A Weed in the Church Quotes

“Parents no longer walk beside their children. Instead, children walk beside other children and surrogates. Somehow, it seems acceptable to us that thirteen-year-olds influence thirteen-year-olds. In fact, we often ask them to! As a result, we have a generation of youth who are not being directed by mature adults but by themselves and the prevailing youth culture. The rising generations are being left to themselves. This is sinful behavior as Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” Sadly, we now live in a culture that thinks it is good for fools to walk with fools.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“Youth ministers have usurped the roles of fathers, and fathers have gladly relegated their duty to youth ministers without a fight or affliction of conscience. The harsh reality of our secular age is that an entire generation is without fathers who will walk beside them and teach them the Word of God. Because fathers would not train their children, we (the modern church) have risen up to do it for them. The practical result is that fathers are eliminated from the discipleship equation, and the church facilitates and endorses the practice. Because man’s ways are never better than God’s, this was not an upgrade. This practice of usurping the father’s role has instead generated an unrelenting cycle of the breakdown of fatherly leadership in the home.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“Society is in chaos when God-ordained jurisdictions are confused, such as when the state governs education, as the American government does; or the family wields the sword, as vigilantes do; or the church usurps fatherhood, as many evangelical churches do. This book affirms that many of the problems with families and churches, and specifically in youth ministry, can be traced to this confusion of jurisdictions.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“By segregating the youth from other members of the church, and thus depriving them of mature mentors, modern methods multiply foolishness rather than diminish it. Putting the unlearned and unwise together creates a youth culture that is not found in Scripture. It divides the church by creating categories foreign to Scripture.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“Consequently, when they hit the storms that are a normal part of life, such as being surrounded with unbelievers at college or the workplace, they collapse because the foundation built by the youth group deprived them of key discipleship elements. They were not built on the rock, but on the shifting sands of man-made philosophies.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“I began to believe that the problem could be traced primarily to one fundamental issue, one that we will explore in the following pages of this book: our abandonment of the sufficiency of Scripture as it pertains to our philosophy and practice of youth ministry. As a result, we have built our approach to youth ministry on a novel, experimental, and sandy foundation – the wisdom of man.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“For twenty-five years of ministry in the church, it did not occur to me that the only pattern in Scripture for youth ministry was an age-integrated pattern that was contrary to the age-segregated pattern I was practicing. I did not realize that age-segregated discipleship was absent from Scripture. I was clueless to the fact that not a single godly leader in Scripture ever practiced it. What is worse, it never even occurred to me to question the practice. I was caught in a culture that had rejected these biblical patterns.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church

“This was fueled by a return to a cardinal tenet of the Protestant faith, Sola Scriptura, which argues that God’s Word alone is sufficient for faith and practice.[3] This principle makes the Bible the exclusive foundation for all that we do. It is rooted in the belief that man’s notions for how to live must be set aside for God’s clear directives as found in His inspired, written revelation, and that God’s people are to limit themselves to obedience to His revealed will.[4] I progressively realized that modern youth ministry had largely developed from traditions, cultural preferences, statistical surveys, and the opinions of creative leaders, rather than biblical principles. If All I Had Was Scripture It finally occurred to me that if I began with Scripture alone, I would have no reason for age-segregated Christianity. In other words, if all I had was the Bible, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to establish the credibility of this practice. I was humbled to learn that God’s vision for training young people is powerful, profound, and comprehensive, standing in sharp contrast to the man-centered, culture-bound model I once advocated.”
― Scott T. Brown, A Weed in the Church