Church Under Fire for Handing Out ‘I Love Hot Youth Pastors’ Stickers
A Southern Baptist church has come under fire after the youth pastor handed out “I love hot youth pastor’ stickers, prompting backlash from social media over his poor choice in passing these around.
Fairview Baptist Church Student pastor Cory Wall has been put on administrative leave, pending an investigation, after he made a “poor decision” to distribute these stickers to his youth group kids, which went small-time viral on Twitter. The stickers likely plays on the popular “I heart hot _______” trend that is occupying the mind of pop culture.
In response to the brouhaha, Wall sent out the message on the left, with pastor Scott Shipes sent out the one on the right.
Finally, the church responded publicly on Facebook, writing:
In response to the story, many of the commenters are in hysterics, demanding that the church and pastor should be investigated by the police.
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I have worked in church music for almost 40 years and every single youth “pastor” I have worked with has been an immature, Biblically illiterate boy which is the very last thing a family should want leading their youth program. Problem is the past 30 years (a la Warren, Hybels, Drucker, et al) American churches have only had as their goal how many rear ends are in the seats and money in the offering plate. Children and youth programs have become entertainment shows to reach that end.
A good example is VBS. When I was a child, we had an opening short “service” where we learned about Jesus, hymns/music and pledges. Emphasis in each class was memorizing scripture and learning about Jesus. By the time 20 years later, I was having to shut myself off in a room to learn all the horrible dance moves to the songs so the kids could jump around. Couldn’t learn the words to the songs because they were bouncing around all over the place.
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Oh, my! What has the church come to? It is the end of life as we know it! This is an example of overreaction. I can’t believe the comments that jumped to the conclusion this youth pastor is a sex offender and contacted the police.
Was it inappropriate? Yes. Was it a good idea? No. Apparently most of you have never been a youth pastor. Yes, they are immature at times. (But realize they hang out with kids all the time!). Yes, youth pastors sometimes try to hard to relate to kids. But this is a local church issue. Why would anyone go to school guidance counselors? That response, clearly ignoring plain scriptural guidance of dealing with an offense and church disciple is more of a concern to me than a bumper sticker. The church is following its personnel guidelines. The youth pastor has a lot of explaining to do to parents and students. This will be a teachable moment ,if handled correctly and it appears it is . The youth will see even a youth pastor has moral failures. They will learn the process of repentance and that sometimes that must be a public action. Lay members and leadership need to realize the staff is not without sin AND neither are they.
I couldn’t agree more. What in the world would be reported to the police? This church is doing exactly what it should do. That said, I would replace this man and either find something else for him to do within the church or suggest he pursue a new vocation. Even if he repents, this church has to be clear it is not going to countenance such stupidity.