Teen-Age Church?

Sunday school is mostly boring, decided a young Kansas-born Presbyterian minister named James Rayburn, and he felt that it was up to him to do something to bring the Bible alive for teenagers. In 1940 he organized a group in Dallas called Young Life. It grew slowly, gained considerable impetus as Rayburn acquired three ranches in Colorado and a bankrupt vacation resort in British Columbia known as Malibu Beach. The prospect of spending a summer week or more at one of these layouts for a nominal fee of $35 a week did wonders to stimulate the interest of potential Young Lifers.

Today Young Life has branches in 250 high-school districts in 23 states, a newspaper, and an annual budget of more than $500,000. Funds are supplied primarily by contributors, including some big businessmen. There are no membership rolls or dues; local chapters are open to all, and usually meet with Young Life leaders--volunteer or paid--in the houses of participants. Meetings never last more than an hour, consist of rousing gospel singing and serious talk about Christ and his teaching.

Last week Founder Rayburn faced a stern denunciation of Young Life. Its authors: five of the leading Protestant ministers* in exurban New Canaan, Conn, (pop. 11,200). Over their names appeared a public statement warning parents against Young Life.

Sin & Boredom. Nub of the ministers' charge: "Young Life is. in effect, a separate teen-age church, financed and directed by adults who are not answerable to any local group. We believe its outlook is too narrow, and that its emotional effect is eventually damaging to the young people most attracted by its appeal."

Founder Rayburn snapped back at once: "There is professional jealousy in the ministry as well as in other fields. Young Life is not a teen-age church at all. It's a recruiting program for the church. I am sure we are not narrow unless the Apostles' Creed is narrow. Some of our critics want to drag us into the old static framework. If that were done, the Young Life campaign wouldn't work any better than what they are doing. Far too many pastors talk about daffodils and robin redbreast. We believe it is sinful to bore kids."

Kids & Responsibility. New Canaanites turned to the ministers for fuller explanations. Were Young Lifers imbibing a Bible-belt version of the Gospel, which made their drinking, dancing, smoking parents look like sinners? Said Episcopal Minister Grant Merrill: "The leaders tend in the direction of fundamentalism. They give easy answers to life's most difficult problems. There is one central headquarters in the West. Their workers are trained there for a few weeks or so, but they are not well trained. Then they come to a community without being responsible to anyone but a headquarters, and that headquarters is not responsible to a denomination.

"They say they are Christian, so the parents assume the churches are behind it and they let their children attend. No supervisory body of parents is involved. The kids would substitute these gatherings with other kids for their normal church activities. We feel we must improve our own work with the kids, but the children belong in their own spiritual blood family."

* Signed by the Rev. Loring D. Chase of the Congregational Church, the Rev. Oscar H. Wyche of the Community Baptist Church, the Rev. Grant A. Morrill of St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal Church, the Rev. Charles L. Austin of the Methodist Church, and the Rev. T. Guthrie Speers Jr. of the Presbyterian Church.

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