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The youth outreaches on Saturdays with fun activities, I have never heard of and never known such. They must have been stopped. There used to be occasional Barbecues or outings but they were for Sunday School kids. I know SMC hold Youth Weekends in Greenock every few months, because a friend's children used to attend them, when the kids stay overnight in the School or at Cedars house and go to the meetings. On Saturdays they have outings and activities. That's the only stuff I know of. These were for church kids though, not kids outwith the church.
What about the satellite churches like Neath, London and the one called The Refuge ?
Judging from posts made on the other thread on the RR forum theres plenty of activities being focused on the vulnerable and easily indoctrinated young there:
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Seems to me that its a sign of the spiritual failure of a church movement, if the only way it can grow its numbers is to go for the ones least able to question and critically assess their ways.
As to the strong element of women and how things appear to have been run and approached differently by past SMC men, as the resident "village sceptic" here - I do wonder whether it is down in part to psychology. There is a growing field of research being carried out in the field of psychology of religion, and i have often wondered whether women may be more predisposed towards an experiential, devotional and mystical approach to their beliefs whether
men have more of a predisposition towards the cerebral, intellectual and propositional aspects - ie the theology.
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and here
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Of course its a mix in the real world.
I do have to say - it seems to me that it is essential that one anchors pentecostalism into something more grounded - for example like the Assemblies Of God do with their structure and modus operandi - their attempts to provide accountable leadership.
Compare this with the free-form "anything goes" televangelist faith healer churches like Benny Hinn or Creflo Dollar, where the only time they seem to pay attention to failings in how they run things is when they are exposed and embarrassed by revelations in the secular media.
I strongly suspect that Benny Hinn and the like attract sizeably more followers and donors who are female than male.
It would also be interesting to find out how often it is women in the fundamentalist Islamic world that are encouraging their children to become martyrs instead of men.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2012 07:49PM by Clive.