Why do so many have disdain for the bus ministry?

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I know for a fact that some kids have parents that party all night Saturday night, and then put them on a church bus Sunday morning to get rid of them.  If they didn't, some of them wouldn't get anything to eat that morning, nor have anyone show them love. And they definitely wouldn't hear the gospel.  I have heard their testimonies.  Most may not ever stick around or really get saved, but enough do to make it worthwhile, imo.  If only one poor kid is reached, helped, removed from the visious cycle of sin, drugs, and poverty, then that is worth whatever it costs for gas to run those buses.  Why do other Christians thumb their nose at the bus ministry?
 
I don't think it's that most people have any particular problems with a bus ministry. They have a problem with everything that a bus ministry represents in their minds.

Just like people really don't have a problem with hockey, since they associate hockey with Canada (and let's be honest...), they pick on hockey.
 
I generally don't even comment on it, because I've never been part of a church that had one, so I don't really know what it's all about. I try not to be opinionated in my areas of ignorance.
 
I've never heard anyone thumb their nose at the bus ministry. Only in sermon illustrations.
 
I have absolutely nothing against a church having a bus ministry. A church's bus ministry was instrumental in me coming to know the Lord. Remember, though a bus ministry is simply a tool, no where in Scripture is it mandated that every church have one. I have never seen the bus ministry denigrated. I am not saying that it does not happen, I am merely saying that I have not seen it. On the other hand I have seen churches that have bus ministries criticize those that for whatever reason do not. This is equally wrong.
 
The distain displayed has little to do with the bus ministry and much to do with the attitude of those who feel that unless a church has one, somehow they are not in the will of God.  In this way those who promote bus ministry and KJVO are very similar...matter of fact they are usually the same people!
 
A lot of kids take the bus to school. It's just something they are used and would expect to go to Sunday (or Saturday - which some churches have) School in a bus if they are already go to Weekday school in a bus.

There are probably other reasons but I think one reason many don't like the bus ministry is that there is very little if any attempt or effort to witness to the unsaved parents of the kids. They will cite Bible verses that support their belief that parents should be saved first and then the children. However they must have missed the verse where Jesus said that there would be divisions in families because of him - sons against fathers, mothers against daughters, mothers in law against daughters in law - Matthew 10:35 (Jesus is just making generalities here so there could also be fathers who hate their sons because of their faith in Christ. This is as true today as it was then.
 
For one thing, witnessing to a bus isn't very productive. 
 
T-Bone said:
The distain displayed has little to do with the bus ministry and much to do with the attitude of those who feel that unless a church has one, somehow they are not in the will of God.  In this way those who promote bus ministry and KJVO are very similar...matter of fact they are usually the same people!
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I've never heard that about the bus ministry. To me the bus ministry is just a privilege not a right.
And does it matter how many buses a church has or if they have an actual bus? Could they have a large van and still be in the will of God? It sounds like snobbery like in billionaire boys clubs.
 
brianb said:
T-Bone said:
The distain displayed has little to do with the bus ministry and much to do with the attitude of those who feel that unless a church has one, somehow they are not in the will of God.  In this way those who promote bus ministry and KJVO are very similar...matter of fact they are usually the same people!
Click to expand...

I've never heard that about the bus ministry. To me the bus ministry is just a privilege not a right.
And does it matter how many buses a church has or if they have an actual bus? Could they have a large van and still be in the will of God? It sounds like snobbery like in billionaire boys clubs.
Click to expand...

Oh there are those even on here that believe every church should have a bus ministry...and if they don't something is wrong.
 
brianb said:
T-Bone said:
The distain displayed has little to do with the bus ministry and much to do with the attitude of those who feel that unless a church has one, somehow they are not in the will of God.  In this way those who promote bus ministry and KJVO are very similar...matter of fact they are usually the same people!
Click to expand...

I've never heard that about the bus ministry. To me the bus ministry is just a privilege not a right.
And does it matter how many buses a church has or if they have an actual bus? Could they have a large van and still be in the will of God? It sounds like snobbery like in billionaire boys clubs.
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I have heard such snobbery at my former church.

One major beef I have with such attitudes is that they must have a lot of buses - quantity over quality. They are quite content with spending many millions of dollars on a building (one of many newer structures on their property) while spending a pittance on an old, decrepit, unairconditioned  bus that is supposed to be safely transporting a lot of children. Their volunteer mechanics will hold that thing together via prayer, duct tape and bondo if need be.

I think they have their priorities completely out of whack. Perhaps every time they hold their ANNUAL million dollar+ fundraiser each March they should spend the first $100k or so on a quality used bus.
 
Thanks for the replies, people.  I will not try and answer each post individually, but wanted to see what people thought, and if the reasons I have heard are about the same.

I have heard most of the reasons listed, but I have heard others as well.  Some people don't like it if you bring in people that aren't "their kind", if you get my drift.  That is not anywhere the majority, thank the Lord, but prejudice still is alive in some people.  Another reason I have heard is that the kids don't have any money, so can't tithe (which I don't believe in, instead, cheerful giving), and are nothing but a drain of money.  I tend to think that is the primary reason.  It usually boils down to money.  That is why, as one person put it, that buses are held together with duct tape and a prayer.

As for KJVO people being the ones that think you have to run a bus ministry, I am not sure about that, but that doesn't discount that a bus ministry can be a good thing. Give a monkey a typewriter and every once in awhile he will spell a word.

Yes, vans can be used, especially in churches that have limited resources.  Van ministry can also be used to bring in the elderly that can't drive as well.  Of course, they need to be handicap vans.

The bottom line is, when you hear some of these kids stories (and they are not all bad), and about their broken families, how can that not pull on your heart strings to reach them?  Kids have a way of getting to me, I guess.  And I agree with the person that said you don't have to witness to their parents first, but do so if given the opportunity.  I mean, you have to talk to the parents to get their permission anyway, but, sometimes, they just know how to get rid of you after that and don't give you much of a chance.  I was that way before I got saved.  I didn't want to hear it, no matter how nice the presentation.

My thoughts are these:  If you can run a bus ministry the right way, with good equipment and people, then do it if the Lord leads.  I don't think you have to do so, but we have to reach our communities somehow, and cold calling door to door never works that well.  Children's hearts aren't as depraved, and they are easier to reach.  The want to believe in good, but they don't like hypocrites.  Jesus had a special place in his heart for them, and said we all must come as a child if we are to be saved.  Our future lies in our children, so we had better go after them as the devil and his crowd are getting them by droves.

 

 
While working in our Bible ministry today, I happened to be talking to a lady about the bus ministry in a former church she and I attended many years ago.  "Preacher boys" in the college had to work in the bus ministry for a year (btw, this wasn't HAC).  We noted that the men who had a heart for the FAMILIES of the bus kids were the ones who went on to start churches in difficult areas in the Pacific NW...and have flourished in those areas.  That is a positive outcome.

No disdain here.  I think church groups should be concerned for souls and have an outreach in any manner which works in their area. 
 
I'm a bus kid.............worked on a bus route in college it changed my life. My family was reached by someone caring enough to ask us to ride their bus. I believe that one decision has changed my destiny..........Thank God for the bus ministry!!
 
I don't think it's so much the bus ministries themselves as the methods employed to run it and or to lure children into it. I remember one very strict IFB church that used tactics such as "We're having cookies on the bus. Would you like to come?" It's a mindset that automatically teaches young ones to associate love and caring with "stuff." Ride the bus, get a treat. Get baptized, get a lot of attention that you may or may not be receiving otherwise. It focuses on children instead of the family as a unit.
It also seems like a lot of new adult believers get suckered right into the bus ministry. It's something for them to DO and feel good about, when in reality, a new believer should be being discipled instead of used, but since a lot of the higher ups aren't going to do the bus ministry, they toss it to the newbies who are reluctant to say no.
There's also, quite often, a poor attitude towards the children. The children with parents who let them go to church if the child wants to are often branded as non-caring parents with children who are not well-cared for and somehow neglected. It seems pretty prevalent in larger churches with big bus ministries. In one very large IFB church we attended for a while out here, my kids were branded as "bus kids" and treated like garbage. Apparently they thought they were bus kids because they wore pants. We'd just moved from central Alaska after a long cold winter of temps that dipped down to negative 50, so no, I don't have kids who wear dresses very often. When they tried to come downstairs to go to church services with me after Sunday School, they were stopped and yelled at to stay with their group and accused of lying when they said they were going downstairs to be in the service with me and my husband.

When I made an appointment to speak with the pastor about that issue (and the issue of them telling girls that boys were "better" than girls), he did apologize. However, they also told me that girls wearing pants are a large part of the lesbian movement and one of the first things the gay community did to turn girls towards being lesbian, and that a high majority of these lesbians wear pants and the pastor implied that if my husband "kept me on the straight and narrow," they'd see a change in how we dressed.
Not that I dress like a whore or anything, I'm quite modest and so were the kids. Dress slacks and a blouse were normal church wear...then again, so were nice jeans and a decent shirt. And he didn't apologize about the teaching that boys are better than girls and that it was the girls job to take care of boys and implying they shouldn't be looking to be more than housewives, which I THOUGHT was an exaggeration or misunderstanding on the part of my kids, but unfortunately, they really believed that. Again, he referred to lesbians and progressive women trying to take over the world and how we shouldn't be a part of that.


So yes, I do have some issues with what I have seen in IFB church bus ministries. The concept is good, but human ignorance, prejudice, and the undying belief that the middle and upper classes are somehow better Christians and more important to the church than bus kids or poorer working families that don't contribute to the building fund or what-have-you really irks me. There appears to be an attitude of "look at what we're doing for these lesser people" rather than a humble attitude of HONEST love and servitude.

Don't take away bus ministries...but if you don't have a strong church that can handle it properly, your church has no business taking on something the members are incapable of handling properly. 
 
Gina B said:
I don't think it's so much the bus ministries themselves as the methods employed to run it and or to lure children into it. I remember one very strict IFB church that used tactics such as "We're having cookies on the bus. Would you like to come?" It's a mindset that automatically teaches young ones to associate love and caring with "stuff." Ride the bus, get a treat. Get baptized, get a lot of attention that you may or may not be receiving otherwise. It focuses on children instead of the family as a unit.
It also seems like a lot of new adult believers get suckered right into the bus ministry. It's something for them to DO and feel good about, when in reality, a new believer should be being discipled instead of used, but since a lot of the higher ups aren't going to do the bus ministry, they toss it to the newbies who are reluctant to say no.
There's also, quite often, a poor attitude towards the children. The children with parents who let them go to church if the child wants to are often branded as non-caring parents with children who are not well-cared for and somehow neglected. It seems pretty prevalent in larger churches with big bus ministries. In one very large IFB church we attended for a while out here, my kids were branded as "bus kids" and treated like garbage. Apparently they thought they were bus kids because they wore pants. We'd just moved from central Alaska after a long cold winter of temps that dipped down to negative 50, so no, I don't have kids who wear dresses very often. When they tried to come downstairs to go to church services with me after Sunday School, they were stopped and yelled at to stay with their group and accused of lying when they said they were going downstairs to be in the service with me and my husband.
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I agree.
 
Sherryh said:
I'm a bus kid.............worked on a bus route in college it changed my life. My family was reached by someone caring enough to ask us to ride their bus. I believe that one decision has changed my destiny..........Thank God for the bus ministry!!
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Great testimony! Thanks for sharing.
 
jimmudcatgrant said:
I know for a fact that some kids have parents that party all night Saturday night, and then put them on a church bus Sunday morning to get rid of them.  If they didn't, some of them wouldn't get anything to eat that morning, nor have anyone show them love. And they definitely wouldn't hear the gospel.  I have heard their testimonies.  Most may not ever stick around or really get saved, but enough do to make it worthwhile, imo.  If only one poor kid is reached, helped, removed from the visious cycle of sin, drugs, and poverty, then that is worth whatever it costs for gas to run those buses.  Why do other Christians thumb their nose at the bus ministry?
Click to expand...
GUILT!
 
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