What we do on Sunday PM and Why

Well, again this born out of an emotionally violent mix of dreams and my frustrations with what I was already doing. I knew I wanted to do studies and discussions that would help develop a Biblical Worldview among the youth ministry as a whole and for them as individual teenagers. Everyday they are colliding with unbiblical worldviews either through school (teachers/material/friends), family and media. The best way to combat this reality is with a comprehensive Biblical Worldview study. The problem was that everyone I found that was prefabricated was way over their heads. And everyone that was not was...well, terrible to say the least. So I made one up.

Soooo, I got busy making up a plan to cover all the things I wanted to cover and I felt needed to be covered. We have already talked about Missions this year(every January from now on is Missions Month) and we will talk in the future about creation/evolution, how we got the Bible, denominational differences, etc. These are big issues that they need to know before they finish High School.

LTDs
One of the things I learned while in Seminary was not actually in the Seminary. I was volunteering with the youth group at the church my wife and I attended. It was there I learrned about LTDs. This is not a diease or your memaw's car. An LTD is a worldview exercise also known as Learn to discern. With the ise of music, art, articles, film, etc you can expose kids to unbiblical and biblical worldviews in a highly discussable format. For example, this month is an LTD month so last week we discussed the song, My Own Prison by Creed. I start by laying out the rationale for the kids. Then I play the song with each student holding a copy of the lyrics. Then I ask them questions about the song so they will see what is biblically kosher in the song and what is not. This can be done with film clips and articles as well. It is amazing what they see. The idea is to train their minds to think biblically when the radio, TV or movie is playing. Therefore at least four monsths out of the year will be dedicated to LTD exercises.

The Need
There is a real need for young people to be trained in developing a biblically informed worldview. Most are inept in the discipline. And it usually is not for lack of trying. It is usually because their leaders do not rise to the occasion and fight for it. I do not want to leave anytime soon but my hope is that this will be the beggining of a history of Westminster Youth Ministries' commitment to developing a Biblical Worldview in the lives of their young people.