Recently, Hillsong United held its annual conference here in Houston, TX at Grace Community Church (not to be confused with John MacArthur’s church. The weekend was packed with workshops, breakout sessions and concerts, all led by members and pastors associated with United.
My girlfriend and I had the opportunity to attend, thanks to my brother who works at The Houston Chronicle. Our first stop was in a workshop titled “Agents of Change”. According to the program guide, Hillsong youth pastor Chrishan Jeyaratnam would be exploring “some of the fundamentals of what it takes to create a great culture within our youth ministry”.
Speaking before a large audience, Jeyaratnam urged everyone to encourage our youth to believe in themselves and follow their dreams by speaking positive words of faith into their lives. This was the basic principal laid out in his message. He briefly stressed the importance of evangelism but never really explained exactly what he meant by it. In today’s wide wacky world of evangelicalism, this could mean anything.
What caught my attention were his comments on how to deal with young people who are falling into temptation and sexual sin. According to Jeyaratnam, there are two ways to prevent sinful behavior.
“It's really easy see a problem and jump on it by telling young people, 'you know what, you shouldn’t be sleeping around, you‘re sending yourself to hell, you‘re going to catch an STD'.”
Rather than "preaching against something", and this something being sin, his advice is that we “speak life” into their situation and use positive words.
“You can come into the situation and preach life into something…and encourage them to be who they are called to be.”
However, Ezekiel makes it clear that we are to “warn a wicked man to turn from his way” and if he continues in his sin, he “shall die in his iniquity” (Ezekiel 33:9). If we see someone blindly walking towards the edge of a cliff, the loving thing to do would be to warn them that the path they are on leads to a 1,000 foot fall and ultimately to their death.
Addressing the issue of sexual sin in the body of Christ, Paul orders the Corinthians to expel a brother who is willfully sinning. This sobering demand of excommunication only emphasizes the dreadful effects of sin and the urgency to discipline someone who is living a lifestyle that leads to death and corrupts the fellowship of believers. This principle was used to teach the offender a lesson and differs vastly from the Jeyaratnam’s idea to “speak life” into someone who is caught in sin. By disobeying the scriptures in this matter, he may actually be “speaking death” into a person.
He spent the final 12 minutes stressing the importance of “just having fun” in the youth ministry by telling stories of stunts and pranks pulled by fellow believers back in his church. Using John 10:10 to support his claim, he blames the enemy for stealing our fun a
nd says Jesus came to give us an abundant life! Paul had a different approach for the youth of his day. He realized the trials, temptations and tribulations that lied ahead for young Timothy so he exhorted him to train himself in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7) and to preach the Word in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). A far cry from simply “having fun”, Paul’s standard for Timothy were not bound by his age. In fact, Timothy was called to be an example in his speech, life, love, faith, and purity for all believers (1 Timothy 4:12).While what may have seemed like an innocent and heartfelt message from Jeyaratnam, pastors and teachers who simply pamper the youth will only bring them grief in the end (Proverbs 29:21). Instead, let us promote young people to absorb themselves daily in the reading, preaching and teaching of scripture (1 Timothy 4:9). And in due season, may they grow up to be like a tree planted by the streams, flourishing and growing in the Word of God and yielding fruit for His kingdom (Psalm 144:12, Psalm 1:3).
No comments:
Post a Comment