A new documentary DVD sponsored by The National Center for Family-Integrated Churches, is beginning to make some waves. Divided: Is Modern Youth Ministry Multiplying or Dividing the Church? explores the pitfalls and problems of how we’ve done church for the last thirty to forty years (and more). You can watch the entire 54 minute DVD online through September. I have the video embedded below, but you may want to click through to watch it full size on Vimeo.com.
I found the DVD thought provoking and definitely worth my time in watching. Age segregation is a new concept in the church, and has only been around in the last hundred years or more. There is a strong argument to be made that it has contributed to many of the problems in the church.
The documentary interviews current youth ministry gurus, youth ministers with misgivings, and former youth ministers. Also included are interviews of church leaders in the Family-Integrated movement such as Douglas Phillips, Scott Brown, and Voddie Baucham, Jr. as well as other leaders less known for their preference for Family-Integrated churches, like R.C. Sproul, Jr., Ken Ham and Paul Washer.
The movie itself flows at a nice pace, tracing the investigation of Philip Leclerc into the problems surrounding youth ministry in the church. The filming is superb and well-planned, interesting shots abound. The setting of the interviews also are visually appealing and the whole movie is a great production. The Leclrerc brothers criss-cross the country interviewing leaders and digging into this problem.
Still, after all the interviews and the questions have been presented, I don’t think the case against modern youth ministry is as fool proof as the documentary claims. At our church, children age 5 and up sit with us in the worship service and that alone contrasts with what many churches do. We have age segregated Sunday School classes, but also foster a unity in spirit throughout the church cross-generationally. More could be done though. And just opening eyes to the questions in this debate can make a big impact.
I recommend you take the time to watch Divided. You may want to pick up a copy of the movie to have it in your library and show it to your church leaders. Learn more about Divided at DividedtheMovie.com. You can purchase a copy of this movie direct from the movie’s website, or through Amazon.com.
If you’ve seen this, or if you take the time to watch it, please join the discussion. Let us know what you think.
Official Divided the Movie (HD Version) from NCFIC on Vimeo.
Completely agree with this appraisal. To fully make the case would take hours of Scripture exposition, delving into the historical background of modern educational methods, and debating years of research in this area, but Leclerc did a fine job of raising viable questions and offering a variety of perspectives.
Thank you very much for sharing. It is refreshing to step outside my normal “counselors” and see some of my deep questions of ministry philosophy addressed. It’s good to know others are questioning and finding their absolute authority in the Scriptures, rather than simply in tradition. A wise friend of mine says tradition is not wrong until it takes the place of authority. Praise the Lord for the sufficiency and supremacy of the Word of God.
Thanks for the positive replies. I don’t think that eliminating age-segregation is necessarily the cureall for churches today. It’s more complicated than that. But critically evaluating what we all accept as standard practice, is always a good thing. Several valid points are raised by the video, and its worth thinking through, that’s for sure.
Note: Tim Challies gives the movie a harsh review ,a href=”http://www.challies.com/dvd-reviews/divided-the-movie”>here. I share some of Tim’s concerns, but I don’t think the movie is as bad as he makes it out to be. Some balance is needed, and no, age-segregation is not a direct result of evolutionary theory. Still, it would do us good to reevaluate our practices. It’s too easy to just throw the whole movie out as a baby with its bathwater. Sift through the rhetoric and discern the underlying concerns. I think you can do that with this movie and learn even if you don’t agree with everything.
One of the Free churches in Lousiville applies a moderate form of age-integration. However, the key for them is that this church doesn’t (falsely) claim that age-based organization is a sin.
It is this exact point that the FIC movement is schismatic. They cloud up their rhetoric a bit, because they know that outright calling something a “sin” is so stark, but that’s what their claims amount to, as far as I can see. It is a far greater sin to call something “contrary to the will of God” when it isn’t. That makes one a false prophet. They quote all sorts of verses about family, but none of their torrent of proof-texts proves that age-based organization is a sin.
Their claims that organizing education by means of age-groups leads to apostasy, or that it’s rooted in humanism and Darwinism, is ridiculous. Age-organizing is an administrative technique, nothing more. Instead of splitting churches over this (which is what they’re actually doing), they should be dealing with issues of curriculum and instruction.
Jesus said that a student will become like his teacher. So if our students are abandoning the faith in droves, I’m going to say, look at heir teachers! Start with the droves of false conversions fostered by fundamental churches who use the Sinner’s Prayer or A-B-C methods of evangelism. There’s a lot more damage being done by Bible-less curriculum from GROUP, and immature, lukewarm leaders, than something as trivial as whether middle-schoolers do things together.
Jack,
I agree with your observations. There are so many other things to harp about. Still how we do church is important and it is assumed by so many people. It’s important to critically think through all aspects of church. I think good questions are raised in the video, but I’m not necessarily advocating their solution as a be-all end-all for all churches.
I think Challies was initially offended by the documentarian’s pose of “searching neutrality” taken by LeClerc (when LeClerc is actually an invested supporter of the Family Integrated Church Movement). Then the rest of the movie’s pseudo-intellectual foolishness just made his mood go from bad to worse.
Also: there is a fat cluster of other problems connected to Vision Forum, that connect up to FIC like a noxious little daisy chain of legalism and false teachings. Paternal ownership of daughters; teaching that women working in the workplace is a sin; teaching that young women going to college is a sin; and a dangerous sympathy for the neo-Confederacy movement.
While I agree that fathers need discipleship in leading their families, I’m certainly not convinced that ditching all children’s ministry is the answer. What I have seen over the years though are Churches having so many classes and age related activities that the parents trying to be part of it all have ended up letting the Church raise their kids because the parents are being pulled away to various church meetings that require child care. Many years ago, our family was actually a part of a church that did just that… Imagine my surprise to see Jeanne Mayo in the film. Pastor Sam Mayo was our pastor when we lived in Nebraska and Jeanne led one of the most amazing teenage/young adult ministries I have ever encountered.
I thought the film was a starting point to raise good questions, but the proposed solution raises too many questions….The big one being, what would the outcome have been if we hadn’t “done church” this way…? That is something we will never know… If you view the world from a Calvinistic viewpoint and truly believe in Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints we should evaluate our youth ministries and other programs that tend to separate families (not just during Sunday Service) make changes if indicated and praise God for His saving grace that is still effective where it is poured out.
I’ve never seen an FIC proponent call “age-segregation” a sin. They mostly just point out that it has no biblical warrant.
Hey, Bob,
I think the concern with “Divided” (from Challies, Pastor Shawn Mathis, myself and others) comes not just with the movie itself, but with the entire NCFIC “confession.” If you take the time to read it, and look at the scripture passages it cites for supporting texts, it’s some agregiously bad exegesis that I don’t think would pass first year seminary class.
Anyway, I also found it slightly humorous that you are a Reformed fundamentalist, but found this movie overall worthwhile … seems to me the NCFIC movement borders on legalistic and fundametalist. Would you agree, based on their confession?
In His service,
“Cricket”
“No Biblical warrant” is at best a meaningless phrase; light bulbs and peanut butter don’t have biblical warrant, either. Scott Brown’s organization does call it a sin, a charge which reveals theological incompetence (to add to their historical and philosophical incompetence).
A method or practice does not need to be explicitly approved in the Bible, to be acceptable. It just needs not to be forbidden. Luther was right in this principle, the Puritans were wrong.
I agree with you Jack, on the express forbidding vs. express approval. I think there are good points to be raised by Divided, but I don’t know enough about them to declare them legalistic or fundamentalist….