Today was "Good Shepherd Sunday", and in lieu of a conventional sermon, our parish let the youth put on a play about the parable of the Good Shepherd. It was especially encouraging to hear our small youth group loudly proclaim, "Jesus is the Good Shepherd!" at the end of their production.
I pray that they keep that faith in their hearts as they get older as the world does its best to steal it from them.
Another thing I pray for is that they develop discerning hearts and minds because while there is but one Good Shepherd that they know now, there are many more bad shepherds who will enter their lives to try to lead them astray as they grow older.
My mother always said to choose my friends carefully because bad company leads kids to do bad things. She never said anything about choosing my church.
I remember my Episcopal youth group when I was a kid. It seemed like there were forty or fifty of us in a parish church smaller than my present one (which can only muster a quarter that number as weddings, baptisms, and confirmations plummet). I chose my friends from that group, but I did not choose my priest, my choir director, or my teachers. Yes the organist was a homosexual man, and the priest gave long pointless sermons which did nothing to guide us kids towards Christ, and the teachers were Moms, so I guess I had a pretty typical Episcopal church upbringing. I also had ten years of education in Episcopal schools, and it all was pretty much a massive fail from a spiritual standpoint. I had not even read the Bible until I was in college. I think far too many things were assumed. It was assumed that hearing a few Bible stories, sitting still during the Sunday readings, and not squirming through the rector's sermon was all a child needed to commit his or her life to Christ. I was saved, not through all that Episcopal schooling, but by college friends and the "Campus Crusade for Christ". Looking back, I would say that the typical Episcopal upbringing is in large part the reason for the decline of the denomination (a variation of The Pewster Principle).
Sorry Mom, but perhaps our parents should have worried more about our religious upbringing when they dropped us off at church. Perhaps they should have home-schooled us. Perhaps they assumed too much. Perhaps we children should have told our parents what really went on...
Today's Episcopal church parents have more cause to worry than my parents did back then as new false teachings work their way into the minds of their teachers, priests, and bishops and then are transmitted into today's children's developing minds.
Yes Virginia, there is but one Good Shepherd. The rest are fakes. You can spot them by their pointy hats and crooked sticks.
I pray that they keep that faith in their hearts as they get older as the world does its best to steal it from them.
Another thing I pray for is that they develop discerning hearts and minds because while there is but one Good Shepherd that they know now, there are many more bad shepherds who will enter their lives to try to lead them astray as they grow older.
My mother always said to choose my friends carefully because bad company leads kids to do bad things. She never said anything about choosing my church.
I remember my Episcopal youth group when I was a kid. It seemed like there were forty or fifty of us in a parish church smaller than my present one (which can only muster a quarter that number as weddings, baptisms, and confirmations plummet). I chose my friends from that group, but I did not choose my priest, my choir director, or my teachers. Yes the organist was a homosexual man, and the priest gave long pointless sermons which did nothing to guide us kids towards Christ, and the teachers were Moms, so I guess I had a pretty typical Episcopal church upbringing. I also had ten years of education in Episcopal schools, and it all was pretty much a massive fail from a spiritual standpoint. I had not even read the Bible until I was in college. I think far too many things were assumed. It was assumed that hearing a few Bible stories, sitting still during the Sunday readings, and not squirming through the rector's sermon was all a child needed to commit his or her life to Christ. I was saved, not through all that Episcopal schooling, but by college friends and the "Campus Crusade for Christ". Looking back, I would say that the typical Episcopal upbringing is in large part the reason for the decline of the denomination (a variation of The Pewster Principle).
Sorry Mom, but perhaps our parents should have worried more about our religious upbringing when they dropped us off at church. Perhaps they should have home-schooled us. Perhaps they assumed too much. Perhaps we children should have told our parents what really went on...
Today's Episcopal church parents have more cause to worry than my parents did back then as new false teachings work their way into the minds of their teachers, priests, and bishops and then are transmitted into today's children's developing minds.
Yes Virginia, there is but one Good Shepherd. The rest are fakes. You can spot them by their pointy hats and crooked sticks.
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