Is Jesus the Reason?

Here's a great question from a concerned mother that will be talked about on the Drew Marshall Show this Saturday.

This week on the Counsel Of Many: parents of a teenager want to know if they should let their son attend a completely different church, one they’re not really all that comfortable with.

“My husband and I are having a tough time figuring out if we should let our 15 year old son attend a different church. Our family has been going to a United Church around the corner from our house for years. A couple of months ago, he started going with some friends to a Pentecostal Tabernacle church quite a distance away from where we live. His friend’s parents take a few kids whenever they have a special youth event on. I never really had a problem with our son going to those events once in a while, but now he wants to go to their youth group and ditch the one at our church. He also wants to go to their Sunday services instead of going to the one at our church. Both my husband and I are a little leery about the stuff they teach at this church. We’ve never gone but some of our friends have told us that it’s pretty out there. Lots of emotional manipulation, always talking about money, and apparently they want everyone who goes to this church to “speak in tongues”. It almost seems kind of cultish and as parents, we just don’t want our son getting involved with a bunch of whacky religious fanatics. And yet, I wonder if we’re being too overprotective. I mean, it’s not like he’s out there doing drugs and getting wasted with a bunch of hoodlums off the street. Maybe some other parents, or teens, could give us some advice? Do we forbid him from going to this church or should we just relax?”

This kind of highlights the point that many Christians misunderstand each other and that Jesus is not necessarily the focus of their religious activities.

I talk about this in another blog called "Sheep Stealing 101".