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Youth Pastor dismissed for reaching lost
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Post Help me with my wording. shaunbwilson
I'm trying to prepare a proper rejection letter. Please give me editing notes. Thanks.

---Begin Rejection Letter---

Dear *,

Thank you for your interest in learning about Jesus Christ as Savior of mankind. However, at this time we are only accepting asian males between the ages of 18 and 35 that have completed a minimum of 2 years in college.

Please be encouraged -- we will keep your information in our Demographics file and when we have fully prepared for the 13-17 year old goth girls demographic, you will be contacted with further information letting you know what time services will be.

Meanwhile, you may want to pray that Christ not come back and no tragedy befall you until your demographic comes up again in our rotation as not accepting Christ as Savior before then will result in damnation.

Thank you for contacting our Church. We'll be in touch.

May the Lord richly bless you.

In Christ,
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2/8/06 4:26 pm


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Post something very similar happened to me a few years ago J Mack Taylor
i was attempting to win the inner city kids, street gang kids were getting saved, leaving the gangs,
the younger kids from the neighborhood were riding the van to church, getting saved, and the pastor pretty much told me that as long as i was an employee of the church that i couldn't bring those children to church.
i was fired very shortly thereafter, because i chose to buck that decision.
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2/8/06 4:28 pm


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Post Shaun and everyone else Nature Boy Florida
How many members do you add per week?

If its not a lot, why not? Could it be that while the gospel is open to all, every church is not equipped to handle every need. A church that can't meet the needs of the 100 or less that attends is not very smart if they try to branch out into areas they know even LESS about. If you can't minister to the 16 teens you have, you are extremely foolish to try to reach the goths. Keep acting holier than thou if you like.

Believe me, I know the gospel. Thank you for your sincere attempts to enlighten me. I have also seen minister after minister fail and get burnt out because they didn't focus.

Trying to be the jack-of-all-trades makes you master of none.

Jesus = for everyone.

Individual churches = need to determine where ther focus is. For example: Teen Challenge can handle severe addictions; my church cannot.

Focus your ministry! There are many members. If one says I want to smell but he is really a knee, he will always be disappointed.
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2/8/06 5:45 pm


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Post Re: Just heard something disturbing chapstick
I dunno. All I'm saying is I've seen pastors come and go at this church. Some really good pastors who actually care about the community. But nope. We can't go out and get 'outsiders' and win them to Christ. We have to take care of our own people. Hey, DOC
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2/8/06 6:34 pm


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Post Re: I'd imagine Memory03
Brenda wrote:
the prodigal son had a little stink on him.. of where he had been.




yep, and it was his "DADDY" that was hugging and kissing on him. not a Pastors Council.


Natch has a point. as bad as you may think it is, WE ALL need to get prepared. If you don't want them acting up in your service, do like a lot of big churches do. Give that YP a service of his own that runs at the same time as the Worship service. In this service the YP can also give some subtle training on how to be reverent in the Sanctuary. Problem solved!!!
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2/8/06 6:54 pm


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Post Re: Shaun and everyone else shaunbwilson
Nature Boy Florida wrote:
How many members do you add per week?


Apparently we have a different outlook on ministry. The number I'm concerned about isn't how many members are added to the church, but how many souls are added to the Body of Christ. Where they attend church should be something they should choose. They should choose wherever is comfortable for them. And there should be some sort of comfort level (although not always "home") anywhere they go as we are all one body.
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2/8/06 7:00 pm


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Post I have witnessed such "Closed Mindedness." Servents Heart
We wanted to make our Church more "Available" to the youth of the area, and I got the OK to install a pair of Basket Ball Goals on the parking lot. I even got paint and masked off a real court. I brought the Youth Pastor out to look at it, and he was thrilled. He would come out and shoot hoops in the evening, and several guys from the area started dropping by, even if he was not there. The Pastor saw them out there without the youth Pastor, and ran them off! Said it was too much of a liability, and that they looked as if they may be trying to steal something. That witness was blown! Hey, DOC
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2/8/06 7:47 pm


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Post Success famousflavius
I once had an outreach to men. Over 100 were showing up on monday nights. 12 got saved and sat on the front row one sunday. soon i was called into the office and they told me that the council did not consider it a success if 100 men showed up. they consider it success if 10 tithe paying members showed up. i had to cancel the monday night basketball until the other guys stopped showing up. these are the days of our lives. Golf Cart Mafia Soldier
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2/8/06 7:58 pm


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Post Re: Just heard something disturbing notwanghere
There should be a respect to the sanctuary. Dress, hair, etc. are not relevant. Behavior is. I welcome all in my Church respect for the things sacred to me is important. I once had bus loads of kids from the projects coming to our Church. Some men felt they would damage the trees growing in our foyer. I told them "too bad" their souls are more important than your trees! When they entered the sanctuary (notice I didn't say auditorium), I expected them to act with respect. And they did. It sounds to me like the youth pastor failed in not educating them. Acts Enthusiast
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2/9/06 12:48 am


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Post Before a youth pastor is hired roughridercog
The vision of the church must be discussed so everyone knows where every one is going. Acts Mod
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2/9/06 2:22 am


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Post Re: Just heard something disturbing Land of Middle Girth
notwanghere wrote:
There should be a respect to the sanctuary. Dress, hair, etc. are not relevant. Behavior is. I welcome all in my Church respect for the things sacred to me is important. I once had bus loads of kids from the projects coming to our Church. Some men felt they would damage the trees growing in our foyer. I told them "too bad" their souls are more important than your trees! When they entered the sanctuary (notice I didn't say auditorium), I expected them to act with respect. And they did. It sounds to me like the youth pastor failed in not educating them.


It's always funny to see people judge a situation without knowing all the facts.
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2/9/06 2:33 am


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Post Land notwanghere
Land of Middle Girth wrote:
notwanghere wrote:
There should be a respect to the sanctuary. Dress, hair, etc. are not relevant. Behavior is. I welcome all in my Church respect for the things sacred to me is important. I once had bus loads of kids from the projects coming to our Church. Some men felt they would damage the trees growing in our foyer. I told them "too bad" their souls are more important than your trees! When they entered the sanctuary (notice I didn't say auditorium), I expected them to act with respect. And they did. It sounds to me like the youth pastor failed in not educating them.


It's always funny to see people judge a situation without knowing all the facts.


Where is the judging? I simply made an assessment using presented facts. Obviously full facts may nullify my perspective. Don't be so quick to determine motives.
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2/9/06 5:13 pm


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Post Re: Just heard something disturbing notwanghere
chapstick wrote:
who didn't know the proper way to behave in church disrupted a service, Question


They needed to be taught. With the information given. I stand by my opinion.
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2/9/06 5:17 pm


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Post Might Not Be So Disturbing As You Think... Yo Dude
Think of the analogy of a music minister trying to introduce "radical" hard, no-doubt-about-it-being-rock-and-roll music to a I-bleed-redback-hymnal-red congregation. He would fail. And he would DESERVE to fail.

Why? Because he failed to discern the personality of the church. He failed to LEAD them to that point...failed to slowly stretch them to that point.

Likewise, when you have a young go-getter like this young man of God, he's swinging for the fences, so to speak, bringing in people who are no doubt pierced, tattooed, etc.

Now you and I, being so much more sophisticated than that ignorant church, can heap scorn on them. But the truth MAY be that the youth pastor, with no ill-intentions, failed to discern the sort of church he was in.

Oh, I can hear it now! The roar of disapproval. But it's a fact of life. MOST churches tend to draw other, like-minded people. By "like-minded," I mean a certain socio-economic range, certain tastes in music, doctrine, and worship styles, etc.

That's why the folks who go to conservative churches are...CONSERVATIVE. We tend to "herd" together.

Nothing wrong with that. And nothing wrong with reaching outside that demographic. But, the sad truth is that, in many cases, when you bring in, say, a teenager to a church that is filled with old folks, there is often not a long shelf life for that teenager. He moves on. Why? Because there is little to connect with.

We can get all the "amens" we want by saying, "Bless God, if the power of God is there, they'll stick around." Oh, yeah? Well, what about those folks who tell you that they just "aren't being fed"? If they'll leave, how much more someone who has no real connection to the church.

And that cuts both ways. The existing crowd, by it's very nature, creates an enviroment that only other, like-minded people fit well into.

At the same time, the youth pastor GRAVITATED to goths and skaters. That was his natural reach. And that is his most authentic, most effective reach, no doubt. He didn't feel the urge to reach for young, rural rednecks. Nope. Goths and skaters.

Yes, there are exceptions, of course. But by and large, you don't find millionaires in churches that reach mainly, say, the urban or rural poor. Or doctors or lawyers. Nope. They go to the big church were other doctors and lawyers go.

So, if I were that youth pastor, and that was my heart (to reach skaters/goths), I'd open me a church (even if independent) and REACH THEM.

No need to be upset that the local whitebread church couldn't feel at ease about it. It's a natural reaction. Those goths, after being saved, might not feel too at ease if a group of southern gospel-types started "infiltrating" what they have going on.

So youth pastor need to see this as an opportunity to do what he wants to do without restriction, without any deference to the norms and standards of his local church.
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2/9/06 5:40 pm


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Post What are skaters and goths? Layperson
I assume skaters are skateboarders, but I have no idea about goths. Acts Enthusiast
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2/9/06 6:18 pm


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Post Back to the original post nugeme
You know, we don't know the whole story. The key word to me was "disturbing". It's common sense you don't allow disturbance. I would say there appears to have been good intentions but not much wisdom in this incident. I also question getting rid of this pastor because of that one incident. I suspect there's more to it.

RE: Goths.....I've talked to a lot of goth kids - most of them are quite intelligent and I've found them to be very mannerable to me.

It's amazing how people got so worked up on here - ready to cast judgment and condemn the church for sacking the poor youth pastor. Seemed a little premature.
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2/9/06 6:38 pm


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Post Just a thought... wannabebishop
This thought is for Nature Boy and any other critic over this thread.
Go read all of Acts chapter 10 - Acts 11:18...
This isn't about being "Holier than thou" but its about reaching everyone for Jesus Christ regardless of where they are from or what they look like.
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2/9/06 10:49 pm


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Post Re: What are skaters and goths? Memory03
Layperson wrote:
I assume skaters are skateboarders, but I have no idea about goths.




Goths are kids who dress like the kids that shot up Columbine High School. Dress in black most of the time. Some wear weird make up (guys too) some look like they brush their hair with a pack if lit firecrackers. Many of them feel like outcast from the in crowd (and many are) never being accepted by the cool crowd or the athletes.
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2/9/06 11:08 pm


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Post Re: Just heard something disturbing Land of Middle Girth
notwanghere wrote:
chapstick wrote:
who didn't know the proper way to behave in church disrupted a service, Question


They needed to be taught. With the information given. I stand by my opinion.



Perhaps a tract is in order. "So you want to attend a church service"

What to do and what not to do. You can be judge and jury on the subject.
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2/9/06 11:17 pm


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Post $$$$$..they're usually not big tithers and ijustwanttopraiseGod
their parents don't usually come with them, so they aren't tithing either...
Bottom line, some folks(not all) in the church don't see it as 'profitable'...
just my opinion here....

I bet this Youth Pastor is about worn slap out trying to work with these kids....probably had most of the load on him as I've witnessed with my own eyes, when someone has a burden for those that others do not consider 'desirable', they wind up toting the bulk of the ministry to them.
(we need to pray for him)

Will be a real shame when those in the church , who could have helped realize the opportunity for soul winning that they shoved aside....
and they Will realize it....one day... Crying or Very sad
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2/10/06 7:42 am


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