just read a great post over at "Children's Ministry and Culture." I came up against the same problem that Larry writes about in my time doing youth ministry. Mainly that parents have difficulty accepting their children having deep relationships with ungodly kids. There were two concerns that parents in my youth ministry expressed (rightly?/wrongly?): 1) physical harm, gangs were an issue in the schools; 2) their kids might adopt the bad behavior.
There is a tension between in a loving relationship with someone and not being influenced negatively in the process. Jesus showed us a model for being in relationship with "sinners," loving, sacrificing, and speaking truth among them - as well as the righteous ones. Jesus was not unbalanced in his approach to people. I think Larry speaks some great truth when he says:
"The only prophylactic we can offer our children to guard again sin is love. If our children are passionate about loving God and loving their neighbor (all of them) they will less likely to contaminate themselves. Life inside the fortress builds boredom, cynicism, and legalism in our kids." (fortress=church)
Go read the article, I'd love to hear some feedback from you on your thoughts about how we can help kids be in the world, but not of it.
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