Help Cub Scout Pack 401…
September 22, 2009
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Announcements, Miscellany, Youth Feedback : comments closed
I don’t normally use Cerulean Sanctum as a forum for causes, nor have I actively solicited. But sadly, due to their stand on moral issues, the Boy Scouts of America have lost some of their funding from public sources. 
As I’m in charge of PR for my son’s pack, I’m doing what I can to support scouting.
My son is a Bear Scout (a Cub Scout designation for boys in third grade) this year and has done well in scouting. Because we live in a rural area hit hard by unemployment and the economic downturn, not many families in our pack are well off, so most of what the pack can do in a year is determined by the proceeds from fundraisers, the biggest being the fall popcorn sales.
If you would like to support my son and Pack 401 of Ohio’s Dan Beard Council, would you consider buying some specialty popcorn? Of the profits on what you purchase, 70 percent goes directly my son’s pack, so it’s a worthy cause.
To support my son and his pack:
1. Go to the Trail’s End popcorn site: www.trails-end.com
2. On the right side of the screen is a box near the top that reads “You are supporting no one.” Click the “Change” link. The box will drop down a menu. The first text area caption reads “Enter Scout ID to support a Scout.”
3. Type in my son’s ID number: 3012076
4. Click the “Continue” button.
5. Select whatever you wish to purchase from the product list.
Your purchase will be shipped to you promptly.
The Boy Scouts of America celebrates 100 years of scouting in 2010, and with your support, we’ll enjoy another 100.
And may God richly bless you!
Tags: Cub Scouts, Fundraiser, Pack 401, Popcorn, The Boy Scouts of AmericaRelated posts
Equipping the Saints: Request for Reader Info
August 5, 2009
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Apologetics, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Godly Character, Leadership, Maturity, Relevance, Youth Feedback : 16 comments
The last couple months at Cerulean Sanctum have seen the discussion turn toward how the American Church makes disciples. In the days ahead, I hope to further unpack this issue and discuss ways that we can achieve better results, not only in leading people to Jesus but also in growing them deep in Him.
Below are a few questions about the nature of the educational process in your church, the larger question being, “How does your church actually make disciples?”
1. What is the general educational philosophy at your church? Has anyone ever stated this philosophy publicly so that the members understand the educational goals of the church?
2. What adult educational programs exist at your church? Which do you participate in? What types of educational materials do those programs use? Have those materials been purchased from a third-party curriculum developer, provided by your church’s denomination, or developed in-house?
3. Does your church use a targeted catechism program to ensure that youth understand the basic doctrines of the faith? If yes, has it been purchased from a third-party curriculum developer, provided by your church’s denomination, or developed in-house? If no, what is your church using instead to ensure Christian maturity in their youth?
4. On a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the greater amount, how much would you say that your church relies on its members to be responsible for their own Christian education (or in other words, how much does your church rely on members to feed themselves spiritually)? In what ways do you believe this number to reflect a strong or weak educational philosophy?
5. What does your church do best in preparing people to be mature Christians? What do they do poorly? What suggestions would you make at improving the educational programs at your church (and please be as specific as possible)?
6. (Updated) How successfully are the members of your church putting into practice what they have learned? In what ways? Do you ever feel your church members increase in knowledge but don’t practice what they know?
Thank you for your time and the willingness to answer these questions. I hope to use them as the basis for my next post.
Have a great remainder of the week!
Tags: Christian Education, Christian Maturity, Discipleship, Education, Reader Input Requested, TeachingRelated posts
Fumbling the Gospel
July 27, 2009
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Apologetics, Boldness, Charismatic, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Discernment, Dying to Self, Evangelism, Faith, Godhead, Godly Character, Heresy, Holiness, Humility, Jesus Christ, Leadership, Maturity, Oddities, Relevance, Revival, Spiritual Warfare, Supernaturalism, The Holy Spirit, Youth Feedback : 30 comments
I would prefer not to start the week with a rant, but this one has been stewing in me for some time, and unless I get it out, it will only nag at me further.
Please read this post today, even if you’re not up for an in-your-face message. And while much of this is aimed at charismatics, it applies to everyone. Because it’s not just charismatics who are missing the point.
I write this today because my heart is just sick with the way we are presenting the Gospel to the lost. I’m writing because our teens are not getting the proper indoctrination into the Faith. I’m writing because I am tired of fellow charismatics who treat the Holy Spirit like a cudgel. I’m writing because a lot of people who “asked Jesus into their heart” are going to hell.
The pastor of my former church linked from Facebook to the following video:
This video, as labeled, purports to show healing revival going on at Disneyland. A group of Christians wanted to pray for strangers at the park. My response: Great! Go for it!
But then the uh-ohs start. You can find one between 40-50 seconds in. Another comes at 4:07-4:20.
There’s a move in some charismatic churches into what has been deemed “power evangelism.” For those not familiar with the term, it involves using the charismata to evangelize people. This includes healing encounters and speaking words of knowledge and prophecy to the lost.
I want to state upfront that I believe power evangelism can be a remarkable tool to lead people to Christ.
But there’s a big “IF” attached to that statement. And part of that if shows at the 4:07 mark.
Power evangelism works if power encounters with the Holy Spirit are immediately followed with the truth of God’s word, the presentation of the Gospel, repentance, and a completely changed life. In that way, people who have genuine power encounters with the Holy Spirit are not just affected by the power encounter, but by the reality of who Jesus is as presented in the Gospel.
When I hear people claiming to be born again because they asked Jesus into their heart, it riles me. Not because Jesus doesn’t dwell in the believer, but because the whole idea of asking Jesus into one’s heart has no biblical basis for salvation.
Paul Washer provides an eloquent counter to this unbiblical concept. I encourage you heartily to watch the whole video. It’s worth it:
Entire churches are dedicated to equipping their youth for power evangelism (such as this well-known example). And while on the surface that sounds awesome, I have enormous reservations.
My key reservation is the same concern shared by Paul Washer: We evangelicals and charismatics no longer understand what the Gospel is. And we don’t understand it because the people who are supposed to be transmitting the truth of the eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ have fallen down on the job, distracted by prosperity teachings, comfort, the American Dream, fun, entertainment, self-help, and even, sad to say, power encounters with the Holy Spirit (the why of which I’ll explain later on).
I think it would be safe to say that the average teen in a charismatic church who may be receiving encouragement to do power evangelism can’t articulate what the real Gospel is. In fact, knowing what I know of youth ministry today, I doubt that most teens in evangelical or charismatic churches could lay out a basic plan of salvation with a half dozen Bible verses in support.
And that’s a crime.
Say a youth group decides to go out and do prophetic prayer ministry at a mall filled with lost people. A few scenarios exist:
1. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person blows them off and walks away. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
2. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched by the prayer, but walks away. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
3. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched, and asks what next to do. Person is told to ask Jesus into his/her heart. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
4. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched, and asks what next to do. Person is told to ask Jesus into his/her heart. That person manages to retain enough interest in the experience to look into it further and, hopefully, stumbles across someone someday who actually explains the real Gospel to them. Result: That person may truly get saved and develop a love relationship with Jesus.
Numbers 1 through 3 are a complete loss, in my opinion, while 4 is the equivalent of fumbling the football and hoping your side recovers the loose pigskin—except in this gridiron classic, there’s not just one team playing against you, but hundreds, if not thousands.
Chances are, these mallwalkers who do bite may taste the fruits of heaven, end up calling themselves Christians, and fall into that netherworld of religiosity dominated by what I call “antiwitnesses.”
Too cynical? Well, I’m not done yet…
If the teens on this prophetic outreach can’t articulate the Gospel, can we be sure they even know what it is? And if they don’t know what it is, then are they truly saved themselves? And if all this is in question, what spirit is driving their power evangelism? Yikes!
(If you think I’m just charismatic bashing, then you’ll have to argue with well-known charismatics Andrew Strom and Derek Prince on these same issues. And for evangelicals, see “10 Reasons to Not Ask Jesus into Your Heart.”)
Youth ministry in this country is in a full-on freefall if we look at its ultimate results. Surveys by many of the most respected Christian pollsters and organizations repeatedly show that the majority of our supposedly born-again young people go into college as Christians and come out as unbelievers. George Barna paints an even bleaker picture, wherein only 0.5% of those ages 18-23 hold what is considered to be a traditional Christian worldview. No matter how you may want to slice and dice Barna’s figure, it’s a tragedy.
Those heartwrenching numbers exist solely because we in the Church today are not instructing our young people in the faith. They don’t know the Gospel. If they did, they wouldn’t be falling away in droves.
Instead, we teach kids who may not know the Gospel how to do power evangelism. Then they go around trumpeting how they’re going to “whack people up with the Holy Spirit.”
Frankly, I’d like to “whack up” whatever heretical “teacher” ever taught someone to talk about the blessed Holy Spirit in such a crass, demeaning way. Godless people speak that way about the members of the Trinity, not those who are indwelt by the genuine Holy Spirit. And for another thing, the Holy Spirit exists to relentlessly point to Jesus, not to Himself. Again, if we don’t know that, we don’t know the Gospel.
Are you mad yet at the foolishness that passes for discipleship and ministry today?
You don’t give a howitzer to a baby, no matter how much they may scream for it. The early Church did not let people go off spiritually half-cocked like we do today. Maturity was lauded and immaturity criticized.
We MUST instruct the immature in the basics of the faith. Any 13-year-old kid who was raised in a church MUST be able to espouse basic doctrine, including the core of the Gospel, in a coherent way. When I was that age, I had to study my Lutheran catechism for hours, do personal Bible study on basic doctrine, and sit through a one-hour, two-on-one grilling on tough issues of the faith by the pastor and youth worker before I was considered an adult member of the church.
We have GOT to get back to that kind of intensive discipleship or this will be the terminal generation of the Church. God will not forever excuse the kind of educational folly we’re practicing in all too many churches before He takes decisive action.
In a bit of sychronicity, I happened to stumble across a likeminded post over at iMonk’s blog, “Higher Things: A New Model of Youth Ministry.” It reads like a breath of fresh air, even if it’s again the Lutherans doing it right. I’m just glad SOMEONE takes ministry to the next generation seriously. Much more power to ‘em.
But as for the rest of us, we’re atrocious at turning our young people into mature Christians. Atrocious. Too many distractions knock us off the core, foundational doctrines.
Power evangelism is incredible when it’s in the hands of people who know the Gospel, can articulate it, and know how to discern good from evil. But that simply is not our young people today.
If we want to undermine the Church in America even more, let’s keep being stupid about discipleship. But God help us then on Judgment Day.
Tags: Character, Charismata, Disciplship, Evangelism, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Maturity, Paul Washer, Power Evangelism, Teaching, Teens, YouthRelated posts
Still Looking for a Few Good Men
March 16, 2009
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Apologetics, Benevolence, Boldness, Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Community, Counterculture, Creation Care, Creativity, Discernment, Dying to Self, Faith, Godly Character, Grace, Holiness, Hospitality, Humility, Joy, Leadership, Love, Maturity, Men, Obedience, Oddities, Perseverance, Prayerfulness, Relevance, Simplicity, Youth Feedback : 17 comments
When I was growing up, it seemed like men were different.
I can’t put my finger on it exactly—and maybe it’s a rose-colored glasses thing tinted by youth and inexperience—but men seemed more serious back in the 1960s than the men of today. Back then, if a man who lived nearby said he’d meet you at 6 p.m. Friday in a neighborhood park to toss a baseball, he would
—actually show up
—actually show up on time
—show you something you didn’t know, like how to throw a curveball or a sinker
—possibly bring you a ball to keep
—tell you, in passing, why alcohol and cigarettes were bad for your health
—watch his language like a hawk
—not even consider any “funny business”
And your parents wouldn’t think twice that you were out alone in a park with a man who was not a relative.
I don’t know if men changed or our ability to trust changed, but it’s not that way anymore.
When I was growing up, there was a sense among all the men that they had a responsibility to boys, even those who were not their own sons. Call it that “tribal” feeling—that men, all men, were charged with ensuring the next generation grew up straight and true, into better men than the generation that spawned them.
God help us—what happened to that ideal?
Back when I was at Wheaton, I wrote a paper on a thesis of my own devising concerning the implications of the loss of rites of passage within the Church. I grew up Lutheran, and to be a full voting member of the church, we had to go through catechism and then be grilled on the Faith by the pastor. These were not lobbed question, either, but stuff like What is the nature of Man? and How does Man relate to His Creator? (Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a kid in your youth group who could thoughtfully answer those questions.)
That rite meant something. When you successfully navigated it, the world changed. Adults expected more of you. You could sit on church boards and make decisi0ns along with the rest of the adults. And the men in the church treated you like one of their own.
Today, we have too many churches who have abandoned rites of passage. And it shows, especially when you consider that some polls have 80-85 percent of Christian teens renouncing their faith by the time they graduate from college. Too many of those “enlightened” graduates go on to be brain-dead party boys who screw everything that moves and live in perpetual childhood. Back when America was largely agrarian, children meant something: the survival of the family. But today, children have no genuine purpose except to be children. So why should we be surprised when today’s child-men never outgrow that perception, never developing into the kind of men some of us older guys still remember. Now, asking callow youth to grow up seems like trying to blow out the sun, given that for 21+ years no one bothered to model for them what a real man, a real Christian man, looks like.
I’d like to think that I was one of those old school guys, like the kind I used to know. But I’m not really. I realize that the ideal started fraying with my generation, that we were the first boys that had an uncertain manhood awaiting us. Feminism was on the march, the drug culture was firing up, and so was the culture of privilege and entitlement. Somewhere along the way, manhood did a nosedive and has not recovered.
Not convinced? Need an example?
I don’t think a better example exists than with the current financial meltdown. If you were to go back to the founding of the investment houses, like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch, those companies were run by real men. If some smart-aleck tried to run subprime-mortgage-backed derivatives past Mr. Goldman, Mr. Sachs, the Lehman brothers, or Misters Merrill and Lynch, he’d have one of those founders burying a foot about 18 inches deep in his backside. Why? Because those founders were men, and their names meant something. Getting involved in such tawdry schemes violated their ethics and their sense of who they were as men. Today? Most of what passes for men today would trade their reputations for a quick killing in the market, no matter who got slaughtered in the aftermath. And that’s exactly what we saw exposed last year.
This isn’t an appeal to go kill a bear with a pointy stick, as has been epitomized by much of the Christian men’s movement, but to start getting serious and singleminded again about how we turn boys into men, real men, not the poseurs masquerading as men today. We need to see genuine rites of passage return to our churches, a passage not into Spartan-like manhood but into proper handling of the Scriptures, women, children, the work world, and on and on.
My fear? That my generation is so compromised that we won’t be able to reconstruct what it is that we have lost so we can pass on something of worth to the boys following us.
And trust me, that’s something that should make men everywhere genuinely afraid.
Tags: Discipleship, Faith, Manhood, Maturity. Selflessness, Men, Rites of Passage, Training
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