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the clean cut Mormon missionaries that peddle the streets of our city and knock on the doors of our houses as somewhat out of date.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.
ministry - nope
indoctrination - yes.
I agree, leaving the theology aside, there is a lot we could learn from the Mormons. Certainly my Catholic Church is doing an underwhelming job of just hanging on to young people, let alone engaging them.
I read some of the God Maker series a long time ago. Truth or not it painted an image I haven’t forgotten.
That was more than a demographic generation ago.
If Mormons live longer due to the clean living code, and if their families average 4 children - I don't have statistics handy, but that is not a crazy number - that explains the 12 million pretty handily without many conversions.
I have wondered where all of the anti-Mormon trolls had gone since Romney lost and their beloved 0bama had won.
Pedal the streets, not peddle the streets. You'd think they were trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge or something.
The Mormon Church has had such a problem attracting enough young men to be missionaries, that they have reduced the length of Missions from 2 years to 1.5 years.
They have also turned to pushing young women to become missionaries before they get married. Previously, the Church stressed that young women should go on missions only if they have no marriage prospects.
My entire family continues to be counted as part of that 12 million, even though we have attended a non-Mormon Church for the last twenty years.
My entire family continues to be counted as part of that 12 million, even though we have attended a non-Mormon Church for the last twenty years.
Really? Because I was approached in my apartment building by two you, attractive female Mormon missionaries in 1985.
And again, 1,500 miles away in 2004.
Nevertheless, the point is well taken, and if one studies Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, it is all too easy to see that we have FAILED miserably in our Gospel training of YOUNG MEN.
We are involved in missionary service in Asia. We can more easily see young Asian Christian men (as young as early teen years) convinced of their duties to their Savior than we can see in American churches. In the Philippines I hear conversations of Bible doctrine and of winning people to Jesus Christ among teen and young adult men very regularly. In the USA the conversation is about sports stats and automobiles.
I charge the men in the pulpits for this lack of godliness and fervency among young men. There is too much hyper-spiritualizing away of the words God spoke through His servant Paul in regards to service, training young people, marriage, family. Modern preachers have run the Scriptures through the press of modern American culture--modern youth culture.
The author is correct. We expect nothing of our young people, we only hope for their presence so that we can count heads. Expect nothing---get nothing.
Part of the growth of Mormonism is outreach - and a large part is demographic. They have 2.5 kids or more, while most Americans have 1.5.
I am always amused to read expert commentary on the Mormons, written by people whose exposure to Mormonism is changing planes in the Salt Lake airport.
There is more to a culture than the facade. Look for stats like divorce rates, suicide rates, prescription drug abuse, meth use, teen pregnancy, depression, actual active members, etc.
How do you rate those books?
What anti-mormon threads?
Lots of anti-mormonISM which go back to 2002, apparently you have not been paying attention.
My experiences with mormonISM goes back to 1962, the book in not untruth.
In addition it is almost impossible to have your named removed from their “membership” rolls.
Any other thing they do is keep people on the rolls until they reach their 110 year.
The 12 million figure is actually world wide, not just the USA.
You are correct.
We need to teach “to serve” not “be served”.
“I have wondered where all of the anti-Mormon trolls had gone since Romney lost and their beloved 0bama had won.”
We haven’t had the constant stream of half-truths and faulty logic to respond to ever since Saundra Duffy was banned.
For the record, once Romney had the nomination I held my nose and supported him.
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