conflict.

In the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments we have all that we need for our sanctification (John 17:17). We have all that we need to be “perfect” and “thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). And we have been given “all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him…” (2 Peter 1:2-4)

If we are going to debate methodologies of discipleship and education as they are commonly practiced and whether they are beneficial or harmful to our families, then haven’t we entered into a debate having to do with sanctification, good works, life and godliness? And if that is the case then isn't the Bible sufficient to answer such a debate? Shouldn't we be able to defend our position and practices from scripture?

It’s the premise of the following pages that the Bible is indeed sufficient to answer such a controversy and that it alone can give us an authoritative answer. Those who wish to make the scriptures vague and indifferent to the subject must then still prove the scriptures indifference from the scriptures. As the Westminster confession so aptly put it, the Bible is “The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined…”

“To the Law and to the Testimony…” (Isaiah 8:20)

Youth Ministry as it is commonly practiced is entirely foreign to Scripture.

It has come to be my understanding over the years that for something to be “biblical” it must have been derived from Scripture in one of three ways:

By explicit command.
By unavoidable implication (necessary consequence), or
By normative example

If a belief or a practice cannot be shown to have been derived from scripture in at least one of these three ways it cannot be said to be biblical.

So with the sufficiency of scripture in mind let me ask you these questions: Where in Scripture do we find the idea of entirely breaking apart the family in order to teach them how to have relationships? Where do we find the idea of removing children from the authority and supervision of their parents in order to group them together according to age, under the supervision of a special teacher for intense periods of “discipleship” in a classroom setting? Where does God ask for such youth ministry programs? Where does He suggest that we have them or where does He hint that we should do such things? Where is it implied in scripture or where can it be deduced “by good and necessary consequence”?

Where do we find the Apostolic Church practicing such a ministries or giving us instructions concerning them? They are given the commission to go and make disciples at the end of the book of Matthew and we see them carry out their commission in the rest of the New Testament, but where do we even see a hint of the modern youth ministry movement?

Not only is there an absence of such commands and examples in the Bible, but families are often spoken of as being together at the hearing and teaching of God’s word (Deut. 29:11; Joshua 8:33-35; 2 Chron. 20:13; Neh. 10:28, 29; Joel 2:15-17; Matt. 14:21; Matt. 15:38; Acts 16:31-34). Paul assumes that children will be with the adults in the worship service (Col. 3:20; Eph. 6:1). Jesus seems to have had children around Him frequently while He was teaching (Matt. 18:2; 19:13-15; 14:21; 15:38) and He was “greatly displeased” when the disciples tried to shoo them away (Mark 10:14).

While we have absolutely no instructions to segregate families or to remove children from their parents’ supervision into peer segregated classes and no examples to follow in scripture, we do have examples of entire families gathered together for the hearing and teaching of God’s Word, we have places where it is assumed that they are together, we have some places where they were commanded to be together and many places where the responsibility of discipleship is laid on the parents, which seems to assume that they would at least be there when it happens.

While making disciples is certainly biblical, peer segregated special interest grouping and the removal of children from their parents for intense periods of education has no basis in scripture at all. So why would we practice something that is contrary to the examples of scripture that we do have?

Youth Ministry, as it is commonly practiced, both assumes and implies a deficiency in scripture.

Historically, the church has believed that “the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture” (1689 London Confession) and that scripture alone is sufficient to make us “complete” and “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17) and that “in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to” the Scriptures (1689 London Confession).

If this is true, then where do we find youth minstries as they are commonly practiced in the scriptures? What texts do we “appeal to”? Where do we find the people of God segregating families or separating the children from their parents for educational purposes? Where do we find peer segregated special interest groupings? Where are these things taught? Where are they implied and where are the examples to follow?

If this methodology of discipleship is the best way to disciple our children, then why doesn't the Bible promote it or its component parts? And if it’s not the best way to disciple our children, why is the church promoting it? This question has to be answered by the proponents of such a system.

The fact that there is no biblical basis for these special youth programs as they are commonly practiced combined with the importance placed on it by modern Christians both implies and assumes that the Bible is deficient. How can you escape this conclusion? It implies that if all we had to build and structure our life on was the Bible, we would be missing something important. It implies that while the Bible has some good suggestions, man needed to come up with the really good programs. It implies that the church was lacking something it needed for 1,800 years. It implies that our methodologies do not have to come from scripture and that all that God did say about our methodologies of discipleship were just second rate suggestions that could be ignored and replaced with better ideas.

In Conclusion

Brethren, where is the biblical support? It would seem that many of our modern ideas of education, and in particular Sunday school, as it is commonly practiced is entirely an invention of man. This seems to be attested to by the fact that Sunday school and other related ministries did not even exist until the 1800s. Even then Sunday school was only for orphans. Most of the historical body of Christ did not even think of doing such things; they didn't see them in scripture.

It is not enough to say “the Bible tells us to make disciples and this is how we are going to do it” for it could be done in many other ways. It must be shown from scripture that it is acceptable and good to do it that way. Can we honestly say, with the full conviction of biblical authority, that God is pleased with such methods of teaching people how to have biblical relationships with God and man? Doesn't the burden of proof lie with those who wish to practice such programs?

Let me ask the question one more time, where is the scriptural justification for these youth ministries as they are commonly practiced in the church today?