Apples and Oranges

Published Wednesday, October 25, 2006 by Gerrard Fess | E-mail this post

Gimmicks. (Prior post gave me some thoughts)

It is so easy to fall into the Trap - oh, whoa is me (Almost an Elijah whining session 1 Kings 19:10) I dislike Entertainment Youth Ministry. What you win them with is what you have to keep them with. I dislike the comparison game. Why? Because I feel it does disservice to the Kingdom.

So why not be ourselves? When students see the cool youth ministry down the road, why not ask them, so what are you doing here? Why not involved.

I think comparing churches (And we do it ourselves and as people ..I mean come on ...how many of us compare ourselves to good ole Doug Fields?) is like comparing apples and oranges. Both are fruit. Both are round. Both are very different. Maybe that is what it is about our churches. Both are trying to be the Church. But both come with different contexts and cultures to consider.

So the next time you find yourself wandering and wondering how I can be more like Church X, why not just wonder how you can just be the church and person God called you to be, and not this imitiation.

Otherwise we'd be too loose with the facts ...See these quotes below.

Came across this quote from YWJ:

"Youth Ministry Is in the Spotlight
There was a great story on youth ministry by Austin American-Statesman religion writer Eileen Flynn. And did you see the front-page story on the Friday, Oct. 6, issue of The New York Times? The headline said it all: “Fearing the Loss of Teenagers, Evangelicals Turn Up the Fire.”

“Despite their packed megachurches,” said the article, Christian leaders like Teen Mania’s Ron Luce are sounding an alarm that “their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.” The National Association of Evangelicals has even warned about “the epidemic of young people leaving the evangelical church.” But Christian Smith (author of last year’s acclaimed Soul Searching book) thinks people who claim that only four percent of teens are “Bible-believing Christians” are being too “apocalyptic” and too loose with the facts. "

3 Responses to “Apples and Oranges”

Anonymous on 10/25/2006 9:48 AM

G-man,

Thanks for your post here. I know that the other places that I was refrencing are trying to be the "church" too. I was venting out loud. I know that my focus isn't to be on any comparisons made between what our ministry is doing vs. someone elses. I just want to be who God made me and committed to partnering with what he is up to in the world.
Anonymous on 10/27/2006 4:36 AM

I have worked with youth for 20 years. God has now put me in a very small church in Southern Maryland from Oklahoma. At first, I was disappointed that average youth group attendance was 4 or 5. Attendance still does not exceed more that 6 or 7. But, here is the kicker. I am impacting these kids' lives and isn't that we are called to do? Thank you God for showing me that I am following your call and that I cannot compare this ministry to the last.
Anonymous on 10/27/2006 7:32 AM

Good stuff. The hard part is sometimes we beat up ourselves and want to be like others. Be encouraged ... Be who who God called it. Afterall it is the journey we are to enjoy and not others' journeys.

Apples and Oranges

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