The numbers are staggering:
- Suicide among children ages 10 to 14 has increased 120% in 12 years.
- 1 of 3 American teenagers has considered suicide and 1 out of 7 has attempted it.
- The homicide rate among 14 to 17 year olds has increased 165% in 10 years.
- Marijuana use has almost doubled in 2 years.
- Alcohol use among minors has been described by a former surgeon general as "out of control."
The statistics documenting the crisis are virtually endless. Each young person has a name, someone's son or daughter, a priceless creation of God. Thousands of young people are drowning in the storm. Someone has to care enough to hear their cries.
Never in the history of the Life Saving Service (set up to rescue people on the North Carolina's Outer Banks beaches) did a drowning person come to the door of the station asking, "Would you please rescue me?" In every case, someone had to leave the safety of the station to save lives.
Today, our life-saving station probably has a steeple with a cross on top. The title of the life-saving talk is on a sign out front, along with the name of the Head Rescuer. Inside, people are singing life-saving songs and having life-saving committee meetings. The station is a great place for the rescuers to have their needs met, their strength built. And it is the best place to bring people after they are saved. But it is not the best place to rescue people. In fact, when it comes to lost teenagers, most will probably not come to our life-saving station. If we wait until they do, most of them will die.
Youth ministry, Jesus-style, requires the courage to leave our comfort zone and plunge into the surf and the storm - as He did. Our rescue efforts will take us into places that are not comfortable, into methods that may not be understood, into a youth culture that is out of control. But that is where the kids are who are dying emotionally and spiritually.
In a sense, our work is not even youth ministry. It is war. A battle rages for a generation of young people - and the winner owns the future. "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21).
* Adapted from the book, "A Battle for a Generation," pp 11-12.