Teens Rock!

I was visiting The Rebelution site this morning, in eager anticipation of the conference coming up next weekend (which is SOLD OUT by the way — I hope you already purchased your tickets!) and came across this awesome site:

REGENERATE OUR CULTURE

This new movement, largely directed by those of the teenage-persuasion, has this as part of its vision statement:

Regenerate Our Culture is an organization with the goal of regenerating our nation’s worldview away from the post-modernism holding it and back to the Christian worldview it was first built on.

Ah, yes. This is the answer to the questions posed by the emerging church movement, I believe. While I do believe it is time for Modernism to get the right foot of fellowship out of the doors of our churches, I just don’t see embracing post-modernism as the answer. Reformation, going back to the scriptures, learning from historical Christianity, transforming our lives so they are lived out through a Christian Worldview — this is the direction we ought to be headed.

The “kids” over at Regenerating Our Culture seem to have this very idea in mind. And the fact that they are so young means their message should be vibrant, full of life and EDGY… kinda like the Bible, actually :)

I hope you check them out!

Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

I was perusing The Rebelution Blog this morning, and was struck by this post called If Boys Would Be Men, Would Girls Be Ladies? I can't say how impressed I am by the young male authors of this blog.

This post strikes me for a few reasons. The first is that feminism has been on my brain for the past few weeks, even though I have yet to finish posting my thoughts. Then, just yesterday, my sister mentioned a discussion she had in the high school teacher's lounge of a recent article in Newsweek on schools failing boys. The topic of "boys in education" is one very near and dear to my soul, and the idea that institutional schools aren't set up for boys to succeed was the first thing that drew my husband and me to consider homeschooling. And, over the past few years, I have had a paradigm-shift in my way of viewing men — I now see how important it is to us as The Church and as a country to have REAL, godly, strong men leading us to victorious moral living. (I am so honored that God put three little men into our home, not because boys are any better than girls — I am not swinging clear to the other side of the spectrum — but because our society has an absolute lack of godly men and the thought that God could use our seed to replenish this lack excites me. Godly women just seem easier to find than godly men, and I am of the opinion that godly men will only make life more wonderful for women in general. I only ask the Lord to lead Ron and I in raising these little guys to be true men of faith — manly and godly world-changers — :) that's all I ask, Lord!)

I hope you'll take a moment to read the Rebelution post - and remember, these boys are only 17 years old!!

A few excerpts from the posting:

"The problem is not that women have risen, that's not even an issue here. The problem is that men have fallen."

"The truth is that young men today possess little incentive, whether archaic or otherwise, to pursue excellence in career, marriage or family. True men are not only disapearing from our universities, they're disapearing from society's most fundamental institution, the family. Unless men, as the heads of their families, return to the historic call of biblical manhood, the family will continue to decay. This is a battle our generation must fight."

Join the Rebelution!

My husband and I have always had an interest in young people. We met while on volunteer staff with Young Life and spent the first 10 years of our marriage in youth ministry together. One of the reasons we felt drawn to youth ministry was the idea that young people aren't as "messed up yet" or as set in their ways as their adult counterparts, and that it is therefore easier to get them started on the right path toward a healthy, successful life of deep, abiding relationship with Christ.

We just didn't realize quite how much young people are capable of…we set our sights too low.

And we didn't realize what an important role parents play in their children's future well-being — not only whether children come to Christ but how richly the children will end up living for Christ and how well they will be able to sustain healthy friendships and marriages and reach others for Christ. (How could we have missed the importance of parents? Uh, I'm really not sure.)

One thing leads to another, and the birth of our first child brought the first stirrings of change in our minds and hearts. These stirrings led to several years of slow change, which in turn led to a paradigm-shift of thinking regarding young people.

The Rebelution Tour is coming to the Sacramento area (north of Auburn), this March 11th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The teen boy speakers and their father truly epitomize the standard of teen living we have come to see as normal Christianity. (Ahem, that's "normal" according to scripture, not "normal" meaning what is average today).

I highly recommend this tour to teens, parents of teens, grandparents of teens, single adults, and parents of someday-teens.

I am praying and hoping, and praying and hoping, and praying and hoping for Reformation in The Church, and it tickles me pink that God could use teens as part of this movement!

From the Rebelution Tour's Website:

What is the Rebelution?

–It's a movement among Christian youth from around the world to throw off the shackles of low cultural expectations.
–It's a cry for young people to return to historic levels of Christian character and competence.
–It's a network of young men and women who are mutually committed to glorifying God by "doing hard things" in their teen years.
–It's a reformation by those who recognize the biblical commandment to use the teen years, not as a vacation from responsibility, but as the launching pad for all of life.Check out the Harris boys' blog!