Youth

If you want to get serious about reaching your city for Christ, then you must get serious about reaching the young.

The body of Christ is essential to spiritual growth. It is not incidental to healthy faith. It is necessary.

Now is the time to mobilize your congregation and your youth group to advance the gospel. Now is the time to energize your people to share the cure for racism, division, confusion, and delusion.

We must prepare our teenagers by speaking forthrightly about the temptations that await them after high school. We must help them be on their guard and learn how to be fully “armored up” with the spiritual protection that Jesus provides every believer (Ephesians 6:11).

What foster kids crave the most is to be shown that they are worthy of love.

Nearly one in three high school girls have considered suicide, reflecting a 60% rise in the past decade. Nearly 15% have been forced to have sex. About six in 10 girls were so consistently sad or hopeless they stepped away from regular activities.

Forty percent of parents are saying they are extremely/very worried about their child struggling with anxiety or depression. Another 36% are somewhat concerned. That’s three out of every four parents with mental health on their parenting radar in relation to their child.

Many Christian school teenagers have a deep spiritual cynicism baked into their hardened hearts. Far too many of these teens graduate and then publicly evacuate their faith, either through outright denunciation or post–high school hedonism.