An Amazing Fact: When teenager Chelsea King failed to return home after jogging on February 25, her parents knew something was very wrong. So did the entire Poway community, a suburb of San Diego, which soon rallied to help find the missing straight-A student. After a massive search effort including 1,500 volunteers and law enforcement officers failed to find Chelsea, they turned to the web. Scores of Facebook pages dedicated to finding the po pular teen attracted more than 45,000 supporters. Sadly, after this colossal search, her body was recovered from a shallow grave — evidently the victim of a sexual predator who is now in custody.
T he tragic story of Chelsea King represents the worst nightmare for any parent. Although I am inspired by the gigantic community effort to find this one missing teenager, it still makes me shudder to think that there are such heartless, wicked predators lurking in our society who prey upon the young and innocent.
It also reminds me that another cold-blooded predator is out there relentlessly seeking to molest the hearts and minds of our youth.
Of course, I am referring to that ruthless archfiend — Satan. But we can do something to rescue our young people from his grasp.
A Predator on the Prowl
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
The devil is stalking our greatest treasure: our youth. Through the secular media, fashions, and fads, our young are being attacked on every side by the enemy. They are constantly bombarded with messages telling them they are just animals evolved from apes . . . that casual sex is okay, “ just be careful” . . . or to drink “responsibly.”
Indeed, the messages of our culture are actively fomenting open rebellion and outright rejection of Jesus Christ. No wonder that this is the age when “cutting” and suicide are rampant. In fact, suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens. Please don’t assume that kids in our churches aren’t part of these tragic statistics — they are.
Drifting From the Church
Popular media is preying on the minds of our youth, programming them to reject the faith of their parents as irrelevant and boring. Virtually everything they are hearing patently contradicts the foundational teachings of the Bible, which they might hear only for a couple of hours a week at church.
The result? Our churches are hemorrhaging youth — by the time they reach college age, nearly two-thirds of our young people are slipping out the back door. A major effort must be made to reverse these trends.
According to a recent Barna poll, compared to the mid-90s, teenagers today are 81 percent less likely to pray and 53 percent less likely to attend worship services (source: www.barna.org).
A few more sobering statistics: The average age of an American citizen is 35 years old. Can you guess the average age of those attending our churches? … 59 years old! Little by little, this diabolical predator is transforming our shrinking congregations into virtual senior centers.
And he is doing all of this by TARGETING OUR TEENS! Chances are you can think of someone right now, friend or family, who has disappeared from the church and it all started happening during their teenage years.
The Media – A Double-edged Sword
A 2010 national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that teens devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes each day to electronic entertainment. That represents a third of their lives typically being assaulted with the wrong messages. Much of that time is spent on mobile devices, like the iPhone, and social networking sites, like Facebook (source: Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds).
The fact that so many teenagers are tuned into new media means we must utilize this media to reach them. We need to beat the cultural mainstream to the punch, so to speak. And, by God’s grace, Amazing Facts is already at the forefront of this new technology, reaching kids right where they are with the right message.
For instance, Amazing Facts has a Facebook account where a quarter of our fans are under the age of 24. We’re also reaching the hundreds of thousands of other teens on Facebook with carefully placed ads and millions more souls on teen websites and blogs with eye-catching web banners. We also have a YouTube channel, a Twitter account, and even an iPhone app!
It’s a mammoth endeavor — we’re investing thousands of dollars every month in this new electronic gospel net to engage media savvy young people with God’s Word.
And it’s worth it. Make no mistake about it, teens are being reached!
“God bless you! You are one of my favorite pastors! I am Baptist. I never really understood the meanings to a lot of things until I heard you preach. Thank you so much.” Ela, 17-years-old
“I used to not believe in God and Jesus, but I stumbled upon one of your programs and saw about 20 minutes of it. I got so shocked I went out and got a Bible, then I went to church, then to a private Christian school. Now I am a Christian.” Steven, 12-years-old
The Big Questions – Amazing Truth for Youth!
The Lord has deeply impressed me that we must take action to reach our teens. That’s why Amazing Facts is developing a new evangelistic and revival campaign to reach kids during their decisive years, between the ages of 13 and 18. It’s one of the most crucial times in their lives . . . when they are making eternal decisions.
We are especially excited about a new event this fall. Beginning October 8, Amazing Facts is going to present a unique, 10-part satellite series designed for teens. This powerful event will be broadcast live from a school in Cedar Lake, Michigan.
With a live audience of teenagers, it should be very interesting. I’ll be reaching for their minds, tackling the biggest questions facing them and helping them see why and how the Bible is still totally relevant for their lives.
We’ll discuss subjects like ...
- How can I know there is a God?
- How can I be saved?
- How can I cope with peer pressure?
- Can we really know the future?
- What about dating & sex?
- Alcohol, drugs, and clear thinking
- Does God really care about me?
- Plus, creation, evolution & logic, and a lot more!
Along with these TV presentations, we’re producing a new series of captivating youth study guides that will be straightforward, honest, and sincere.
If a teen you care about goes to a Christian academy, I hope you’ll encourage their school to participate. If you lead an academy, consider joining us for the live event. If you have teens who go to public school, make sure they watch it online when they get home. (We will provide more information and airtime details as they become available.)
And we’ll be broadcasting it on multiple venues — 3ABN and the internet (AmazingFacts.TV). Plus, we plan to record and edit this for wide distribution on DVD and even mobile devices like the iPhone. But it gets even more exciting! We have an awesome opportunity to reach teens not just in our churches, but from all walks of life, as we can broadcast the first week of this series on the Inspiration Network during primetime. That’s 80 million homes! The Lord has opened amazing doors to reach our youth! Will you walk through them with me? It is going to cost something.
It’s Not Too Late to Turn Lives Around
Our Heavenly Father is desperate to rescue His abducted children. He is inviting you and me right now to join Him in the project. When the Poway community gathered together to search for Chelsea, they didn’t know it was already too late. But it is not too late for us to work together to rescue our young people!
Let’s rally together now and redouble our efforts to let our youth know that the truth of Jesus’ Word is the best solution to all their problems.
We are already moving forward in faith to make this happen, but to reach the widest group of teens possible is not cheap. This project will cost around $325,000 . . . this is a big step of faith! And the only way we can reach these teens is if we work together. Help us reach someone’s son, daughter, grandchild . . . or maybe a teen living in your own family who is slipping through the cracks by giving today!
Can you please send $25, $50, $100, or $250 or more to support our efforts to engage young people where they are . . . to produce high-quality media, DVDs, and more that will encourage them to follow Jesus? When you do, you can know that you’re storing treasure in heaven, investing in a new generation of genuine believers and bringing revival to our struggling churches.
Thank you for caring about the salvation of all our young people.
Pastor Doug Batchelor