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Jenni · 01-30-2011, 09:49 PM

I was a bus kid. I rode on the bus and it became one of my ministries once I was in high school, mainly because it didn't scare me to walk into a crack house and wake up a kid so he could come to church. In some instances, when a "bus ministry" is done right, it's helpful. Kids who otherwise couldn't come to church get to come.

But I agree that it's awful to have separate services for the bus kids. So many church parents are concerned their kids will be corrupted by the bus kids, when they actually might learn a few things or have a chance to, I don't know, be salt and light like Jesus says we should be.

I always volunteer to work with inner city kids or bus kids or ministries like that wherever I am. I like those kids better - even if they misbehave, they are a lot more real than the church kids can be at times.

My favorite "bus kid" moment came when I was running a Bible club full of bus kids. I always started the Bible story by asking them who wrote the Bible (God, obviously), and whether the Bible was true or not (it is - God doesn't lie), etc. etc., just to help them differentiate between a Bible story and a fairy tale.

One week the head deacon sent his kids to Bible club. He decided his family needed to be more involved. "Yay!" I thought. It was about time to have some of the church kids mixing with the bus kids. When story time came, I asked my inevitable, "Who wrote the Bible?" question and one of the deacon's kids raised her hand. I called on her, and she answered:

"Holy men." Yup. Bus kids had no clue what to do with that answer.

***Darrell*** · 01-30-2011, 09:53 PM

Quote:I was a bus kid.

My mom was too.

I'm glad she rode the bus...I wouldn't be here otherwise.

**Phatchick** · 01-30-2011, 10:46 PM

One of the good things about growing up in a small town; there weren't enough people to justify a bus route. Thank god I was spared that!

**LMcC** · 01-31-2011, 06:34 PM

I was a bus kid, although I probably would have ended up at that church sooner or later anyway. Mom started working with a Fundy whose husband ran a bus route. Some of their kids were my age, so they roped me in and got me into children's church. The rest is history.

alm517 · 01-31-2011, 07:47 PM

Separate bus church made me so angry. I worked bus ministry at several churches and I went to bus church at all of them. Both my parents were bus kids so they saw themselves in every kid that rode. My dad especially was from an awful home and he always talks about how loved he felt by the people who picked him up, which was a big deal to a kid who grew up in an abusive, alcoholic home. I have a lot of problems with fundamentalism, but I look back on the bus ministry and I loved every second of it.

Guilt Ridden · 08-12-2011, 01:48 PM

(01-30-2011 12:10 AM)JessB Wrote: Our church had those too. The problem does not lie in the method; it lies in the motive.

There is nothing wrong with bringing people to church who don't have a way to get there.

What is wrong is when the M-o-G demands that people spend their time this way whether they want to or not. It is wrong when people are told they aren't right with God if they aren't spending all their Saturdays and Sundays in this ministry.

I SO much agree with this! I have a day job, and I don't get to take Mon off (or some other day)... God created the sabbath for us to REST, not so that we could pump up numbers to lift up man (that is, go visiting on the bus route).

GraceThruFaith · 08-12-2011, 02:25 PM

Bus Routes have essentially become dogma in IFB churches on the West Coast. If your church doesn't have one, then you're on a slippery slope towards becoming a Neo-Evangelical church.

HACker105 · 08-12-2011, 03:05 PM

I almost died twice on a chicago bus route.. ha.

**Mommy2Kids** · 08-13-2011, 11:31 AM

I rode a van to church for awhile - WITH my mom and siblings. We had one unreliable vehicle at the time, and my dad used it for work.

And our church had an Awana bus. The church I attended in Chicago had many buses. I'm not sure how they did their bus ministry, but I don't think there were separate groups.

Our church used to have a bus ministry before we started here. There are stories of calling the police to remove trouble-makers. So they quit bringing kids in.

**laurat99** · 08-13-2011, 12:45 PM

I worked with the Bus Route at our SBC church when I was in grad school. Saturday mornings were for breakfast and visiting. I did it because I was young, single and didn't know how to say no to the person who asked me. I stopped when I was overwhelmed 2/3 of the way through school and just having a rough time. The bus kids were separated from the other church folks during church time, but I don't recall the Pastor being a huge proponent of the bus ministry, but was a mega-church.