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| Why I am not Rah-Rah Over the Campus Missionary Movement (At Least Not as We Know It) |
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| Written by Admin | ||||||
| Tuesday, 11 December 2007 | ||||||
Page 4 of 4 But that is not the agenda of the school. Their vision is to educate students and they need all the help possible to help them achieve that. We see the "tribe" gathered in one location which gives us easier opportunities. The school sees the "tribe" gathered as their responsibility and they are already fighting losing battles with attitudes, violence, and apathy. Just to name a few. Some schools want help from the church, but it is not in the form of a Bible club. As Steven McFarland, former executive director of the Christian Legal Society's Center for Law and Religious Freedom said, "I've had a lot of calls about how to get by the schoolhouse gate in order to share their faith, or get kids to come to a Friday night concert, or have an assembly where we sneak the gospel in at the end. But in nine years I have never had a single call from a pastor, a youth minister or a parachurch ministry asking me what the First Amendment will allow them to do to help their local public school." (Joseph Loonte, "Bullet Proofing Our Schools...With Faith." Citizen, April 2000). I would love to see our Bible clubs take one day a month and do something for the school. That could be one of numerous ideas and all do not involve picking up trash. What's Being Done to Help the Number One Issue Barna Research Group wrote a recent report entitled Third Millennium Teens. They found the top-rated issue for teens these days is educational achievement. This is a different top need from the Busters. For the Mosaics (as Barna refers to them), no other issue comes close. Group Magazine ran a poll among their summer Group Workcamp youth. Their number one concern was school grades. ("A Really Big Big Survey We Did" Group Magazine, May/June 2000). We have teenagers who are students first, missionaries second. We can focus on switching that around or we can somehow support their number one issue. How can Bible clubs help meet this need since they are on school grounds and students are coming fresh from classes? Culturally White Movement From all sides observing, this is a culturally white movement. I've been asking all over and the culturally black church has a different approach towards education and the school. They see education as a way up and out. They use youth ministry as another infrastructure to support education. According to George Barna, "Black pastors have a spiritual agenda, to be sure, but in most cases it is impossible to separate that agenda from the political and service responsibilities they embrace." (George Barna, "African Americans & Their Faith." Barna Research Group, 1999). Then there are the Hispanic and Asian churches. That is a lot of students who are potential club members or campus missionaries. However, this movement is not a burden to these churches. They have other ministry priorities. The culturally white church has had an unspoken attitude of "we'll carry the minority churches because we have the resources." The only problem is that these churches are not asking to be carried. They have different ideas of youth ministry. May Become Obsolete Mark Senter also said, "The concept of campus ministry may become obsolete." (Mark Senter, Ibid.) This thought is prefaced with the changes happening in education. Even-though education is a dinosaur in many similarities, technology and the school voucher issue is causing change. This statement from Mark Senter should not be dismissed but pondered. Conclusion There are good things happening in our public schools. I hope I have given you many things to think about as you have that desire to reach as many teenagers as possible and build on these good things. I'm not even dismissing the entire "campus missionary" movement. My hope is that at least one or two of these points will help you as you form your mission plan to reach the high school tribe for Christ. |
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