See good youth group leadership in action…Usapang Worship - Everyone needs to watch this. | Facebook
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I enjoyed the video. I have always told my sons “just because you were born on third base doesn’t mean that you hit a triple” I don’t see any religion especially Christianity in America in helping with inequality.
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Well, you can’t find what you don’t expect to! Here’s just a couple local examples, in my hometown.
https://scarletroad.org/
Promoting equality" is a fundamentally Christian value, but organized parachurch efforts are not always so easy to find.
I never fit in at youth group. I was wanted as a drummer but didn’t attend enough to play. I was reading William Lane Craig and then would go to youth group, and basically just heard “don’t have sex till you’re married” in 50 different formats, and then my youth pastor would lecture on the evils of non-Christian music (I was just getting into Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pearl Jam, etc. so it was just a lot of feelings of “being a bad Christian,”.), then make fart jokes. I also had already shifted out of young earth creationism and then out of premillenial dispensationalism. I usually thought I was listening to a bunch of bunk, but was afraid to speak up. All my really good friends were from my school, not my church.
I don’t know what a youth group should do with a kid like me. Granted, I was in a very nerdy minority. In Orthodoxy, I think I would have done much better. I probably would have felt comfortable asking any question I wanted. Anyways, Evangelicalism’s youth group pizza parties and whatnot didn’t keep me in the church. They drove me away.
Youth need a loving, empathetic pastor who actually teaches theology and apologetics and knows his or her material, and isn’t afraid to talk about ANYTHING. Movies and pizza are fine once those are in place. Also, helping the poor is a good idea! But I never went to those functions because I didn’t like anyone other than like 1 person in my youth group and didn’t want to have to talk to them.
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Preach it brother – What soured me on youth groups as a 16yr old was listening to a leader drone on about the evils of Metallica because the song “Master of Puppets” was about drug use. So I go back and spend some time learning the lyrics only to discover that the song is actually about the dangers/evils of drug use… Raise a question to leader and was dismissed. Used every excuse and opportunity under the sun to NOT go to youth group for the rest of my high school career.
This is exactly why I’ve helped found Crosswise at my university. We intentionally planned it as a high school youth conference for misfit youth group members, sometimes to the dismay of those that educate future youth group leaders!
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So sad. Hetfield writes a song where alcohol talks and he talks back to it, and the Christian doesn’t get the metaphor.
Same story with the “God that Failed.” What God? Not the Christian God. The God of his mother’s religion that wouldn’t allow any medicine to be used to heal his mother’s sickness.
And “Fade to Black” isn’t any darker than anything in Ecclesiastes or the Psalms.
Same story with Iron Maiden. 666 is NOT promoting devil worship, it’s simply ABOUT book of Revelation type stuff. Maybe if Falwell would have prayed for bands like this rather than lecturing on their evils, Nicko McBrian would have become a Christian even sooner!
It was a joy to walk into an ACNA Parish and hear the rector recommending Pulp Fiction to a parishioner. Haha. No more shame for liking good rather than bad imitation art.
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Off topic, but…
2 Christian bands I’m glad I DID find:
Petra- They were better than Boston in the eighties, and better than Bon Jovi/Def Leopard in their next phase. Bob Hartman is one of the greatest guitarists ever and Greg X Volz’s voice can go to some very scary awesome places.
Neal Morse/Neal Morse Band- He’s made 4 masterpieces- Testimony, One, Similtude of a Dream and The Great Adventure. For a Genesis or Yes fan, he’s a modern dream come true.
That’s all.
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Impossible.
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Check out the albums “More Power to Ya” and “Never Say Die” for their more classic rock type stuff and “Beyond Belief” for their more 80sish vibe. Their singer changed with Beyond Belief but it’s still good.
They’re all on Spotify
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Wow, not only does Peaceful Science have fun, smart people but also people who like good music!
I was just whining to my wife the other day, that despite some great words, all Christian music in the last 20 years is either horrible or has the same “worshipy” sound. I was doing this while downloading Petra to my iphone.
I’m not a youth pastor, but I’ve been working with youth and leading youth groups for the last 25 years or so. I’m not a fan of the way most youth ministry is done. Most of it is fluff and keeping the kids amused. I’ve been thinking recently about how to use some of the discussions here in the context of a youth / young adult group.
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I’ll check 'em out but Christian music just isn’t my thing.