I love them. I think they are a great idea, but there seems to be a very real imbalance. We are very glad to send our Women to things like, "Women of Faith" and we are even more happy to send our young ladies to "Revolve" and such tours. I think they are awesome and I hope those tours continue to go on and our women and young ladies attend. At these tours, the talk about some wonderful things, integrity, body image, being God's daughter... all things that are wonderful and true. Our girls are taught about sexual purity and finding their worth in God.
The problem is, it takes two to tango... if you know what I mean. It seems to me that there have been very few conferences of the magnitude of Revolve and Women of Faith for men and boys. Yes, I understand that there is Promise Keepers... a wonderful movement I tend to hear less and less about. So, we've established we have a conference for women, we have a conference for young ladies and we have a conference for men. BUT, what about a conference of this magnitude for boys?
It seems to me that there is a little imbalance if we put the expectation for purity on girls when we do not have the same venue type for boys. This puts ALL the responsibility on the girls! Does that sound right? Does it sound fair?
More and more in today's society, our young men are deprived of male role models and mentors. More and more of our young men are left to figure out life on their own. What would it take to have a similar type of conference for boys, one that is adrenaline pumping, challenging, in your face opportunity to connect these young men with God, each other and with godly men? I can see dirt bike stunts, comedy, extreme sports and all sort of other things that will appeal to young men. Bringing the message of Jesus to our young men today is something that seems to have been abandoned.
Have we abandoned our young men because they do not seem interested in this kind of conference? Do we just chalk them up to a demographic that is just too lost to reach? Too disconnected? Too not worth our time? Do any of these reasons justify our abandoning these young men? Is it not worth the potential financial risk?
I am not claiming to have the answers to these questions but I am not sure I have seen a conference in the likes of "Revolve" for boys. What gives?
So true - you know how this breaks my heart. I see young men flounder because they don't have leadership at home and they struggle with so much and often feel isolated.
ReplyDeleteMaybe God is calling you to be a part of the solution Rich.
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