Reaching Goths and Wiccans

Without any evangelistic outreach targeting them, Paul Majack, at Rainier Hills Christian Fellowship, is seeing Goths, Wiccans and homosexuals come to his Wednesday night youth meetings. He must be watering down the gospel, right? WRONG! Rainier Hills’ youth meetings, of between 80 and 120 high school and junior high youth, are no-frills presentations of 20-30 minutes of worship and then straightforward preaching on the life of Christ (yes, preaching). Lesbians are told forthrightly that there are only two ways, and those not going Christ’s way are going to hell. Young people who disrespect ministry leaders, and who distract their peers from listening to the preaching, are suspended from attending youth meetings for a month. So why do they keep coming back?

Goths and Wiccans tend to have a background of rejection. Some come from dysfunctional homes, and don’t have a sense of parents really caring about them. They tend to be in the “out” group at school. People have rejected them, so their lifestyle is an attempt to step outside the social system that has failed them. A sometimes motivation for their bizarre dress and piercings is to get the rejection out of the way first thing. If their appearance doesn’t immediately put you off, they may test you by blurting out the foulest thing about themselves that comes to mind.

A background of rejection, of course, provides a key to their hearts: authentic love and acceptance. Refusing to be put off by Goths’ appearance and self-confessed sins is the first step in showing them the acceptance they inwardly long for. Rainier Hills’ youth workers have a high Mercy quotient, and so loving and accepting these kids comes easy to them. However, under Paul Majack’s leadership, the workers have learned that authentic caring can’t be expressed without boundaries. Young people chafe at rules sometimes, but know instinctively that an authority figure who really cares about them will protect them with boundaries. “Kids actually crave boundaries,” Paul says.

Apparently the youth of Buckley and Enumclaw are also craving Truth. It’s no mystery why whole families are exiting churches that have emasculated the gospel (as Dave Shiflett has so well documented in his book Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity): people don’t attend church just to be told that “whatever you believe is okay.” Segments of America’s youth are looking for institutions and leaders that stand for something, even if that something is a costly truth. One of those segments is in east Pierce County and it's finding Truth at Rainier Hills Christian Fellowship and in the person of Jesus Christ. Praise God!

posted by Roderick of TMin @ 5:08 PM