Why Can’t We Have it Both Ways?

People often ask me, “Why can’t we have it both ways – the best of both worlds - age segregation in the church and fathers teaching and leading their homes?”

The answer is, “why would we want it both ways when scripture only presents one way?”

There are not “two ways” in scripture - only one way. Scripture shows age integrated discipleship in the church and fathers as the primary leaders and teachers of their families – that is all you see in scripture regarding the discipleship of children. We reject the pattern of age segregation in the church because God never gave us youth groups or age segregated discipleship in scripture. We borrowed this from the world.

And what about the “best” of both worlds? Our current age segregated youth ministry driven discipleship is giving us a 90% attrition rate, unchristian lifestyles, and rampant immorality. This is another reason why we must let God define “best” and trust him with the results of our obedience.