The Age-Integrated Church
By Brandon Dauphinais (age 16)
"Cornerstone Word of Life Church 'Where Families Come First'" one telephone
book advertisement screams. Interestingly enough right below the "Where Families
Come First" appears a line that reads "ABLAZE' Youth Ministry 7PM" and the message
"Nursery and Children's Ministry Available All Services".
Now if the family comes first, why is not the family together? More importantly
why was the family ever separated? Due to the severe problems confronting the
modern age-segregated church, an age-integrated church can be a more effective,
Godly church system. Reviewing the legacy of the church and critiquing its operations
today will introduce the Godly concept of the age-integrated church.
Before one can understand the church of today, he or she must have a clear understanding
of the church's history and structure. The first churches were what are referred
to as the pastoral era of churches. In this structure the believers met in each
other's houses or underground if they were being persecuted at the time. When
they met, they studied the word of God, prayed, "broke bread," and worshiped
God, thanking Him for all His wondrous blessings. One thing that should be pointed
out is that the breaking of bread not only meant the Lord's Supper, but the
feeding of the needy. In fact, helping the poor, the widows, and the orphans
was a large part of the pastoral church system. As for the organization of the
pastoral church, there were only three known leaders: the apostles, the prophets,
and the teachers. The apostles where those who founded churches, while the prophets
and teachers proclaimed and interpreted the scriptures (Walker 39-40). Following
the pastoral church, there were three other historical church systems: the militaristic
(or Imperial State), the papacy (the feudal system), and the Early Protestant.
The next system of the church, the militaristic system arose, "Probably early
in 313 [A.D.] Constantine and Licinius met at Milan and came to some mutual
agreement permitting full freedom to Christianity. This has generally been known
as the 'Edict of Milan.'" (Walker 101). The "Edict of Milan" was a great event
in Christianity, because for the first time Christians did not have to worry
about government persecution. This Edict caused a change in the church structure,
for although Constantine did give the Christians their freedom; he also reorganized
the church along a military structure. In doing this, Constantine established
a unified church and the first church system that would have an influence in
civil affairs (Walker 105-111).
This influence would eventually become wider in the next church system, the
papal system. This system was directly modeled after the secular feudal system.
This system was formed with the Pope as the ruler of the whole church, and with
the bishops as his agents. There where many other roles such as archbishops,
cardinals, and priests.
Following the papal system came the Protestant Reformation. This was the second
time in church history that the church was not modeled after a secular system.
The entire Protestant Reformation can't be covered in this paper, but there
are a few main points that shall suffice. The Reformation began with Martin
Luther who after becoming a monk began to form views different than the Catholic
Church.
| […] he had become convinced that salvation is a new relation to God, based not on any work of merit on man's part, but on absolute trust in the divine promises, so that the redeemed man, while not ceasing to be a sinner, yet is freely and fully forgiven, and from the new and joyous relationship to God in Christ, the new life of willing conformity to God's will flows. (Walker 304) |
Martin Luther went on to promote his views and a reformation began to spread
through Europe. Another Protestant reformer (and fore runner of the Presbyterian
faith) was John Calvin. John Calvin promoted the Protestant ideas further and
established a fairly uniform religion.
| The Ordonnances declare that Christ has instituted in His church the four offices of pastor, teacher, elder, and deacon, and define the duties of each. Pastors were to meet weekly for public discussion, examination of ministerial candidates, and exegesis, in what was popularly known as the Congregation. The teacher was to be the head of the Geneva school system, which Calvin regarded as an essential factor in the religious training of the city. To the deacons were assigned the care of the poor and the supervision of the hospital. The elders were the heart of Calvin's system. […] They, together with the minister made up the Consistoire, meeting every Thursday, and charged with ecclesiastical disciple. (Walker 354) |
This became the constitution of the Swiss Protestants in Geneva. This represents
as a loose organization of the Protestant church until the modern church system.
For centuries the Protestant church grew and flourished, although many different
denominations did emerge the structure among them was similar. The last notable
point of the Protestant Reformation period was the colonization of America by
the Separatists and Puritans who would set the standard for the church in America
until the Modern Church arises. Worship was essentially God focused, with no
form of "entertainment," but with prayer, prophecy, the singing of psalms, and
preaching. This pure form of theocentric worship would soon be challenged even
in the time of the second generation Puritans and Separatists, with the onslaught
of the Church of England, Deism, and humanism. Yet, the Puritan's worldview
and theocentric worship would survive until being succeeded by the Modern Church
system (Walker 433-443).
The Modern Church system of today is a Christian counterpart of the world's
business system, with the pastor as the head of the church (much like a CEO
of a corporation) and with people in charge of each ministry or compartment
(i.e. the children's ministry, benevolence ministry, music ministry, etc. Much
like a manager). The modern church came into view mainly within the last three
decades, but its roots can be traced back to the teachings of Charles Darwin.
How? With Charles Darwin's evolutionary teachings there was finally a "scientific
explanation" for the creation of the world thus leaving the Bible's special
creation "useless," and because every generation was more evolved than the next,
it was every generations right (and later in some of Hall's teachings, their
duty) to overthrow the previous generation. These teachings began to be taught
in the colleges and universities in America, which sparked more humanistic teachings
such as Hall's recapitulation theory, Freud's psychology theories, and Darwin's
progressive education theories. As these theories were being taught, the public
education system began to implement them and the first schools segregated by
ages were formed. "Within a generation after Dewey, we saw, for the first time
in the history of the Western World, an adolescent sub-culture. By the 1950s,
teens had their own music, literature, styles of dress, language and etiquette.
(Schlect 6)." Once this sub-culture began, the church, who had already had Youth
for Christ parachurch ministries, began to form local youth ministries in their
own churches and by the 1950s they were commonplace (Schlect 8). Once the world
got its foothold in the church, it seized the day, Darwin's theories found themselves
in seminaries, and now one can even find "Marketing Jesus" classes in seminaries
as well.
There are several problems mimicking the world's standards with an age-segregated
church. The first problem with the age-segregated church is its lack of accountability.
When children and youth are in another Sunday School class, then the parents
are limited in how they can help reinforce their child's lesson. Furthermore,
if a parent is in a different class than their child, then they do not have
to worry about be held accountable by their children. Because of the modern
church, people aren't as connected with one another like the people of New Testament
church. Being connected is one of the best ways to be held accountable, for
when one knows that another is going to hold them accountable they will strive
harder not to fall into a sin. Finally, the modern church tends to make the
church building the church, and which can separate church from real life.
| We behave one way on Sunday morning and another way the other six days of the week. […] We give an appearance of having it all together, but [when] the church is separated from real life, we open the door to hypocrisy. (Wallace 64) |
Although the modern age-segregated church may boast large numbers, can the
ends truly justify the means? Certainly entertainment centered youth and children's
ministries attract a myriad of young people who are seeking wholesome alternatives,
but is this truly growing them? W.B. Sprague gives an interesting insight in
his Letters to Young Men.
| There are indeed some minds constituted with such decided intellectual tendencies, that they require direction merely, without any external exciting influence; but the great mass of youthful minds will in a measure stagnate- certainly will not realize a legitimate development, - unless they are quickened as well as guided by an influence from without. You may see this point strikinglyillustrated in almost any literary institution - the patient, the diligent, the successful student, you will generally find to be those who have been accustomed to the influence of suitable restraint; (33-34) |
If a young person is not given correct adult supervision then he cannot grow
very well spiritually. One grows spiritually through study, prayer, service,
and trials. Therefore, accountability is a key factor in the spiritual growth
of a person.
Another negative effect of the age-segregated church is the lack of leadership.
First one should recognize that the leader of the church go beyond just the
ordained ministers; but parents, adults, senior adults, young adults, and even
older children are leaders in the church because all of these have someone looking
up to them as model. In this light, the modern age-segregated church conflicts
with the training of leaders by isolating and splitting apart the "separate"
ministries.
| The average church works out its ministry goals
in compartments. There is the evangelism compartment, the counseling compartment,
worship, youth, education, home-schooling, and so on usually without coordination
of schedule or objectives. Thus, the church's identity as a unified force- a set of interconnected relationships-is lost in the shuffle. By allowing our church to be exclusively need-driven or divided into groups by age and sex, we fail to equip people for the spiritual leadership of others. (Wallace 124-125) |
One of the hardest losses due to the modern age-segregated church is the deteriorating
household structure. The modern system does not encourage unity in the households.
Married couples go to one class, older men and women go to their men's and women's
classes respectively, while "teens" go to their youth groups, and finally children
wind up in their own personal peer classes. When this system is in place, it
builds passive boundaries that separate the members in each household. Every
one feels like he or she belongs to a certain niche instead of together. This
also places the burden of 'teens' and children's faith development on the Sunday
School teacher who is only seen one or twice a week, in normal circumstances.
Ben Frendenburg speaks of the responsibility of the parents as faith developers
in his book The Family Friendly Church.
| Parents are the key faith developers for their children- they can have either a positive or negative impact on their kid's faith growth. But either way, they'll have the biggest impact. You can have strong faith-shaping programs for kids at church, but if you're not partnering with homes you risk producing kids who have weak faith. (77) |
So one can see that the Sunday School teacher, youth minister, or pastor,
although they have some impact on the church's young people, do not carry the
biggest responsibility of nurturing the childrens' faith. When parents come
to church and expect the church to teach their children and "teens" they are
unknowingly harming their child's faith development and building barriers that
weaken the households. For one must remember that a church consists of many
households, and if the households are not strong then the church will likewise
not be strong.
Now some still may argue that we must reach the world by using their standard
for did not Paul say the Christians should be all thing to all people in order
that we may reach them? (1 Corinthians 9:22) First of all, Christians will be
compromising the integrity of the church if they place the church on the world's
scales (Not to mention he was referring to the poor and rich.). Secondly it
is not the church's Sunday service where Christians are to reach the lost (in
fact the worship service is for the believers. [Acts 2:44]); but it is the lives
of Christians reaching into a dying and lost world that they may reach them.
| While we try to entice the world to come to church and hear the Gospel, the New Testament proclaims a powerful church worshipping God going out into the world in order to reach lost (cf. The Book of Acts). True revivals have historically proven again and again, if they prove anything at all, that a revived and healthy church reaches a dying and lost world through its own awakened people. The real problem is that we have a dying and sadly unhealthy church in the late twentieth century and we are trying something, it seems at times almost anything to bring back life. The new way to do this is to attack the "traditional" church and suggest that our problem is to be found in what we do on Sundays. It is argued, "Contemporaneity will bring back the crowds, thus the life of our church." The real problem, however, is not what we do (i.e. in the so-called traditional service), but that we do what we do without power, without careful thought, and without integrity and passion. (Armstrong 7) |
Are the churches ministries focused on changing the world or are they focused
on a man-centered business-like scale?
The final and deadliest problem is teenage rebellion. In fact, the church may
have been able to put a stop to it before it enveloped the entire American society.
To start with, rebellion is not normal, but it is a typical byproduct
of our current American society, which has been incorporated into the church
under the guise of the modern youth ministry. If rebellion was normal Jesus
would have rebelled, but He did not rebel from His parent's authority (Luke
2:52), even though they where mere mortals and He was God. Why? Because Christ
was setting an example. Daniel separated from his parents without hope of seeing
them again and stayed true to their teachings and risked persecution to follow
them (Daniel 1). The modern youth ministry encourages a herding mentality that
separates the youth from others in the church. This is highly displayed when
we see large groups of youth sitting together during worship service. The
herding mentality is a large catalyst in "teenage" rebellion, and it teaches
that perpetual youth is life's aim. One can see this truth in the life of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam took the advice of his peers and "friends" instead of the sage advice
of the elders (I Kings 12:1-8). Another example of the negative effects of the
herding mentality is in the story of Elisha when he is jeered by a group of
youth. The youth were together in a group and making fun of Elisha's baldness,
so Elisha called a curse on them and two bears came out and mauled forty-two
of them (II Kings 2:23-25). This story illustrates the true problem of the mentality
of separating the youth from adults. The youth begin to think in a segregated
mindset of it being the youth vs. the adults in a culture battle. In this mindset
how will youth ever grow into mature adults if they are separated from those
who have maturity? The truth is that they will not mature, and it will build
up walls between the youth and the adults, which is exactly how the forces of
evil can divide and conquer the Christians.
| Regress in maturity happens in the church when we ignore mandates
in Scripture which implore the young and old to interact with one another.
With age comes wisdom- wisdom that must be passed on to younger people.
Older people must be eager to share it, and younger people must be eager
to receive it. The so-called "generation gap" (a twentieth-century invention)
has been used as an excuse for age segregation, but Scripture speaks of
no such thing […] When young people are allowed to set their own standards
as they interact with one another, a "herd mentality" develops: they follow
in the footsteps of one another rather than those of adults. The fundamental
problem is not peer interaction, but irresponsible adult- especially parental-
leadership […] From their birth children should see themselves as adults-to-be,
growing up into an adult world. They must never be trained by the herd (that
is, by one another) to think that perpetual youth is life's aim. (Schlect
11-12) |
Due to the problems in an age-segregated ministry, it would be outright rebellion
to God to knowingly continue in such a manner. Therefore the best alternative
is age-integrated ministries. "What is an age-integrated ministry? Well,
an age-integrated ministry is simply a ministry that allows households to learn,
worship, and serve together, without being separated by age groups." (Calamria)
Much of the age-integrated ministry is based on the early church, like having
local missions as a key part of the church along with treating fellow believers
as a family. Furthermore, the age-integrated church recognizes that the household
is the building block of the church and that the church should assist the household
rather than drain all of the resources from the household.
The age-integrated ministry also has had large support from the homeschool movement.
How? The Home-Schooling movement does five things that support the age-integrated
church.
|
In as much as the age-segregated ministry has its problems, the age-integrated
ministry has its strengths. First, it encourages accountability. The age-integrated
church uses heart-level relationships as its primary means of ministry. "Jesus
Christ died for us so we could have a heart-level relationship with our Creator.
God's working in us, strengthening our relationship with Him, is what our lives
are about. […] An integrated ministry uses heart-level relationships as its
primary method for ministry because they are most effective" (Wallace 91). When
heart-level relationships are the primary source of ministry accountability
is increased because deeper commitments mean more accountability among the members
of the church.
The next advantage of the age-integrated church is the increased spiritual maturity
in its members.
| Programs, especially those that center on the church building,
take a back seat to relationships. Ask yourselves, "Is what we are doing
building spiritual maturity in relationships?" "Is it fostering people reaching
out to each other beyond Sunday morning, or is it a once-a week gig?" Programs
should serve the purpose of building personal, discipleship-oriented relationships,
not replace them. Older men working with younger men and older women working with younger women is the prescription for relationships within the church. (Wallace p.91) |
Again heart-level relationships are the most effective ministering tool. The
age-integrated ministry harnesses this tool in order to build maturity. Ideally,
the young gain maturity from the old, and the old gain maturity from each other.
One of the most useful advantages of the age-integrated approach is the renewed
leadership within the church body. As noted before leadership is found in anyone
in the church who serves as a model for another. How does the age-integrated
ministry do this?
| A household approach to ministry places an emphasis on building biblical households in which parents disciple their children and "adopt" other members of the congregation who do not have families, and where fathers practice spiritual leadership in the home. This approach builds a family-like quality in church life and ministry through emphasizing heart-level relationships, discipleship, and community. (Wallace p.128) |
This approach of equipping leaders has many wonderful results, but there are
five specific results that should be pointed out.
|
Finally, all these take much of the load off the pastor that he need not bear.
Strong households create a strong church: this is a primary philosophy behind
much of the integrated church (Wallace 23). As mentioned before, the leadership
displayed by the father is one of the ways the integrated church builds strong
households, but there are many other reasons. One is that it keeps the family
together, unlike its age-segregated counterpart that tears the family
apart during Sunday school time and during the worship service with teenage
herding and children's church. When the family worships together, learns together,
repents together, and rejoices together deep bonds are formed which are very
hard for the forces of evil to break. It builds the family up and builds each
individual member in the household spiritually. This creates a solid building
block of which the church can be built so it can stand through even the toughest
trials.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And
we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers" (1 John 3:16 NIV). Love, which
is the one thing that the world wants that only Christians can have. When the
world looks at the saved they should see something different. Maybe not in the
clothes, but in the way they love. When every household is united and the church
is strong, the world wants to know why. When "teens" are not pulling away and
herding, and children act mature, the world wants to know how. And when the
world sees the church reaching into its community with the love of Christ, the
world wants to know if they can enjoy the love of our Lord and Master Jesus
Christ. It is love in heart-level relationships that will make ministries that
can truly change the world.
Finally, the integrated church can stop teenage rebellion. As mentioned before
rebellion is not normal and Christians have a greater burden to put an end to
rebellion, than the world; for the world looks at the young men and women of
the faith, and if the Christians cannot show a difference then Christians become
hypocrites and misrepresent the kingdom of Christ. This teenage rebellion must
be stopped before it has a chance to start. The herding that goes on in the
churches youth encourages separation and rebellion. As children are being raised
from a young age they must set their standards well beyond the world's standards
for maturity and spirituality. When an integrated church does this by first
encouraging young adults to fellowship with those older and younger than themselves.
Children are also raised from a young age to understand that they are "adults
to be" growing up in and adult world (Schlect p.11-12). This stops rebellion
before it can begin.
Now, the age-segregated church had been given more that three generations to
show it fruits of disunity and immaturity. It is time for the body of Christ
to rise up and again claim hold of the Godly and righteous ways of the age-integrated
church.
| Churches in ever-increasing numbers are seeking to move away from methods of ministry that are in reality working against the establishment of faithful generations. A renewed focus on multi-generational vision, heart-level relationships, and nurturing in everyday life (the household discipleship vision) are the slogans of this revival. Thus, we see the movement away from the traditional age-segregated approach toward an age-integrated household approach. The obvious unity among brothers and sisters of different denominations is just one of the many definite signs that this approach is of the Holy Spirit. […] what our churches need is not simply revival but full-fledged REFORMATION. […] The fields are white unto harvest. Go therefore and reap! (Wallace 23-24) |
May America see the true church as God formed it; and may the world again
see America with the power and majesty in which he formed her as well.
Sources Consulted
Armstrong, John, "Trendier-Than-Thou: An Essay", PREMISE, Vol. 2. Num 3. Mar
27. 1995: 7.
Cammilleri, Joe, "FAMILY CENTERED CHURCH: An Alternative to Age-Segregated Worship."
Old Paths Bible Baptist Church-Box 169-N. Greece, NY 14515-016 Audiocassette.
Chadwick, Henry, The Early Church, New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1967.
Frendenburg, Ben and Tick Lawrence, The Family Friendly Church, Loveland, CO:
Group Publishing Inc. 1998.
Schlect, Christopher, Critique of Modern Youth Ministry, Moscow, ID: Cannon
press, 1995. Sprague, William, Letters to Young Men, Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle
Publications, 1988.
Veith, Gene Edward, "Boredom and the Law of Diminishing Returns", TABLETALK
Online: http://www.gospelcom.net/ligonier/tt/tt-11-95/ttsubartveith-11-95.html
Wallace, Eric, Uniting church and Home, Lorton, VA: Hazard Communications, Inc.,
1999.
Walker, Williston. A History of the Christian Church 3rd Edition, New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970.
Cornerstone Word of Life Church, Advertisement, Huntsville, AL: Bellsouth Phone
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