i’m never surprised to see picketers at a ys national youth workers convention (they’re almost always there), comdemning folk for whatever the perceived issue is that would lead us all astray. and this guy, who’s “dcla” merely covered up a sign that had previously read “billy graham leads to hell” wouldn’t surprise me: people have been maligning billy graham for his apparent ecumenism for years. but i have to admit, i was a bit surprised to see this guy with a sign saying “dcla leads to hell” at this event where teenagers are learning about god straight from the gospel of john, and learning about sharing jesus with their friends. it made me sad and it made me laugh at the same time.
did you get the vegans?? they always crack me up outside of the nywc’s – it’s like they specifically follow you – dead-head veggies on the road to picket the nasty meat-eating youth pastors… sigh.
i’m just amazed at the energy of some of these people who stand out there all day, but to go to the dollar store and buy a new posterboard to make a fresh sign, that’s just too much work…
Hey, who wants to go to heaven anyway? I’d rather be with my friends.
Well at least he is mult-using his signs. So strange.
I remember when I took my students a few years back and the picketers confused them. They didn’t know how to handle it, they couldn’t understand how anyone could have a problem with DCLA. They tried talking to the picketers, they tried yelling and then they came to me wondering why they where here. I tried to explain about how some people read scripture differently and how this causes some people to have problems with what we where learning from scripture and doing as a church together. They asked why they wouldn’t talk with them beyond a practiced monologuge and I told them it was because they were more intrested in getting their point across then actually dialouging. We went through their hand-outs together trying to figure out where they where coming from, and that just confused my students more. It made me sad that the protesters were doing what they were doing to my students, but it gave me a lot of hope…my students weren’t used to “christians” fighting christians yet, protesters, clanging cymbols and other things I just take as a reality were outlandish and weird to my students, gave me hope that they kept that outlook in the future to keep them from following the same path for church happenings they objected to.
Well I would say the signs have made great conversations with my kids here. BTW I have not seen you the whole week. See you in Austin in a couple of months.
I just think it’s pathetic and disgusting – thousands of teens getting together to learn about God and someone has a problem with it? For crying out loud, so what if you have some differences in theology! The world is discouraging enough for teens trying to make right choices without supposedly fellow Christians tearing them down, too!
Anybody seen the Nooma “bullhorn guy”? Great response to this.
You know what always confuses me are not the ones with the signs that clearly show their position, but the ones handing out material and you have no idea what they are trying to get across. Some material about how sme guy left his church and is now living in a comune and realizes what church is all about for the first time….stuff like that.. are they there to try and steer you towards their truth?..are they condemning you nicely?..do they have free time on their hands..? at least you know with the guy that is proclaiming hell to everyone, but the others just confuse me.
I remember seeing these type of people at a Miles Mcpherson Crusade. They had a HUGE list of Christian leaders/speakers that were “leading people to hell”, including Miles, Billy and James Dobson.
I guess these people would rather have the kids getting high, getting drunk and running away from home…
Well, we told our kids that the best way to waste their time was to ignore them. So we did. But we did have a freshman go up to one and ask if he liked the Rolling Stones. The guys said that they were wicked. Then our freshman said, well, you are probably more of a Backstreet Boy kind of guy anyways. The guy didn’t like that too much. Then our freshman walked away. We enjoyed his little story when we got together for devotions that night. BTW…DCLA was awesome and our kids loved it!
This “dude-with-sign” has been at dcla since 97.
What surprises me is as often as I go to YS events is how I run into “these” people all the time. Sometimes you just want to ask them, what were you thinking?
my youth pastor and I (I’m the marketing/media dude) went to the NYWC in Pittsburgh together last year. we walked to get lunch one day and there was this dude with a sound system and microphone set up in front of a planned parenthood clinic, preaching* in the most depressed, joy-sucking tone of voice i have ever heard in my life. i hate abortion as much as the next guy but it was such a terrible witness to these poor women.
we were talking about this guy just last week and my youth pastor asked, “what do you think he would have done if one of the girls had said, ‘wow, you’re right! i see what you’re saying! what should i do now?'” i’m sure he had adoption, etc. resources all lined up for them.
i guess one of the surest signs that you’re doing something right is the presence of some moron telling you you’re doing it wrong.
* condeming
My kids learned a lot from them – they took pamphletsw and looked up verses and saw how out of context they were all on their own!
My son was the only middle schooler with our group andis only entering sixth grade but he came back from his workshop and told me that it had been led by the PRESIDENT of YOUTH SPECIALTIES!!! Very impressive to an 11 year old!
Funny how the same guy showed up with the same sign (altered, of course, to read “Laurie Leads to Hell”) that same evening for the Anaheim Harvest Crusade, just down the street… wonder if he actually had planned on being at DCLA…
Hey – at least you’re not on their website! :-)
http://www.atruechurch.info/home.html
In the long run, I think they’re doing more good than harm. Can you think of any better time during the year to be faced with this kind of opposition than during dcla or ys? I mean, it is an immediate chance to love the unlovable. I just can’t stand when I see people yelling at the picketers.
Todd Friel of wayofthemasterradio.com discusses sharing the Gospel especially in the face of so many trendy preachers who try to water down the Gospel into a mere therapy or “relational” message without actually showing how & why a person needs to repent & believe & what happens if they don’t.
Todd also produced an excellent response to Rob Bell’s “Bullhorn Guy”. This video presentation is an excellent example of how to present the Gospel. (see presentation within the full article)
Listen to the 22 minute audio by following this link:
http://thekingdomcome.com/gospel_support