seWhat you do to hook them is what you will have to do to keep them. Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma has made the news by giving away an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to encourage young people to attend their youth conference. The goal is for "teens to find faith".
My main disagreement with this is not necessarily giving a teenager a gun. That could be done responsibly--many of our teenagers are responsible hunters. My main problem with this is that it rejects the sufficiency of Christ and his Word to bring about "teens finding faith". Apparently God's Word is no longer sufficiently the power of God unto salvation but it now requires giving away semi-automatic rifles.
Remember this; what you do to hook them is what you will have to do to keep them. You cannot slide the gospel in the backdoor--unless you intend to ALWAYS slip the gospel in the back door. Here is a suggestion: believe God enough to draw people to himself--yes even crazy lost teenagers.
I also should mention that my "problem" is not with the people at Windsor Hills Baptist Church, their staff, their people, nor anything of that sort. I wholeheartedly affirm their passion to bring about "teens finding faith". My "problem" is with the theology and dangerous philosophy of ministry that brings about such events. It is unnecessary and actually hinders the glorious gospel, and I hope that they turn from this and find more confidence in the gospel. I say this with much humility.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteSometimes you just run across something and its hard to know where to begin, what to say, or when to stop saying it. This is such an occasion.
I wholeheartedly agree with the concerns you listed. I'd go a bit further to decry the idea of handing out guns. I am a vet, own a shotgun, and enjoy the rights we have in the 2nd Amendment. Used to hunt quite a bit, but don't anymore. Would probably enjoy joining a gun club, shooting skeet, etc.
However, IMHO, some things are so ludicrous its just hard to imagine someone would do them....and this is one of those things.
I'll give them credit for one thing, they know how to put on a major league publicity stunt....whether that's what they were 'shooting for' (pun intended) or not.