YOUTH MINISTRY
Preparing the soil
Safe and Secure
This area of life has been thoroughly spoiled by child abusers.
Unfortunately, the church of Rome has made a huge mess of things and brought otherwise unnecessary burdens upon the Church. They worked to protect their image and to conceal inner sickness rather than dealing biblically with the problems of pedophilia and pederasty.
And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. — Jesus (Mark 9:42).
The scandalous behavior of the church of Rome has given all churches an unfair reputation.
Nevertheless, it is critical that the Real Liberal Christian Church have a strong emphasis upon the youth. A nurturing and wholesome environment and upbringing is what has been lacking in the world and has brought us to such a low state of affairs where the very planet is on the brink of upheaval.
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. — Mark 10:13-15.
At the same time, we cannot create a police state within the Church. That would be counter-productive to say the least. We must be vigilant and discerning and see the connections and patterns of behavior that reveal.
A large part of the problem in the world today is the prevalence of pornography and the constant commercial barrage and exploitation of sexual desires. The Church will not be a place conducive to such things. Holding all things in common will make this a much easier reality to reach than otherwise. Who will bring iniquity into such a Church since exposure will be all but certain?
The Church is still subject to the secular authorities. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. (John 19:11).
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All incidences of child abuse will be thoroughly investigated internally and where substantiated, also reported to the secular authorities.
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This also includes confessions made within the otherwise confidential pastoral counseling setting. Anyone seeking counseling will be made aware of that and acknowledge it in writing.
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Youth workers will be screened. This will not necessarily be limited to checking references and criminal background.
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Anyone making application will have a full opportunity to explain any seeming negatives. Those explanations will be checked within reason.
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Naturally, everyone in the Church will come into contact with youths. All adults within the Church will be called upon to guide the children in the wholesome direction. This doesn't mean that everyone will be put through an impossible screening process.
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. — Jesus to Peter. (Luke 22:31).
We aren't Satan. We are interested in repentance, atonement, enlightenment, forgiveness, mercy, salvation, and lifting souls up, not tearing them down.
Education and Training
The Church will be largely communal-living once it is in full bloom. I the beginning, most members will worship in small house gatherings and local cells. The education and training of the children at that earlier stage and even forever since people will always gather together in homes (the communes will be homes), will be up to the Church community, its members.
Home Schooling, Commune Schooling
In the commune-setting proper, the children will be home schooled where possible, which should be nearly always. They will be given the opportunity to learn about all the facets of the faith and communal living. There will be classroom instruction in a combination structured and free-flowing environment. On the job training or apprenticing will be given to all who are able. No one will be held back for lack of money or credit in the outside world.
As for our home-schooling methods, we will not entirely reinvent the wheel. What we won't be doing is using either the conservative-fundamentalist or hyper-patriotic (my country right or wrong) materials on the market. We will do materials searches but will inevitably find ourselves creating new materials designed specifically to our ends, consistent with the Church message and undertakings.
Apprenticing
Apprenticing will be age-and-capability appropriate. We won't want to subject any children to dangerous work that requires experienced and thoroughly trained hands and minds.
The Church will endeavor to develop into a fulltime learning environment. Just because someone reaches a certain age will not mean that he or she will no longer be allowed to learn and study, etc. In fact, one of our goals will be a society where work to meet the basic necessities of life will not consume a person's entire energy bank. One will be allowed to work above and beyond the call of fellow members, but one will not be kept from learning opportunities for lack of others sharing in working to meet the necessities. That would be selfish of the other members. Therefore, the line between youth and adult is not rigid when it comes to educational opportunity.
In the secular world, the children are warehoused, processed, and baby-sat. They are kept form pursuing interests. If one has an inquiring mind, he or she is often given short attention. Those who fall behind are treated as statistics are rather family. Regimen is good to a point, but endless teaching-to-the-test is simply designed to turn out workers for mammon-serving mega-corporations. We want none of that in the Church. We want wholesome, cooperative, pacifist, sharing, compassionate, pure, and innocent, but not naïve or gullible, children turning into the adult shepherds, stewards, and all-around Godly servants of the future heaven and earth. We won't be preparing youth to be mere cogs in, or to run, the capitalistic, beastly system. (Neither will we be turning out Marxists nor any other brand of large-c communists.)
Playing
Active play will be important. It should be varied and non-violent and centered on fun rather than cut-throat competition. We are not about turning out present-day gladiators. The children will be plenty physically fit by working on the farm and other communal work, engaging in structure and other physical activities, and by eating a healthy, varied, organic diet.
Free Time
Children need free time too. They don't get enough of that in the state-run system. Too often, parents have their children booked solid from sunup to sunset nearly every day of the week. Those children don't get any time to reflect. They are being turned into what the system wants. They are being designed to be the elite. This is not conducive to being the last, which is the servant of all.
Arts
There also needs to be time for learning and making music, art, and dancing joyfully unto the Lord. What we will want to avoid are the terrible video games and other so-called entertainment products of the mainstream commercial environment and all the greedy, hard, cold, violent, and erotic-dominated, promiscuous messages of the abused and abusive mammon worshipers. This does not mean that it is all right for the adults in the community to view supposed "adult" entertainment. There is nothing adult about it. In very fact, it is all quite sexually immature.
Peace
We will teach active peace. Our youths will be raised to be ambassadors of peace in the world.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. — Isaiah 2:4
Our youths and adults must be taught politeness, manners, thoughtfulness, helpfulness, Good Samaritanism, responsibility, accountability, conflict resolution, mediation, conciliation, and all the rest of what it means to be unselfish, which is wholly consistent with scripture.
Unselfish Warning, No Coercion, Letting Go, Separating
At the same time, they must be taught what is meant by the finality of the various words of Jesus that make it clear that we are to be resigned to the fact that some souls just aren't going to repent. They aren't of the fold and cannot be forced to conform to it. We must let them go for righteousness sake, for the sake of the salvation of the worthy who are the ones who choose the one path of Jesus as Christ. Concerning those others, it may come across as rude to inform them that they are headed for hell, but so be it. Better to warn them than to face your LORD after having failed to sound the alarm.
Anti-Militarism, Calling the Troops Home
We will teach them to shun military service but not to shun military-service personnel or former personnel. Jesus did not shun people serving in the military. He called them to come to peace, and many reached out to him and connected. Everyone deserves the opportunity to repent, atone, and serve God in the Church.
Orphans No Longer
Not all the children in the communes will necessarily be the genetic offspring of our adult members. Members may adopt, and the communes will take in orphans to be raised as spirit-family members on the same footing with all other members. The adults in the communities will find themselves parenting and nurturing quite a large brood.
Sexual Education
We will not be teaching the youth that incest, pedophilia, pederasty, homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality are acceptable alternative lifestyles. They are the result of the immoral spiritual seed that has snaked through human history. They are not inevitable choices for those who see the light and have the strength of faith to overcome.
Mark 9:
43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
About Celibacy
We will not be teaching the children that celibacy is a requirement for serving God, although all those who wish to practice it may certainly do so.
We will be teaching against fornication and adultery.
Sanctity of Marriage
We will teach the sanctity of marriage between one male and one female. Also, no-fault divorce is not in keeping with the scripture. The bond between husband and wife is that of one flesh. It is sacred. If one cannot keep to that loyalty, how may he or she remain loyal to God and be entrusted to lead a flock?
From the above, it doesn't take much to fill in the blank concerning where the Church stands concerning sexuality.
Other Programs
As stated on the home page of our Education and Training section of our website, our Real Liberal Christian Communes will become places of high learning. Over time, we will consider offering internships, summer camps for urban youth, daycare and day schooling for local communities, and boarding arrangements, all on a non-profit bases. The possibilities are limitless.
This is by no means an exhaustive overview of the Youth Ministry of the envisioned Church.
Return to the next section on our Education and Training page.
Return to the "Youth Ministry" section of the Denominational Canons.
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, start spreading the news. Don't wait for us. Be a self-starter so to speak. Be moved by the Holy Spirit within. Support the Church.
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- The views expressed by Authors, Contributors, Commentators, and the like, are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Real Liberal Christian Church.
Tom Usher
Standing Comment, all posts and pages:
To all homosexuals and their supporters, condoners, promoters, accepters, confirmers, and the like:
Unless you have something completely new that hasn't already been refuted, don't bother. It won't show up.
Rehashing what has already been refuted is a waste of everyone's time.
I'm not interested in casting pearls before swine, giving the children's bread to the dogs, or rebuking a forever scorner.
Learn or go away: There is zero wisdom in homosexuality. Homosexuality is wrong. Nothing any homosexual or anyone else can say or do will alter it. No one needs the Bible to know it either. It's prima facie. There's no such thing as an unrepentant-homosexual Christian. There never has been and never will be. That's the way of it. If you don't like it, change.
Do site searches on the various topics concerning homosexuality to determine if your "point" has already been handled. Currently, I provide three different search methods. The "WordPress" search is still the most thorough.
The same can be done regarding militarism, capitalism, coercion, and many other main issues and themes.
TREATMENT, RUDENESS, POLITENESS, OFFENSE, TRUTH
Many times over the course of this website's existence, I've had commentators complain about how I've treated them and/or others. Much less frequently has anyone taken exception to those commentator's comments. I assume that's because for one, I appear to be holding my own.
Often, I have raised the fact that Jesus called certain people "serpents." I've often also mentioned how he cleaned the temple with whip in hand, not that he used it on anyone. It certainly doesn't say that he did, and neither was he charged with it in the kangaroo court of the serpents who ended up murdering him by proxy just for, among other wonderful things, speaking out and speaking truth.
If I say that those who are engaged in serpentine behavior are the New Testament "serpents," then why take offense at my saying it rather than standing with Jesus and me about it?
If others don't like it that I treat others or them the way I have in this regard, why don't they take it up with the serpents and/or their own consciences and God?
If I wanted to catch flies, I'd use honey. I don't want flies on this level. Human beings aren't to be on the level of flies. If the truth is bitter as vinegar, then ask yourself why and learn to taste it as sweet but not sickeningly so. Why attack the message and messenger, as the serpents did, and become a serpent by so doing?
The issue is not "name calling" on some bratty, childish level. When Jesus said "serpents," he was not being as a brat. His level was completely adult to adults and children. He dared say that the children understood the clear and plain truth before the adults who, afterall, had been abused and socialized by the serpents. He still calls adults back. Those who hear him and know his voice (truth) turn around and do the other required things together as well.
What is it for a human being to be more serpentine or reptilian than what God initially gave? What was and remains Jesus's point? What is the reptilian brain versus the vastly higher human brain with its cerebral cortex and frontal and temporal lobes and specific areas of altruistic sentiments and abilities? What are those higher areas before they are damaged, before the communication pathways to them and between them are diminished by evil that is always some form of abuse? How are those pathways reestablished or created where they never were in this fleshly life?
The snake lays its eggs. The eggs hatch. The snake parent doesn't nurture or raise the offspring. It's every snake for itself. Human parents and family are not designed to be that way. Humans hand down the learning of nurturing. Many people get better training than do others, and many people have a greater aptitude for learning and predisposition for the higher and highest virtues. Many are less abused. People can change for the better and best though, no matter where the starting point. They only can't if they don't — if they reject it.
Snakes, of course, also come in venomous varieties and in strangling varieties, etc., such that they have been attackers and even devourers of humans for eons, guilty and innocent alike.
Now, Jesus knew that most people could relate to what were, and still are, largely considered "good" parenting skills and "good" "family" relations. He regularly used those concepts to get people to consider the wider implications for the whole of humanity. He did know that many would refuse. He let them go. He didn't demand secular or false-religion legislation to rein them in with threats of violence and imprisonment. He was not and is not coercive. Even his Church is a voluntary place to be.
What he still teaches (through the written words in the New Testament and as those connect with the Old and also teaches through the Holy Spirit he definitely sent as he said he would) is, among many other things, that "good" is vastly better than has been commonly accepted and that real "family" is everyone left after all the rest have rejected the higher and highest good. He raised the standards far above the Old Testament and far above the "modern" standard.
The American Empire and the American people in general aren't even touching the hem of his garment, let alone even attempting to stand upright and side-by-side with him.
I point out that Jesus was, and is, a Real Liberal Christian. He is the one who brought back this censored truth that is the light. After he had spoken it and lived it and was murdered for doing so, the censors set about to re-censor it and did. They couldn't put it out though — couldn't completely extinguish the truth. I wouldn't be saying it now again with all credit to God, just as Jesus, if they had been able to completely block it.
I point out that each of those terms ("real," "liberal," and "Christian," along with "Church") are actually redundant terms — synonyms that are so close that they become one. The term "liberal" here is not the common usage, which common usage is a deliberate corruption of the term. There is no harm in real liberalism. There is no vileness in it. There is only beneficence. "Real" may be understood as the opposite of false-hearted, dark side, and dead of the Holy Spirit. Christian is both real and liberal in those senses. To arrive at living, doing, being those full senses requires what Jesus lives, does, and is in the highest. Finally, the Church is the whole.
Who are they who want to drag it down, censor it, work against it, lessen it, ignore it, etc.? Well, who sides with Jesus and who sides against him? Did the serpents side with him then? Do they now?
We call war-mongers "hawks." We call "peacemakers" blessed and "doves." Why do the hawks not take offense at "hawks" but do take offense at "serpents"? "Hawks" is not yet as telling to the general public, but I must tell you that all hawks are serpents. Why do some say, "Greed is good" but take offense at "serpents"? I tell you there is no difference between the selfish and the serpents. Why do people take offense at serpents when they do not take offense at homosexuality? I tell you the homosexual spirit also comes out from the dark side. It is a choice. It is harmful. Many are abused with it. Many never overcome it. Their very brain matter is transformed by it. Then they claim it is good when it remains confusion and definitely wrong and harmful.
Many arguments were put forth in support of tolerance. I understood that Jesus "tolerated," as in he did not execute wrath but rather told the truth and let the blind follow the blind (blind to the truth) into the ditch of their own making. I have watched while the movement has been corrupted into condoning what was once only to be tolerated. I have watched further while it has moved from condoning to promoting even to the youngest children to get to them before the truth does. I have seen evil at work, and I sound the alarm. I face censorship and other negative reactions for it.
As the American Empire claims to be a light to the world, it murders innocent babies by Hellfire missiles fired from predator drones controlled by armchair, video-gaming serpents in uniform. It tortures those who are not even suspects. It spies on its own without even probable cause or reasonable suspicion. It lies its way into wars for spoils and control. It neglects its poor, whom it treads down for the sakes of the superrich — for the sake of the massive flow of mammon from the bottom up (no trickledown — trickledown is a farce and always has been). All is claimed to be okay in America though — that America is headed in the right direction — because soon, even "don't tell, don't ask" will be a thing of the quaint past and homosexuals may be able to sleep together and have sex in the barracks with the "blessing" of the Empire while they practice murdering the innocent for the sake of homosexual, greedy plutocrats who own them and who, in turn, are owned by the dark-side spirit named by God and Jesus as Satan.
Whose side are you on? I speak truth to warn. I don't tell the secular government what to do other than occasionally to say what at least would be less hypocritical within their fallen, unenlightened system. I do so for spiritual reasons. What I want is the Christian Commons.
Now, if you submit a comment:
What you write here against the Real Liberal Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ will mark you in the Biblical sense unless you show that you have turned and are repenting in time to escape the damnation of your own choosing. That's the way of it. Don't be tempted by the devil to stand opposed to the call of righteousness. Overcome such evil temptation. Help others to help yet others to come to righteous behavior through-and-through.
Check out how even after reading this, people will still take it out of context and twist it to an evil end.