Wrong equipment, “Banking Concept”, and Double Lives
Screwdriver is to car what young person is to adult life. Some churches give young Christians a screwdriver to fix an entire car. In this case, parents make kids go through confirmation because it’s what they have to do, and then after that, they can go back to the comfort of their normal lives. This creates a sense of “Okay, confirmation or communion is out of the way. Now, mom and dad won’t make me go so I don’t have to come to church anymore.”
Confirmation has become a place to memorize, not comprehend, defend and believe. Apologetics are not being put at the forefront when teaching and instructing. As Christians, we should equip our young people to be prepared to battle the world for their beliefs. If kids are not learning how to “prepare for metaphorical battle” in Confirmation, how will they be ready to stand against overwhelming disagreement? You wanna know the truth? They won’t. They won’t be ready. They will crumble and fail. They will fall into the snares of earthly pleasures like money, greed, and lust. I’ve seen it and I have been one of them.
In my English class this past semester (2017) at college, we read an essay called The Banking Concept of Education. Within this essay, the author argued that teaching had become an act of depositing, like depositing money into a bank. The all-knowing teacher simply deposits information into the students. In the same way, modern churches and pastors could be categorized like this. The all-knowing pastor simply deposits information into the congregation. People within congregations do not know, once again, how to defend their faith because they rely on the pastor’s knowledge and experience instead of finding out and knowing for themselves. This is sheer laziness.
If you go to a church or not, I encourage you to ask yourself: Why do you go to church? What do you expect to get out of church? Why do you believe what you believe? Why Jesus? Why not Muhammad? Why not other religions? Why Christianity?
As a freshman in college, I was not equipped to deal with these sorts of questions that were thrust upon me, and I doubt that many young adult Christians do too. College itself is a huge culture shock for young Christians because it caters to ideas which are not always in line with the Bible.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are campus preachers. While they may have good intentions of guiding people to Jesus, having a grown man scream that “Jesus loves you” and “You will go to hell because of your sins” leaves an impression on college kids, and it is not positive. Whatever positive experiences that college kids may have had with Christians before is surely damaged by this act. This is the vision that they are used to seeing in the media and TV. For the rest of us normal Christian kids, we are left with the feeling that we cannot reveal our true identities without fear of humiliation to be associated with such a person. I know this was a topic and concern for my Christian friends and I. This fear produces laziness and timidness as to how to respond.
Laziness (as well as ignorance) can also result in young Christians leading different lives in church and out. In church, you can preach that “He forgives your sins no matter what you do”. This kind of thinking is true, but it’s lazy. In young Christian adults it creates the excuse of, “I can do anything I want, and live the way I want because only Jesus can judge me, and plus He has already forgiven me.”
In church groups and Christian organizations, they are the ones that attend regularly to praise and pray with all the other Christians during their confirmation years, but once the meetings, services and confirmation are over, they are having sex, swearing, and partying on the weekends. Their tongues are saying one thing, but their lives are saying another. A quote from Josh Keefe’s video describes this perfectly. “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
As Christians around these individuals, young and old alike, we need to call out this sort of behavior. I don’t care how great of a friend or how close the relationship is. If you truly care about them, you will tell them that what they are doing is wrong in a loving and gracious manner. God is pretty clear about the judgement we will receive if we see their stumbling but do nothing about it.
But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6 (NLT))
Comments