Volume 11, Number 1, July-August 2007 Dwindling Youth Population Among
Sabbatarians: Coincidence or Purposeful?
By Yochanan
Qavah
I read with great interest in the last issue Roger Waite’s
concern for the church’s teenage/youth population and Norman Edward’s vision
and purpose for PABC. Both were quite lengthy but not entirely unrelated, as
I will try to expound. (As you will see from my language, I write from a
different perspective but not contrary to that which is familiar to the
readership). Let’s start with
Roger’s article: Mr. Waite rightly spoke of a very real developing fact among
the Mr. Waite pointed
out several key factors at work in this generation: the lack of interest
among the youth at church; few, if any peers their age, continuing to attend
their church; little, if any, dialogue between the youth and their youth
leaders; lack of opportunity to choose like-minded mates and careers when
they become young adults, etc., ad infinitum. He could’ve easily expanded the
list in my opinion. I would begin at the biblical admonition that he pointed
out, which many neither do nor fully understand! The love for Yah and
His people and education begin with the family.
What
Deut 6 Really Says The
instructions given in Devarim (Deut) 6:4-9 are so important that they are
read every Sabbath service in synagogues and among most Messianic kehillot
(congregations) Our Master, Yeshua himself, quoted two of these verses as
being the most important commandment of all. By saying that these
verses were the most important, Yeshua was inferring by extension the
importance of the rest of this passage which says: And these words
which I command you this day shall be in your heart; you shall diligently
teach them to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your
house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you arise… The word “you” in “I command you this day” refers specifically to parents because of what follows. But it speaks far more than just teaching our children the mitsvot (commandments) of Elohim – YHVH is actually commanding us to home-school our children! Am I stretching or adding to the Word? Let me simply substitute one word and corresponding pronouns in the above passage to match today’s typical reality: “And
these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart; [schools]
shall diligently teach them to your children, and [schools] shall talk of
them when [they] sit in your house, when [they] walk by the way, when [they]
lie down [with your child] and when [they] arise…” It
is clear from this spurious interpolation of words that Believers have handed
over the task of educating our children from dawn to dusk, 180 days a year.
Is it really any wonder that the children love the things that their classmates
love, take on their culture, want to have a career that will, invariably,
be at odds with our faith?!? Some
will cry, “that’s it! We need to create a parochial school!” Is that really
the answer? If you think public schools are indoctrinating our kids, do you
think that religious schools don’t do the same? It is like what Mr. Waite
referred to in the last issue: teachers are dropping propaganda (doctrines)
into the students’ heads. Real education comes first, from the Bible
and then living out the principles of whatever you are studying. Centralized,
public schools don’t do this and can’t do this!! Some
people will object saying that they can’t home-school because both parents
need to work. That is the leading objection I hear all the time. I tell everyone
this but I would ask you, the Believer, do you really love Yah
and your family? (This is what Yeshua asked Kefa [Peter] three times). It
really comes down to what culture do you want to live by? Do you want to live
in the culture of our nation(s) or do you want to define culture? I do not
consider home-schooling to be “my” theory because among Messianic Believers,
children growing up and leaving their faith isn’t a problem. Why? Among many
reasons, I would cite that many (clearly the majority here in Home-schooling,
or the lack of it among COG families isn’t the only problem contributing to a
bleak future. It is only a symptom. Space does not permit me to write about
the solutions here which are why I wrote a book on this “generational crisis”
and how it will be solved ( see end of article). This leads nicely to what
Norman Edwards wrote about in the last issue because he is doing what I wrote
about before I met him! Solution
to the Generational Crisis? The
solution to the flight of young Sabbatarian people cannot be fixed by any one
quick fix or some new church program because some of the problems are
fundamental assumptions made by those of the Sabbatarian faith. I have no
doubt that Christian Sabbatarians want their children to continue in the
“faith once delivered” but there are dynamics at work that undermine living
one’s faith before we even leave the starting gate, so to speak. One
of the biggest Lies that everyone (including this author at one
time) has swallowed whole, in our country at least, is the myth of The
reason some families cannot seem to make the transition to home-schooling is
because Believing families were not meant to educate and raise
their children on their own. The reason your children choose to go off with
their classmates and marry unbelieving spouses is because they were never
meant to become One with the world. I am not saying that Believers should
never know unbelievers; I am saying that all of us, according to the
pattern set out before us in the Re-Newed Covenant, were to be a Community of
Believers evangelizing the world, not a bunch of seed scattered to the wind
for the world to reshape in its image! That is exactly what you are
saying when you lament losing your children. This
is why I find pioneers like Norman Edwards and a few others so invigorating.
They are completing the circle back to the “faith once delivered”. The goals
and operations of PABC are beginning to fulfill what has been lacking among
the True Believers for far too long. Read again what Norman Edwards wrote
about PABC in the last issue. He is right. Many people will see PABC as
another church or denomination but it’s not a “church”—it is so much more! It
is a Community whose primary mission is to educate young adults; to be
a light to their neighborhood; to provide a place where people can serve
Adonai (Lord) more fully; a place for summer camps, festivals, etc. Tell
me, if anyone can: who has the time to educate one’s child and
care for the elderly and stranger and evangelize the nation and
host parties, festivals, Sabbath meetings every week…. and so on? Who?
The question is rhetorical because no one can, not even churches and
synagogues. Only when you begin working with your fellow Believer,
together, as a community, will you save your children, be the instrument
to save an Unbeliever, feed the poor and downtrodden, etc. Because, let’s
face it: unless we physically move to a place such as the Port Austin
community, we (I included) will not have the time nor resources to
serve other people that Yeshua commanded us to do!! We are too busy trying to
survive ourselves!! And if you say that you can do all the above, you are
either rich, a liar, or in need of sharing your methods with the rest of us!
That’s why Idecided to move to Port Austin. I know of no other opportunity on
earth like PABC right now. It’s not easy for many to do this; it has taken me
literally over a year just to make plans, but it will pay off for somebody,
someday. As
the title asks, is it coincidence or inevitable that young Sabbatarian people
are choosing an alternate future? I think it is obvious: What do Sabbatarian
churches offer them? I know what people are going to say to that so I will
leave that for an article in the next issue (Lord willing). If you are not close enough to visit Port Austin but want to learn more about the Messianic community concept, I offer my book, Blueprints of the Kingdom, which explains in more detail how some families can go about creating a community in their area, built upon biblical principles (ykqavah@yahoo.com). & Download Full Issue in PDF: July-August 2007 Quick PDF (.6 MB) July-August 2007 High-Quality PDF to Print (2 MB) Back to front page
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