Divided Documentary

I would like to give a reminder about what was said at the beginning of the film, which may have been forgotten; that being that these youth pastors at the conference were lamenting the lack of involvement by the parents and that in no way could they be successful without that parental involvement. Also, that these children are the “least parented” of any past generation. Therein lies the majority of the problem. I’d argue that anytime a person is given a way out of a responsibility that they are very inclined to take it.

The other point that was made by one speaker at the beginning who had changed his viewpoint but that he didn’t want to say that all churches should do it his way (sorry, can’t remember the exact quote myself, but it was at the beginning).

It must be remembered that, up front, the movie was presented by the The National Center for Family Intergrated Churches, based upon Scott Brown’s book A Weed in the Church of course, the speakers were from AIG and Vision Forum, who agree with the message, as said above “clearly biased”. So I don’t think it is meant as a documentary, examining both sides, but promoting a particular viewpoint that can serve as a starting point for further study as it brings out views about age-segregation within the Congregation that doesn’t have a lot of discussion. A “new” idea that really isn’t new at all; just like homeschooling.

I compare it to homeschool movies; of course, they are going to present the view and convictions of those in the hs’ling community against gov’t. schooling; it’s clear about where it’s coming from, not intending to be unbiased, however, it’s a voice that needs to be heard in order to have that discussion that previously hadn’t been heard within the general “schooling” options. Then one is to study and pray to find the Truth from there. Just like John Dewey is the “father of modern schooling” the question arises-what result has his philosophy, fulfilled in progressive, secular gov’t. school system, gotten us? Same questions should be asked of the youth ministries, as our children’s souls and their place in the World to Come are at stake.

I would argue that this discussion within the Community of G-d is even more imperative than the hs’ing one, as much can be undone within the “teen culture” and peer dependence that takes very little time to have it’s affect on your children; at a time when learning directly from adults and maturing in the L-rd by being around other mature believers, not immature peers, is so important.

We’d decided a while back not to include our children in the youth classes and after their Bar/BAt Mitzvah ceremonies, they won’t be heading into the “teen” group (teen being another word that is a 20th cen. new word that helps to elongate our children’s adolescence; I use young adult). It contradicts our positions on our homeschooling positions. We can’t be consistant on our homeschooling positions and then abdicate our authority in this area. G-d has given us authority to to teach them instead of the gov’t school and He has also given us the covenant responsibility to train them up in the L-rd under the spiritual covering/accountability of our Congregation’s Rabbi; besides us, our children are to be at the feet of the Rabbi (both Yeshua and the one Sheparding the Congregation). Thankfully, we are allowed to make that decision; we can opt out without any problems because parents are seen as the final authority in the child’s life-based especially in Deut. 6:4-9 but found elsewhere- by the Leadership.

Nehemiah 8:2 And Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation, both men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

This verse is one of my favorites in this regards as not only does it show us that, after the Israelites who’d been scattered and had lost who they were, requested to hear the Torah. The priest read it and interpreted to ALL who could understand it; as a result of hearing the Word of G-d (which increases faith) these whole families were renewed and then there was a revival.

Shalom,

Rachel

I didn’t weigh in on the previous discussion because I hadn’t yet had a chance to watch the video. I’ve done so now and must say I’m a bit “divided” on it.

First, we are a family that started examining these things when we began preparing to homeschool our little ones. It was very much like Sonya often describes as the unraveling of a sweater. When you start questioning the status quo of education there are a lot of other areas of life that become up for grabs too.

Our decision was that it was far better to integrate our children and there were great benefits in doing so:

• We all hear the same teaching and can reinforce that at home.
• Our children benefit from interacting with people of all ages. They become part of the larger church body as a whole and enjoy its fellowship and accountability.
• Peer pressure is pretty much a non-issue.
• We wanted activities for our children that helped them grow rather than foster immaturity.
• We believe that starting little kids out in nursery and children’s church programs actually makes it harder to integrate them into the church service when they are older because it sets up a fun vs boring comparison.
• Older folks get to fulfil their Biblical duty to teach the younger.
• We would rather have our children influenced by mature, Godly people, than by a group of their clueless peers.
• We had rejected the way public schools teach in favor or not only homeschooling, but a CM approach. So why would we want to subject our children to inferior classroom methods for Bible teaching, the most important educaton they will receive?
• We do Biblical teaching at home so we had no need for the programs. Plus, we want to encourage other parents to do the same rather than shirk their duty and pass their kids off to someone else. 
• A lot of kid’s materials used in churches is dumbed-down twaddle. We know kids are capable of more and we wanted our children to get a good solid Biblical education.

Unfortunately, Divided doesn’t really touch on very much of that. It starts with a look at the abuses of some church youth programs then moves on to the filmmaker’s journey as he travels around “discovering” the pagan roots of some of the educational system that have been adopted into churches.

I put “discovering” in quotes because I find that aspect of the film totally disingenuous. “Discover” and “discovery” are also used repeatedly in the description on the back of the DVD and on the website. However, everyone involved in the film already believed these things and had long been trained in them and participated in efforts to teach them.

For example, Divided was written and produced by Peter Bradrick, who first interned, then worked for Vision Forum and currently works for Scott Brown’s organization, the National Center for Family Integrated Churches (NCFIC). He’s also married to Scott’s daughter.

So the filmmaker, who was also grounded in the same circles, didn’t go out to discover those things. Rather, he set out to make a pre-determioned point. There’s nothing wrong with making your point, but it seems contrived because of the attempt to hide it in “discovery”.

That said, the film is fairly well written, well told, and looks great. I think it overgeneralizes and glosses over some of its arguments as cut and dried when there is probably more discussion to be had. It makes most of its arguments from history rather than Biblically, which makes them weaker.

So as someone who strongly believes that there are huge benefits to an integrated approach, I find the film to be a bit weak, but with value in opening discussions about excesses in some church programs and the importance of the parental role.

And that is all just my opinion so feel free to take it or leave as you wish.

Doug, I so agree with what you said about the merrits of Integrated worship and also what you said about the movie.  While I think there’s definitely a problem with lots of youth groups, I think that the book Already Gone does a much better job of  examining the root of the problem and workable solutions.  I also like all the research cited (being from a political background and highly valuing polling).  I think Already Gone may help win more converts to Integrated Churches than this documentary even though the ultimate goal of Already Gone is not integrated churches.  If you haven’t read Already Gone yet, I really encourage it, as it can be helpful in encouraging skeptical spouses to make the switch and it can also be encouraging to those that might just want to “change the system” of doing things within their traditional church so that more children are clinging to the Lord when they leave the home.

Blessings,

Rebekah

I posted Part 1 yesterday afternoon. If you click on my name, you’ll be directed to the post. I’m still working on Part 2, in which I’ll include Doug’s bulleted list. I’m predicting one of two responses: Either no one will comment because it’s too touchy of a subject, OR people will comment on how it’s not necessarily correct and children’s/youth ministries do serve a purpose. Oh well…sigh…I can’t please everyone!

I’m not sure where the idea of “divided” assemblies came from, to be honest. In the congregations of faithful Churches of Christ all of the Body assembles together for worship. I thought this was a great article about training our children to pay attention during worship. After all, that is the purpose of assembling together on the Lord’s day…to worship 🙂 AND…if the assembly is divided up then wouldn’t that be dis-assembling?

https://cozortscontemplations.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/children-in-the-assembly/