Since I’ll be out of town for several days, I thought I’d open the blog up for discussion without comment moderation. Please play nice while I’m gone. Comments not abiding by the comment policy will be deleted when I return.
In particular, I’d love to hear from my daily readers about your experience, where you are in the recovery process and what your key take-aways from the Honor Academy were (both positive and negative). I’ve spoken with some of you over email but I’d love to hear from the rest of you as well.
Also, what else would you like to see discussed on the blog?
Talk amongst yourselves.
2 comments:
mybowsandarrows said…
I’m sorry if this runs long. 😛 If I need to shorten it before it’s published, please let me know.
I am a former intern (03-04), graduate intern (04-05) and staff member (2008). I let the Lord use several years of my life at the Honor Academy and Teen Mania. I met my wife there. I understood what it meant to be a “world-changer” or a “leader” in whatever capacity you can be and the Lord gifts you to be.
Many times I was dissapointed. A few times a bit disillusioned. Teen Mania is a significant tool the Lord uses, but it has man’s imperfect fingerprints on it, which sometimes can smudge the view interns have of the world, of God, of themselves.
I think where some of this “abuse” that I have read about in many accounts came from Staff Members who did not have a proper understanding of the Bible or what the HA is really about. They fail to help a concerned or confused intern see through the smudges and streaks.
And that IS a failure. One which many people will be held accountable to before the Lord.
During my time as an intern there I was never discouraged from confronting leadership or questioning teaching. As a Staff member, I always tried to point interns to the Bible… and if they were hurt, confused, concerned, disillusioned, I encouraged them to ask, ask, ask until they got an appropriate answer. Go right to Dave, go right to Mr. Luce.
There’s popular teaching in Christendom that one has to be “nice” all the time… sometimes this has come across from Staff at Teen Mania… but it’s not biblical. You can make yourself known. You can bring attention to faults so that they may be fixed out of love.
I truly am sorry for those who found themselves hurt by Teen Mania and I pray they find the strength to lay down their lives before God, and the empowering grace to forgive.
But I also rejoice in the overwhelming stories of HA/TM being a catalyst to launch young people into a life that would have otherwise been lived out aimless.
TM/HA has got some faults. And it also has some serious issues.
You’re accountable to the knowledge you have and the knowledge you know you could have…
The question then becomes, What are you going to do, that lies in your power, to CHANGE it?
Thanks for reading my “comment.” LOL.
Jeff O.
October 14, 2009 12:26 PM
Recovering Alumni said…
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for your perspective. I do agree some good things have come through Teen Mania’s ministry, including my salvation experience at an ATF. However, I think there is more to the problems there than just “man’s imperfect fingerprints.”
The problems at the Honor Academy are not isolated, they are holistic. It is the entire environment there – which encompasses the culture, the teachings, and the expectations placed on interns – that is problematic, and in some cases outright abusive.
I’m not saying every intern is spiritually abused (thankfully). I am saying there are widespread problems that go beyond a few isolated incidents with particular staff members. The fact that these experiences are shared by many (probably hundreds) of interns who attend in varying years, work in different ministry placements, etc. only strengthens my belief that the environment is harmful and my experience was not outside the norm.
October 14, 2009 9:33 PM