Segregation from NCFIC on Vimeo.

SEGREGATION

A Critical Investigation Into the Failure of Modern Youth Ministry

The Storyline

The storyline of the documentary follows young Christian film maker, Philip Leclerc, around the nation as he seeks answers to what has happened to the Christian youth in his generation.

Philip’s journey takes him from talking to kids in local youth groups, to documenting popular youth events, interviewing national youth ministry leaders, listening to youth pastors, and finally to meeting with a growing number of pastors and elders who are entirely abandoning the modern method of age-segregated Sunday school and youth ministry.

Along the way, Philip also interviews youth pastors who have come to see the futility of using the world’s methods of teaching children in the church. These youth pastors have fled age-segregated youth ministry after realizing that no leader in scripture ever practiced age-segregated ministry and that the practice is foreign to Scripture.

The truth is shocking. Statistics suggest that between 65% and 85% of “Christian” youth leave the church when they enter college. Our interviews confirm this over and over again. And yet, while the gurus of modern youth ministry agree that there is disaster in the church, Philip finds that their response is only to prescribe various modifications to the current model. Realizing the utter brokenness of the entire establishment, he goes in search of the origins of modern youth ministry, how we got to where we are today, and, most significantly, what the Bible says about ministry to youth. The exciting reality is that God has prescribed a perfect model of youth ministry, all we have to do is put it into practice.

The Message

Our message is clear. Like Nehemiah, we must fall on our faces before the Lord, repent for our sins and the sins of our nation, and turn to the Word of God in humble obedience. Then we must fearlessly proclaim the sufficiency of God’s Word for youth ministry and our responsibility to obey. This is the essence of Segregation! This film explains the problem in the modern American church – a rejection of the sufficiency of Scripture – and shows how we got here through compromise. We then present the solution in the Word of God and issue a passionate plea to fathers and pastors to return to God’s model of training children in the church.