ministry

11th grader S has been a part of our youth group for several months. He accepted Jesus as his Savior in November and joined our church the following week excited about serving as a full-fledged member of aefbc and the larger body of Christ. Before he has even been baptized (which is scheduled for a couple of weeks from now), he has been looked down upon, chastised, and just plain insulted by adults who have a problem with the fact that he wears shorts and a hat to church. I could not be more disappointed, hurt, angry that they have so attacked MY student with their petty lists of dos and don'ts. And I could not be more proud of S for continuing to live out his faith in the face of such contention from within his own church.

What does the Bible say about worship attire? Well, when it comes to shorts, nothing. And on the issue of hats, men are told to uncover their heads whenever they prophesy or pray. (for the record, S has never prophesied, and he does remove his hat whenever we pray.) BUT, the overwelming message of scripture is that God's focus is on the heart. I can almost guarantee those adults could learn a lot about respect and reverence from S if they'd just pay attention to his heart.

This kind of picky, prejudicial criticism from church members is completely inappropriate and intolerable. Our students are young and otherwise unchurched. Teaching them appropriate respect and reverence is an ongoing process that requires that we first earn their respect and then lovingly introduce them to our Savior, which will, in time, itself lead to a natural awe of and reverence for who He is. But to criticize them with legalistic lies about how worship is "supposed" to look or feel is unbiblical and inexcusable and does nothing to point them to Jesus.

The call of the Church is NOT discipline; rather, the call of the Church is discipleship.
-mo