I'm looking forward to Dr. Kara Powell coming to town in a few days and in preparation for her visit I decided to look for examples of age segregation in the Bible. Guess what? You can't find any (however, I'd also like to point out that you'll have a difficult time finding these other things in the scripture as well: pipe organs, choirs & choir directors, worship leaders, Children's Church, female elders, debt ... the list of things that the current church embraces that is not mentioned in the Bible is actually quiet long, but we'll leave those sacred cows alone for the moment).
The fact of the matter is that age segregation is NOT in the Bible and there's a good reason for that - the Bible is about discipleship and very little discipleship can take place when you separate the young and inexperienced from those who are older and wiser. It really is that simple. So I'm looking forward to the conference and hope to learn about how I, as a youth pastor, can work toward connecting youth with the rest of our congregation in more meaningful ways.
However, I also have some apprehensions:
1) I fear that I'm going to hear something like: "Age segregation is the main reason why teens leave the church after they graduate from high school." Anyone who has looked at any of the research on this matter knows that that claim is complete and utter bunk. Do you want to know the #1 reason teens leave their (parents') church? It's because their parents live like hypocrites (call me if you ever hear that in a sermon). If the church wants to be serious about passing the faith on to teens, then they'll shine the light bright on adult hypocrisy. Here's the deal, the church may think that the nice guy on the deacon board that prays neat prayers is a mature Christian, but his kids actually live with him and they know that Christ is way down on his list of priorities. They know he doesn't help anyone in need. They know he doesn't pray with them (or his wife). They know he complains about tithing. They know he curses like a sailor when working on the car or when balancing the check book. They know his Bible sits on the bookshelf six days a week. They know that when they mess up, they don't receive anything resembling the kind of grace that they learned about in Children's Church. And since they know all of that, they also know that when they leave home, they're leaving fake religion behind too. I don't care if you surround a teen with fifty mature Christians, if a kid has a dad like that, more often than not he's not coming back to church when he moves out of mommy and daddy's house.
2) I fear that Kara will say "age segregation," but people will hear "youth ministry." It's become trendy to drop youth ministry because it's not working (see fear #1 above), but Children's Church is working? If so, why aren't fifth and sixth graders in the pew with parents during the sermon? Shouldn't older children eventually grow beyond what Children's Church has to offer? How about Senior Adult Ministry, that's working right? If so, why then do so many seniors look at retirement as their time to spiritually coast into the finish line? Few seem to know how to finish strong and even fewer demonstrate even the slightest interest in discipling the younger generation. Does the Great Commission not apply to 55 year olds?
Maybe the truth is it's okay to segregate children because they make more noise than teens, i.e., they disrupt the giving customers (I chose that last word intentionally)? But here's the deal, I don't see any kind of age segregation in the Bible. Adults, young adults, children, and even nursing babies were all together, I assume disruptions and all, but I don't expect that arrangement is going fly in the suburban, we're here to serve you so just sit back and relax, church near you. In most churches in America today children and youth are considered to be better seen and not heard. They're welcome to join the adults if they can stay quiet and agree to worship according to the preferences of adults (more on this below) - otherwise it's back to the basement with the children and youths!!
3) I fear that the real reason that segregating teens from adults has become so popular in the church won't be addressed. You may hear people say that this practice is done to help teens, but that's bunk too. The real reason is because adults don't want teens messing with their church. Adults don't to hear about what young people prefer (since their preferences clearly aren't as sophisticated and certainly not spiritually mature). For example, some adults love organ music. Why? They'll tell you it's because the hymns are based on Scripture, to which I respond, "Great, I know a church that's reaching young people by belt out 'What Wondrous Love is This' with drums and electric guitars - let's do that and we'll all be happy." The truth is organ music is their preferred style of worship music and teens are welcome to join in as long as they are willing to worship like everyone else. I call that robot-discipleship, e.g., I'm sharing the gospel with you so you can be just like me. By the way, those who think otherwise about organ music being just a preferred music style, you might want to read up on what John Calvin thought of your pipe organ.
So I'm looking forward to the conference, but I'm also apprehensive. I pray that it's a good presentation of Biblical discipleship and is used to change churches into places that are about sharing the gospel with young people - even if they don't prefer to conform to adult preferences.
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