Posted on 01/28/2013 2:16:26 PM PST by SeekAndFind
In light of the skyrocketing popularity of Mormonism in the United States helped along by the Broadway Musical, "The Book of Mormon", Mitt Romney and your nice Mormon neighbors I thought it would be good to recycle this five year old article I wrote. The thesis? Mormons do better youth ministry than the average Protestant church! Read on and see if you agree with me…
"Let's face it. Most of us look at the clean cut Mormon missionaries that peddle the streets of our city and knock on the doors of our houses as somewhat out of date. Although they are kind and well spoken young men, when they knock on our doors we either don't answer or tell them we are already Christians who reject Mormonism and bid them good day. We think to ourselves how "behind the times" these young people are forced to be when they are required to do door-to-door evangelism for their religion. We reflect on how grateful we are that we have the truth once and for all delivered to the saints. We may even think about how much more superior our youth ministry strategies are compared to theirs.
Or are they?
-Mormons expect a lot out of their teenagers. We don't.
-Mormons ordain their young men into the ministry at the age of twelve. We don't.
-Mormons require their teens to attend seminary every day of high school. We don't.
-Mormons ask for two years in the field of every graduating senior. We don't.
Maybe that's why we don't meet a lot of ex-Mormons, while there are hundreds of thousands of former church attendees in the true church of Jesus Christ (of everyday saints) who flee the church after graduating from high school.
Maybe that's why Mormons give more, work harder and are exploding as a religion. In 1985 there were 4.5 million Mormons and now there are over 12 million.
When many of our teens graduate from high school, they grab their books and a beer and go off to the college dorm (A.K.A. "The Party Zone"). When Mormon teens graduate from high school they grab a backpack and a bike pump and go off on a mission.
They know what they believe and why they believe it. They've hammered out their theology on our doorsteps. Their souls and minds have been steeled and sealed into Mormon orthodoxy through their fanatical commitment to the accomplishment of their version of the Great Commission.
Meanwhile we compress most of our mission work into one week in Mexico once every year or two. And even that is comprised mostly of building houses, not necessarily advancing the kingdom of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There's a great line in the movie Braveheart where Robert the Bruce is commenting on William Wallace to his father. He says, "He believes. I want to believe like he believes."
When I look at the Mormons I think to myself, "They believe. I want to believe like they believe." Now don't get me wrong. I don't want to believe what they believe. Mormon theology is far from what the Bible says about Jesus, God, sin and salvation. It is, by no means, a truly Christian religion.
Having said that, Mormonism pushes their kids harder and takes them deeper and farther than even the most ardent of evangelical youth ministries would ever dare.
Can you imagine a youth group that challenged every teen in the youth ministry to meet at 6am every day of the school year for a class on Christianity? That's exactly what Mormons do with their high schoolers and their belief system!
We get excited if once a year at 7:15am, while Mormon teens are coming back from their daily seminary lesson on Mormonism, our teens gather around a pole and pray.
I'm not saying that we copy the Mormons specific strategy. I can't foresee our teenagers racing Mormons to the door in a battle of the bicycles. Nor do I believe the answer lies in a daily early morning class. We don't need to copy their strategy. We do, however, need to adopt their philosophy.
We need to push our teens. We need to turn them into active activists. We need to build consistent opportunities for service, outreach and training. We need to equip them to share their faith and then go with them, leading the way. After all, we are youth leaders.
Somebody may accuse me of looking at this as some sort of competition. It is. We are in a competition with Satan for the souls of our young people. And we are getting our rears kicked.
My problem is not with the Mormons. It's with us. Let's learn from the Mormons and turn our kids into missionaries. Armed with the power of the true gospel our teens could mount a comeback and help us win this thing.
Game on."
__________________________
Greg Stier is the Founder and President of Dare 2 Share Ministries International. He has impacted the lives of tens of thousands of Christian teenagers through Dare 2 Share events, motivating and mobilizing them to reach their generation for Christ. He is the author of eleven books and numerous resources, including Dare 2 Share: A Field Guide for Sharing Your Faith. For more information on Dare 2 Share and their upcoming conference tour and training resources, please visit www.dare2share.org.
Since Mormon theology leads one to Hell, their effectiveness in youth ministry is irrelevant.
Muslims do an even better job. If you convert to another religion, they kill you.
Maybe we should use that method.
“ever since Saundra Duffy was banned.”
Sorry to hear that. I helped her with her website when she ran for Congress.
Mormons offer a warped version of the already warped prosperity gospel... You too can be a God..
That would appeal greatly to your average 12 year old who already thinks they are a God..
Thats the first thing I thought of. Muslims do a much better job.
I think the guy who wrote this article might be a Mormon.
“Since Mormon theology leads one to Hell, their effectiveness in youth ministry is irrelevant.”
So . . . you believe all Mormons are going straight to hell. Wow, you are Jesus Christ Himself. Silly me; I thought Jesus was our Judge. Who else is condemned to hell by you, pray tell.
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” - Galatians 1:8
****Mormons do better youth ministry than the average Protestant church! ***
Well of course they do it better. They don’t have to prove by scripture what they believe.
I went to a youth banquet at a mormon church years ago. They had the teens give a testimony as to why they joined the Mormon church.
They liked the friendship, the programs, the young people, the togetherness. Not a one joined because he felt he was a sinner in need of Christ. To them the Mormon church was just a big social club.
I have found them to be extremely ignorant of any bible teaching.
***Because I was approached in my apartment building by two you, attractive female Mormon missionaries in 1985.***
I dated a Mormon girl many many years ago. Her Missionary was great, her Lilith was better! ;-D
And Mormonism is a cult.
Christianity is not.
RE: Mormons offer a warped version of the already warped prosperity gospel... You too can be a God..
“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5)
“Since Mormon theology leads one to Hell, their effectiveness in youth ministry is irrelevant.”
________________________________________________________
Why is it that you think they are going to Hell? They preach the Lord Jesus Christ. He may not look to them like He looks to us but that is who they worship. They may have beliefs about exactly what happens to them in Heaven but we have beliefs too and neither of us have been there and the scriptures are pretty vague about it.
To me I don’t think anything else matters if you confess Jesus Christ is Lord. Maybe their Temples are useless but I don’t believe they hurt anybody with the possible exception of the feelings of some descendants of a few dead Jews.
There is much to admire about the Mormons. Anybody on the outside of Christianity can say we indoctrinate our youth. Of course we do. We try to instill in them a love of The Lord Jesus Christ.
The Mormons do what they do because they love The Lord. Do you realize that they pay tithes in the amount of 10% of their PRE-tax earnings, amazing. They give two years in their youth and then do it again after retirement. How many of our youth would know enough about the Gospel to go out and preach at the age of 18 or 19? Their pastors don’t get paid, their organist don’t get paid, their your ministers don’t get paid! None of them get paid! Think of how much more good in the world your congregation could do if we didn’t have a paid ministry.
The Mormons are a strange lot for sure but Hell? I think not. If they are going to Hell then a lot of us will be there with them.
The Mormons are like any other group though, they have their good and their bad they just do a little better job of weeding out their bad.
As far as how many of them there are, in 2010 there were just over 14 million. From what I have seen they baptize three or four hundred thousand a year and have about that number of babies. They do live to be older than us but that is only because of their clean lifestyle.
Many of us claim to be Christian but then we drink and smoke and carouse and go to church and seek forgiveness or don’t even bother to ask since many believe that once saved always saved. Mormons don’t believe that way. They have an expression, that they must endure till the end. They take the Lords Supper every week to help cleanse them of their sins. If they don’t have their sinning under control they are asked to wait to take the Lords Supper until their Pastor agrees with them that they are ready.
I don’t know that I have ever discussed my worthiness with my preacher, I have always held it to be between me and my God. The Catholic Church however is more like the Mormons in getting absolution or at least notice of absolution from the priest. It’s not all bad, it is probably pretty humbling and we should be humble to approach The Lord.
If all Christian churches participated in the church as well as the Mormons it would be a much better world. They can’t be all bad, they vote overwhelmingly Republican in Utah.
No, I can’t agree with you. I think we need to be more like the Mormons in a lot of ways.
Thank you, JAKraig, for your fairminded reply.
I guess she was conservative, right?
Actually the Moslem way doesn’t work in a non-totalitarian Moslem society. Moslems in the West leave their faith. In the Moslem world, if they do this, they die.
I think we should also have conservative Christian youth programs that have the friendship, programs, togetherness as well as sound Christian orthodoxy.
There is no harm in learning to take their external ways.
Around here, the rule is for Mormons to have 4 to 6 children and also adopt 4 more. At the same time, I know people (Christians) who would love to adopt even one child but get the bureaucratic run-around from state agencies, plus from foreign bureaucracies when they try to find a child over there.) How does that work? (I am good terms with the Mormons, but I just recently noticed this pattern for the first time when visiting at an event.)
It was back in the 80's so my memory is a little vague. There was a Godmakers I & II and a video or 2. One of the authors was a former bishop that came out of Mormonism. Although he definitely sounded like he had an axe to grind against the Mormon church, I haven't ever heard anyone prove him wrong. Their book of D's & C's flys in the face of many Christian's doctrines. Mormonism is not just another form of Christianity. The rituals seem wierd, uncomfortable to watch. My major conclusion was that I bet at least 1/2 of the people that claim to be Mormon don't have any idea what their church doctrine says. If your curious, or doing a comparitive religeons study, these could be a resource. I don't know if they are even still available?
Since the Mormons are the most active at reaching out and keep accurate numbers of their converts; watching their numbers could be a somewhat accurate litmus for the worlds spiritual level.
By this I mean, if the Lord holds true to His pattern, like with Sodom, there was no one left that would repent, then the Lord destroyed Sodom.
Therefore, by watching the numbers of the Mormon converts through out the world, we could determine how close the world is to becoming like Sodom and thus the return of Jesus Christ.
Interesting thought.
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