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"Mutant form of Christianity" - Teens Becoming Fake Christians
Here is another article , this time from CNN, on the demise of youth in the church today. The author begins, “If you're the parent of a Christian teenager, Kenda Creasy Dean has this warning: Your child is following a "mutant" form of Christianity, and you may be responsible.... She says this "impostor'' faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches."'
Big news from the IndoctriNation film project: $10,000 Matching Funds Opportunity!
One of the men in our church is producing a documentary film entitled "IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America" and will be hitting the road next week in a big yellow school bus with the homeschool family of filmmaker Colin Gunn and a small film crew. They will be traveling from Texas to Massachusetts and documenting the American tragedy of compulsory, statist education and its devastating effects on our faith, our families and our freedom.
A very generous donor has offered to match the next round of donations up to $10,000, which means that every dollar donated toward the production of the film will effectively be doubled. If you feel moved to donate to this important worldview and culture war project, this is the time to do it!
To make a donation and to watch a trailer for the film, visit www.indoctrinationmovie.com.
Florida Megachurch Ends Age-Segregated Worship
We have observed that there is broad discussion in the mainstream church regarding age segregation. Pastors who now embrace at least some of the principles of the sufficiency of scripture are questioning the practice like never before. I believe that in the next decade, we will see thousands of established churches abandon age segregation. I don't believe that this Florida church has abandoned age segregation in it's normal programming or youth ministry, but have at least on one level, have addressed it in the main worship gathering of the church.
The church, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, "recognized that many churches in the U.S. are following the lead of the advertising world by targeting specific age groups and employing the separate contemporary and traditional worship services model."
"'That may be good business but it's bad worship; it's bad church,' he stated plainly."
Outlining what we believe is the most important problem of age segregation in the church, he spoke of the unity of the body of Christ,
"He listed some of the drawbacks of segregated worship. In a traditional worship service, the church inadvertently communicates that God was more active in the past that He is in the present, he said. In a contemporary service, the church communicates that God is more active in the present than He was in the past. But a church must communicate God's 'timeless activity,' he indicated."
It was interesting that he made an unusual connection with racial segregation,
"The megachurch pastor also said he doesn't view separate worship services by style or age as any different from racial segregation, except that it's more subtle."
Hymn Writer Cowper - A Poem Against Age Segregated Public Education - 1784
William Cowper, friend of John Newton, the great hymn writer and poet was against age segregation and the rise of public schools. He wrote a VERY long poem in 1784 called, Tirocinium: A Review of Schools. Here he declares himself against public age segregated education. In the poem he identifies the foolishness of the kind of education that contradicts the Bible.
Here are some excerpts to give you a general feel for his message,
And, common sense diffusing real day,
The meteor of the gospel dies away. Such rhapsodies our shrewd discerning youth
Learn from expert inquirers after truth;
Whose only care, might truth presume to speak,
Is not to find what they profess to seek.
And thus, well tutored only while we share
A mother’s lectures and a nurse’s care;
And taught at schools much mythologic stuff
But sound religion sparingly enough
Our early notices of truth, disgraced,
Soon lose their credit, and are all effaced.
Would you your son should be a sot or dunce,
Lascivious, headstrong, or all these at once;
That in good time the stripling’s finished taste
For loose expense, and fashionable waste,
Should prove your ruin, and his own at last;
Train him in public with a mob of boys,
Childish in mischief only and in noise,
Else of a manish growth, and five in ten
In infidelity and lewdness men.
There shall he learn, ere sixteen winters old,
Tha authors are most usful pawned or sold;
That pedantry is all that schools impart,
But taverns teach the knowledge of the hart,
There waiter Dick, with Bacchanalian lays,
Shall win his heart, and have his drunken praise,
His counsellor and bosom friend shall prove,
And some street-pacing harlot his first love.
Schools, unless discipline were doubly strong,
Detain their adolescent charge too long;
The management of tyros of eighteen
Is difficult; their punishment obscene….
For public schools tis public folly feeds.
The slaves of custom and established mode,
With packhorse constancy we keep the road,
Cooked or straigh, through quags or thorny dells,
True to the jingling of our leader’s bells.
To follow foolish precedent, and wind
With both our eyes, is easier than to think;…
That youth takes pleasure in, to please his boy;
Then why why resign into a stranger’s hand
A task as much withing your own command,
That God and nature, and your interest too,
Seem with one voice to delegate to you?
We hire a lodging in a house unknown
For one whose tenderest thoughts all hover round your own?
Alas poor boy! – the natural effect
Of love by absence chilled into respect,
Say, what accomplishments, at school acquired,
Brings he, to sweeten fruits so undesired?
Thou well deserv’st an alienated son,
Unless thy conscious heart acknowledge – none;
None that, in thy domestic snug recess,
He has not made his own with more address,
Though some, perhaps, that shock thy feeling mind,
And better never learned, or left behind….”
And seems it nothing in a father’s eye,
That unimproved those many moments fly?
And is he will content his son should find
No nourishment to feed his growing mind
But conjugated verbs, and nouns declined?
For such is all the mental food purveyed
By public hackneys in the schooling trade;
Who feed a pupil’s intellect with store
Of Syntax. Truly, but with little more;
Dismiss themselves when they dismiss their flock,
Machines themselves, and governed by a clock.
To form thy son, to strike his genius forth;
Beneath thy roof, beneath thine eye, to prove
The force of discipline, when backed by love;
To double all thy pleasure in thy child,
His mind informed, his morals undefiled.
Safe under such a wing, the boy shall show
No spots contracted among grooms blow,
Nor taint his speech with meannesses, designed
By footman Tom for witty and refined.
There, in his commerce with the liv’ried herd,
Lurks the contagion chiefly to be feared”
Pull down the schools – what! – all the schools in the land;
Or throw them up to livery-nags and grooms,
Or turn them into shops and auction rooms.
Voddie Baucham Weighs in on Andreas Kostenbergers Chapter on FIC
Voddie ends his piece with these words, "One day someone is going to write an accurate assessment of the FIC. They are going to visit actual churches, talk to actual members and leaders, listen to actual sermons, and interact with actual statements. Unfortunately, today is not that day."
Absolute Dependence
Jonathan Edwards points out one of the wonderful effects of true awakening on people in the church - a sense of absolute dependence.
"The drift of the Spirit of God in his legal strivings with persons, has seemed most evidently to be, to make way for, and to bring to, a conviction of their absolute dependence on his sovereign power and grace, and universal necessity of a Mediator, by leading them more and more to a sense of their exceeding wickedness and guiltiness in his sight; the pollution and insufficiency of their own righteousness, that they can in no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and righteous in rejecting them, and all that they do, and in casting them off forever: though there be a vast variety as to the manner and distinctness of persons convictions of these things." (Pg. 70, 71, The Jonathan Edwards Reader, Yale Nota Bene)
Two Effects of Awakening
Jonathan Edwards who personally experienced unusual seasons of awakening shows two effects as a pattern for awakenings,
“These awakenings when they have first seized on persons have had two effects: one was, that they have brought them immediately to quit their sinful practices, and the looser sort have been brought to forsake and dreaded heir former vices and extravagancies. When once the Spirit of God began to be so wonderfully poured out in a general way through the town, people had soon done with their old quarrels,backbitings, and intermeddling with other men's matters; the tavern was soon left empty, and persons kept very much at home; none went abroad unless on necessary business, or on some religious account, and every day seemed in many respects like a Sabbath day. And the other effect was that it put them on earnest application to the means of salvation - reading, prayer meditation, the ordinances of God's house, and private conference, their cry was "What shall we do to be saved?" The place of resort was now altered it was no longer the tavern, but the minister's house, that was thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be.” (Pg. 68, The Jonathan Edwards Reader, Yale Nota Bene)
Marriage Weekend Starts Tomorrow
Tomorrow we start our marriage gathering and I am getting more excited by the hour. At this gathering we promote an intentional lifestyle that, prepares children for Gospel centered marriages. We begin the conference at the beginning - with the biblical doctrine of marriage, and how knowing and living it is the best marriage preparation you can give to your children. Once this is established, we answer dozens of practical questions regarding the marriages of our sons and daughters.
For example,
How do you make a marriage for the glory of God?
How do you equip children to be ready for marriage?
How do you help children identify potential spouses?
How do you connect with others who may be potential marriage partners?
How should young people should treat one another in the church?
How do you encourage young men to ready themselves during their single years?
How do you deploy and encourage your daughters during their single years?
How to prepare sons for headship in marriage?
What principles should be followed before the wedding day or before what people refer to as “courtship,” “engagement,” and “betrothal?” What do these terms mean and how should we think about them?
How do you conduct yourself while planning the wedding?
How do you become a godly in-law?
We pray that the legacy of our time together would result in the strengthening of our marriages and the forming of marriages among our children for the glory of God for many generations.
Nations are Nothing but a Collection of Families
In a day of extreme individualism and neglect of family life principles, it often helps to hear voices from the past. J. C. Ryle, in his commentary on the gospel of Matthew, writes about the extreme importance of families:
"It is difficult to overrate the importance of these two subjects. The well-being of nations, and the happiness of society, are closely connected with right views upon them. Nations are nothing but a collection of families. The good order of families depends entirely on keeping up the highest standard of respect for the marriage tie, and on the right training of children. We ought to be thankful, that on both these points, the great Head of the Church has pronounced judgment so clearly." – J. C. Ryle
Check Justin Taylors Blog - Kostenberger on the Family-Integrated Church Movement
Justin Taylor recently posted an excerpt from the new chapter on the family integrated church movement in Andraeus Kostenbergers latest revision of God, Marriage and Family.
"While we share a deep conviction as to the importance of the family, we are committed to the biblical foundation for marriage and the family, and this includes a sound grasp of the New Testament teaching regarding the church. It is our tentative assessment that the family-integrated approach as defined below has elevated the family to an unduly high status that is unwarranted in light of the biblical teaching on the subject and that its view of the church as a “family of families” is not sufficiently supported by Scripture."
Statements like this come from people who have not done their homework and who disregard the true positions of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches. Read the Comments thread in Justin Taylors blog for illumination.
The truth is, the family-integrated church movement is being led primarily by confessional baptists and Presbyterians who understand and preach the centrality of the gospel, the importance of the local church and who also who are attempting to honor the only explicitly biblical pattern of discipleship which is age-integrated.
Not so Pure Yet...
Jonathan Edwards notes that no matter how wonderful and transforming awakenings are, there is still resident sins and the common human weaknesses that follow us, which may cause stimulate scorn among onlookers,
“We are not so pure, but that we have great cause to be humbled and ashamed that we are so impure; not so religious, but that those that watch out for halting may see things in us whence they may take occasion to reproach us and religion: but in the main, there has been a great and marvelous work of conversion and sanctification among the people here; and they have paid all due respects to those who have been blessed of God to be in instruments of it. Both old and young have shown a forwardness to hearken not only to my counsels, but even to my reproofs from the pulpit.” (Pg. 86, The Jonathan Edwards Reader, Yale Nota Bene)
Man Abased and God Exalted
We want nothing but to behold the glory of God and to see him exalted by all, and everywhere, to be happy. When I read the descriptions of the heavenly world, I see nothing so prominent as these two great truths: Man abased and God exalted….Behold! ‘what hath God wrought?’ – Gardiner Spring, quoted in Iain Murray, Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858, p. 345
Life of Washington Tour, Sept. 6 - 11
In September, Hope Baptist Church is traveling to study the history of this country around the time of the founding fathers by considering the life of George Washington. By putting people on a bus together, we have an opportunity to encourage and fellowship together as we examine God's providential hand in history. Because we still have some open seats, we are opening it up to other people who would like to join us. It is an opportunity to see places like Philadelphia, Trenton, Mount Vernon and much more. The trip is from September 6th to 11th. We leave early Monday morning from Wake Forest and return Saturday afternoon. The cost is $200 per adult and $175 per child. Lap children are free. This does not include the hotel which is approximately $65 per room per night, but it does include all transportation, entrance fees and all the meals except for three dinners. If it would be beneficial to you and your family, please come join us. You can view the schedule or a brochure and sign up here. The deadline for registering is August 30.
The Unbiblical Morass of Modern Youth Ministry
Tracking the downfall of modern youth ministry is regularly in the news today, and even mainstream news outlets seem to think that it is big enough news to report on it. Today, the Wall Street Journal helps to chronicle the unbiblical morass that characterizes much of modern youth ministry. Of course there is a reform movement in youth ministry that seeks to be God centered and so you can't lump all into one. But the WSJ piece entitled, "The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity," reveals the philosophical center of much of youth ministry that is disconnected from biblical government. The author declares, "'How can we stop the oil gusher?' may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.
Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn't megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church.
Increasingly, the "plan" has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called "the emerging church"—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too "let's rethink everything" radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity's image and make it "cool"—remains."
Teens Tell Churches - Bye Bye - Forget your Pizza Parties
The collapse of modern youth ministry is reaching legendary proportions and people want to talk about how to fix it. Nearly everyone agrees it is severely broken, but not everyone has the same answer. USA Today reporters Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg have an article documenting one of the current challenges - shrinking youth groups and a shrinking youth summer camp industry.
They report, "Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in."
Seemingly, even the high octane entertainment is not enough, "'Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook,' says Barna president David Kinnaman."
The problem for churches, who have built their ministries on youth groups is significant. "Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It's the age teens typically drop out," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. "A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They're not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, 'We don't see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.' "
A Nation In the Jaws of the Culture of Death - 2% of all Dutch Deaths Caused by Euthanasia
In a startling report, the Globe and Mail says that death by euthanasia has risen 13% during the last year and now makes up fully 2% of all deaths in the country. They are now considering "End of Life Clinics" or dedicated euthanasia hospitals.
How Sovereign Is God?
Here Spurgeon speaks on how sovereign God actually is,
"I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—
that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens—
that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.
The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—
the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche."
Congregations Gone Wild - Bending the Church to the Cravings of Man
The New York Times recently reported on a phenomena - Congregations Gone Wild - in church life that is causing turmoil in churches and hardship among ministers. The author, Jeffrey MacDonald says that the heart of the matter is, "congregational pressure to forsake one's highest calling." It stems from churches which have become so user and consumer friendly that they bow to pressure to provide what the consumers want - entertainment. It is marked by "theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the people."
The result is pastors often have to choose between the calling of God and the preferences of people who have corrupt affections. It is problematic because you have churches that are not governed by the affections of God, but by the affections of men who cry out for specific cravings, "give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we’ll get our spiritual leadership from someone else."
The Duty of the Sabbath
Steve Breagy delivers a message on the duty of keeping the Lord's Day.
Resources Available for Love the Church
Love the Church Conference Registration is now open. If you would like to help us promote the LTC Conference, the following are some resources that you may give to your friends or use in your local church.
(Right Click and Select "Save Link As" to Download)
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Flyer (8.5x11) |
Poster (24x36 |
A School Principal's Letter of Resignation
My friend Mike Metarko recently resigned his post as principal of Hanover Elementary School in Bethlehem, PA.
His resignation letter tells the story of why he would do such a radical thing and abandon what has been his livelihood for many years.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is with strong conviction that I write this letter as my formal resignation effective Thursday, July 1, 2010 from my position as Principal of Hanover Elementary School, where I have devoted the last five of my 14 years in the Bethlehem Area School District. Though there is no job at present to which I will be going, God has clearly persuaded me through His Word and through my research into the foundations of our educational system that I must end my career in public education.
For the last fourteen years, I have worked diligently to be the “salt and light” spoken of in Matthew 5:13, but I have realized that while I am plugging up pinholes in the dike that holds back the tumultuous waters of public education, the improperly laid foundation has been eroding beneath our feet. God states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7a). This means that neither God nor moral character can be separated from true education; in fact, the glorification of God and the building of Biblical moral character must be the basis of true education. In the words of Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, “We profess to be republicans [in form of government], and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.”
But what have we done? We have thrown God, Bibles and prayer out of our schools based upon an inaccurate interpretation of the “Separation clause”, while openly proselytizing the religion of Secular Humanism (Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County, Ala). We have divorced morality from education and focused only on what special interest groups perceive as the “right” content knowledge. We manage the masses at the expense of the individual. As with most educators in the system, I have been sincere in my efforts to apply the doctrines of those we call the founding fathers of education, but I have realized that I have been sincerely wrong. My research into the real philosophies and beliefs behind men such as Rousseau, Dewey, Hall, etc. has opened my eyes. I am now aware that not only have I not been working for God, I have been working in complete opposition to Him. I mistakenly thought I was on neutral ground: there is no neutral territory.
That said; let me assure you that my argument is not against those I have worked with for the past 14 years. I have a love for my colleagues and friends; most are wonderful teachers of a curriculum they have been given, most truly love the children and will do anything for them, most sincerely try to improve our children, our city, our nation. But we have all taken our eye off the mark of what the chief end of man is. The nation’s statist system of public education is the real issue.
The Bible is overwhelmingly clear in that the primary responsibility in educating a child rests with the parents (Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6:4, etc.). We need parents to be parents once again, families to be families once again, fathers to be the father and leader, mothers to be the mother and nurturer. It does not “take a village to raise a child”; it takes a family entrusted with the Word of God. Our children are not to be wards of the State; on the contrary, they are creations of a God of love, justice, and redemption who loves us so much He sent Christ to die for us so that if we believe in Him and profess Him as Lord and Savior, He will grant us eternal life. He does not need us, but we need Him. He has given us the roadmap to life and to education: the Bible. I pray that He may manifest Himself in your life as he has clearly done so in mine.Respectfully,
Michael J. Metarko
Our Marriages and the Marriages of Our Sons and Daughters
We are fast approaching this retreat on August 20-21 and registration is almost full. Click here for more information on this wonderful conference.
For a wonderful place to stay right here in Wake Forest, check out the Lions Gate Inn.
A Controversial Film on the Way: IndoctriNation
IndoctriNation from IndoctriNation on Vimeo.
Check out the website of an upcoming film, IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America, which exposes the true nature of our public education system.
George Whitefield on Education
When I was about twelve, I was placed at a school called St. Mary de Crypt, in Gloucester – the last grammar school I ever went to… And I cannot but here observe, with much concern of mind, how this way of training up youth has a natural tendency to debauch the mind, to raise ill passions and to stuff the memory with things as contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ, as light to darkness, heaven to Hell. However, though the first thing I had to repent of was my education in general…’
The life and Times of George Whitefield, by Arnold Dallimore, p48
In Times of Awakening, Some are Slower
“Others have awakenings that come upon them more gradually; they begin at first to be something more thoughtful and considerate, so as to come to a conclusion in their minds that 'tis their best and wisest way to delay no longer, but to improve the present opportunity; and have accordingly set themselves seriously to meditate on those things that have the most awakening tendency, on purpose to obtain convictions; and so their awakenings have increased, till a sense of their misery, by God's Spirit setting in therewith, has had fast hold of them.” (Pg. 68, The Jonathan Edwards Reader, Yale Nota Bene)
Taylor Tsantles and Blair Brown - Betrothed to be Married
Last Friday, our daughter Blair was betrothed to Taylor Tsantles. The wedding has been scheduled for November 6, 2010.
Many of you have met Taylor because he has traveled extensively with me over the past four years and was the best man in my son David's wedding. He and I have been very close partners in ministry ever since he arrived in Wake Forest. God has given us a very special unity of heart in matters of church and family life and he is always a joy to be around - he is a cheerful and gregarious young man.
He was only thirteen years old when he came to Hope Baptist and from the moment he arrived he and I worked closely together. He is in the web and graphic design business, Steadfast Designs. He has been an intern at Hope Baptist Church and has always proven himself to be consistent with what Paul said young men should be, "in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you." Titus 2:6-8
This is a very special time of joy for the Brown and Tsantles families. Our church family is especially giddy as they have been watching these two seek to glorify the Lord in the days of their youth.
For Temporal and Eternal Security
This past week our family read Psalm 47:4 which tells us of our temporal and eternal security,
"He will choose our inheritance for us."
Persecution - NOT for Righteousness Sake
Mike McKinley of 9 Marks has an important post on persecution that comes for the wrong reason,
He responds to Acts 5:41, saying,
"We read that after the apostles had the tar beaten out of them: Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
As believers, we are necessarilly going to have a lot of distance between us and those who don't follow Christ. We live differently, love differntly, hope differntely. We're citizens of a different country.
But it might be helpful if we limit the distance between us and the world in a lot of other ways. We don't have to flaunt our lack of a TV and be weird and preachy about grinding your own grain. That only serves to put unnecessary distance between us and the people we're trying to reach. Instead, we should try to engage the world around us, know what our neighbors care about, and try to inhabit the same universe they do.
If they are going to persecute us, let us at least be for things that really have something to do with being a Christian."