Why is youth ministry, something not found in Scripture, wrong when there are many things within the church today that are also not found in Scripture?

Scott Brown explains in this video that we see that positive commands and examples regarding the youth and worship in Scripture each call for age-integrated discipleship and worship in the church. We also see throughout Scripture how it is the responsibility of parents to disciple their own children.

Age-segregation goes against Scripture in two ways. First, to engage the church in systematic youth ministry adds to Scripture regarding how youth are to be taught. Second, such a practice takes away from God’s commands for parents to teach their own children.

In addition, age-integration is plainly taught in Scripture. The Bible is clear about this matter. When you split youth up according to age, it goes against Scripture. These methods of discipleship are clearly laid out in Scripture. We ought not to employ our own methods instead of what God has commanded.

Deuteronomy 12:32 (NKJV) – “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

One of the common objections to the film is that there are many things that we use in the church today that are not in the Bible, such as microphones, pulpits, air conditioning, and even films, the thing that we use to communicate the message. They say, why then are you saying that youth ministry is wrong because it's not in the Bible when we do so many things that are not in the Bible? Well, I want to give you three thoughts. First of all, the primary argument is not an argument from silence that youth ministry does not exist in the Bible. While we do observe in the film that the modern form of systematic age-segregated youth ministry has neither precept nor example of support, either in the Old or the New Testament.

We do not rest our argument on this fact alone. What is more important, and this is the main point that we want to make, is that all the positive commands and examples in Scripture call for the practice of age-integrated discipleship and worship in the Church and the responsibility of parents to disciple their own children. For example, Deuteronomy 4-2 and Revelation 22-19 command us not to add or take away from the teaching and the commands of scripture in this regard. So, to engage the Church in Systematic Age Segregated Youth Ministry adds to the instructions on how youth are to be taught and trained. And it takes away from God's commands to parents to teach their own children.

Second, our subject is that which is plainly and irrefutably taught in scripture regarding how youth are to be educated. The Bible is clear about this matter, and it gives the full range of that teaching, including the who, what, where, when, and why of that teaching. It's the Bible that tells us what's central. So when you split youth up according to age, you're doing something that's contrary to the explicit, revealed commands and patterns of scripture. So the message is focused on the responsibility of the Church and the family to understand how to follow the biblically mandated methods of discipleship.

To Claim that we can set aside these scriptural methods and employ our own methods because we do things and use means not mandated in scripture. In other areas of church life, it's a generic fallacy. So Consider a scenario. If a father tells his son to go clean his room immediately, he's giving his son a positive command. If the son first goes outside and plays, begins reading a book or pursuing any other activity besides cleaning his room, that son is disobeying his father.

While his father didn't say, Son, go clean your room right now and don't do anything else. The negative commands were implied by the positive command to clean his room. Third, the Methods and the means of discipleship are in totally different categories than microphones and computers. Discipleship methods are defined and commanded in scripture and are matters of law, God's revealed will that we're to obey. While Things like microphones, computers, and film, these are matters of technology.

They're practical tools that we can use as a means to carry out the law of God. In regard to technology and other practical aspects of church life, where we meet, the length of our meetings, the type of seats we use. These are matters of liberty that are under biblical guidelines for the practice of liberty. This means that scripture needs to be consulted to see if they contradict anything that scripture maintains. Everything in life is subject to the scrutiny of the Word of God.

Ideas, technology, practices, they will all be either in accordance with the precepts and the principles and the patterns of the Word of God or in violation of some aspect of God's Word. Matthew 4 says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So to summarize, first, our argument is not an argument from silence. Second, our argument is focused on what is clearly stated in Scripture, and third, air conditioners and microphones and films are not in the same classification of the revealed, commanded methods of discipleship in the Word of God.