Lowered Expectations = Crap

I have been having to give some warnings before my posts as of late and this one is no different. Many people see the church or church leaders and to say anything negative is unwanted. I understand why. However I am very critical of church leaders, just as critical as I am of myself. I put them up to a standard I set for myself and it's high, especially youth pastors.

The youth pastor of our church spoke on Sunday in "Big Church" while Pastor Tim is away. It was not good. My actual words to Rachelle as we left were: "That was painful... painful". You know you are in for a treat when the first words to hear are: "Websters Dictionary defines...". Oh wait, not treat, I meant mediocre High School essay. He went on to teach a topical sermon on "bad habits" where he essentially said alcoholism, depression, etc. are the same as biting your nails, not putting your dirty socks in the laundry basket, etc. and all were solved by simply thinking of God more. It was obvious that he had never been through any of the things he talked about. Also obvious was that he had never gotten out of a Christian culture, telling us we shouldn't watch certain movies while he was up there. It was a "weaker brother" placed in a leadership position that is most likely beyond him.

He was up there and pretty much everyone knew it was bad but is there any repercussion for it? The response of the churchgoers for the most part was the normal: "I need to be positive and get something out of this!". The other response and by far the most dangerous was: "Well, he's just the youth pastor... sooo yea". It is the fact that we are ok with crap that really bothers me. We make excuses for crap, when what we should be saying is: "This crap is unacceptable". If anything we ought to expect more from our youth leaders than we do from those speaking to adults. When parents are going to work do they have pressures everyday to cheat, lie, steal, are they encouraged to have promiscuous sexual relationships, to drink, do drugs, hitting the depths of depression and suicide with no one to talk to? Think I'm wrong? Think it isn't your teen? That's where many of our youth are. Have a conversation with a teen who is choking themselves in order to stop feeling... anything... and they think it isn't a big deal, and let me know how big a deal it is that they have good teachers. Have a conversation with a student with cancer, a girl whose been raped, clinically diagnosed as bipolar, likes to cut themselves, thinks meth is "no big deal". Are we ok teaching them crap as long as they are out of our hair? Do we as parents/guardians value our time over our children? You may say no but what do our actions say?

Lowering our expectations of the church and her leaders is a sure way to destroy any hope we have in helping people and especially youth. Most parents I worked with were interested in a babysitter for their kids which meant more events. Never mind if the events had any lasting spiritual significance, nor if they made outsiders welcome. I can't tell you how angry and frustrating it all is.