BTU as I remember it

When I was a kid our church had a program we called  BTU.  BTU was an acronym for "Baptist Training Union."  Most churches had it on Sunday evening just prior to the evening worship service. It was general small groups divided by flexible age groupings.

I have to confess that I was not particularly fond of BTU but I was fond of one of the girls who attended regularly. I know that the leaders (in my case my aunt) tried so hard to make it a spiritual event but to my mind it was a romantic event. It was the only group in Baptist life in those days that was coed. 

The curriculum fell into three broad categories: Baptist Doctrine, Christian Ethics and Moral Values.  You could count on a quarterly studies that dealt with some aspect of what the Bible teaches on these subject areas.

The process for the group was pure genius. Instead of a teacher presenting the material and then having discussion the lesson were broken down in into parts. Usually four to five parts for each lesson. Each of these parts would be assigned on one Sunday evening to be presented on the next Sunday evening. The assignment were to the youth members class members who would study heir “part” and then present it at the appropriate time in the next meeting. 

I said this plan was genius and here is why. First, the assignment of parts insured that one student would get in-depth exposure to the subject under consideration. After all no one want to show up unprepared. 

More importantly, it served as a speaker training program. It gave youth exposure to being in front of a group and leading the group in part of the program. As important as being prepared was it was more important to physically get up before an audience and speak even if all you did was read the material from the book.  I can tell you now it was in BTU that I overcame my own anxiety of being in front of group and speaking.

BTU imploded when denominational and local leadership tried to make it something it was not designed to be . . . . a spiritual grown group. BTU as I said earlier was a Romantic organization by providing a wholesome coed social environment for youth to interact; it fostered leadership development; it instilled Christian doctrine, ethics and morals. As such, it was already developing youth with a strong spiritual core and integrating knowledge, morals and ability into that core.  The genius of BTU was that it strengthened the spiritual life of youth without trying to force it upon them. They just sort of caught it as the became competent leaders. 

I do not believe it is coincidental that it was during the days of BTU that many a youth in every Baptist church felt the call of God to full-time Christian ministry and many of theme became preachers, pastors and evangelists. 

Just as an interesting side note: I mentioned above that BTU was the only coed organization for Baptist youth during my growing up. Generally speaking that is true organizationally. However there were two other settings where youth could have a coed environment. One was the Youth Choir but that involved a modicum of musical talent or sound equipment skills. The other was worship services. Both were used by youth to be together.

It was also a day when parents actually enforced their rules for their teenage children. Rules like, no dating until you are sixteen (hence the sweet sixteen birthdays) and then it had to be double dating. We used to joke that the greatest evangelistic tool the church had was youth girls. Teenage boys in most cases had to come to church if they were going to see that one someone that made their heart beat faster. Many of these young men who came to be with a certain young lady girl found themselves exposed to the Gospel and became Christians themselves. I know a few who also became not only Christians but calling to preach the Gospel themselves.