Battle Cry For A Generation | Ron Luce

Ron Luce. Battle Cry for a Generation: Join The Fight To Save America’s Youth. Cook Communications, 2005. 213 pp.

Imagine living in London as Hitler marches across Europe. Every day you hear the reports of more fallen territory—Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, and even France—all succumbing to the grinding German war machine. Soon there are 500,000 enemy soldiers stretched across the vast landscape of northern Europe. Now only 21 miles away, Nazi troopers eye your precious island across a narrow channel. You are left to the screaming air-raid sirens, running for cover into dark and damp subway tunnels.

The enemy seems invincible. You feel powerless. How do you fight back? Where do you even start?

The odds seem insurmountable, but Roosevelt and Churchill refuse to accept defeat. Instead, they develop a plan. After looking at all possible angles, they construct the largest and most comprehensive counteroffensive of the war.

Their strategy becomes the turning point, an overwhelming response from which Hitler never recovers—150,000 men invading with planes, parachutes, and boats of all sorts along a 50-mile stretch of beach in Normandy.

They keep coming and coming and coming. By July a million Allied soldiers are staged for battle in the north of France.

This was no half-hearted slap on the wrist to scold a “mean guy” for impolite behavior. This was a battle for civilization. The world was at stake. Without a thorough, well-planned response, a power-intoxicated tyrant would rule the future.

Are we in any less danger now?

Step-By-Step Counter Invasion

The forces of the media do seem all-powerful and unstoppable, don’t they? Yet it’s been said that the journey of a thousand miles always starts with the first step. Yes, the road ahead is difficult. We can’t accomplish everything all at once. We can’t expect to arrive at our cherished destination—a healthy and wholesome youth culture in a day or two. But we can begin. Now.

Just as the Allied forces needed a plan, so do we. I’m offering a model, a simple but aggressive progression of four steps to re-take all the lost territory. The steps don’t need to be linear; once hearts are captured, all three of the others can proceed simultaneously. If adopted and followed, I believe this counteroffensive strategy will lead to profound, restorative change.

#1 Capture their hearts.

We can’t win a “culture war” just by lighting the evil forces in our society We can’t argue or debate our way to changing trends in beliefs. We must capture the hearts of young people. However, this can’t be just a fancy recruiting ploy to get them in the door for another church program. It must go much deeper and broader than that.

This is why holding large events is so important. At mega-events bringing teens together from across the nation, kids are able to “temporarily suspend disbelief” long enough to see how relevant the Bible is to their lives. This is also why youth pastors and parents must be trained and equipped (and why churches must change their methods and messages) to appeal to a new generation.

#2 Establish a beachhead.

Once their hearts have been captured by God, we must help them build a beachhead—a groundwork, a firm spiritual foundation for a new lifestyle. The only way to see deep, long-term change in millions of young people is to get them deeply rooted in the foundations of the faith. This is the only way they will stay strong amidst the ravages of culture or the godless philosophies in their schooling.

This is about building an army of young people well-established in what they believe and why they believe it. We won’t be producing more nominal, illiterate Christians. In the process, they’ll need to discover truth for themselves rather than passively accepting what has been preached to them or passed down from their parents. To accomplish this, church leaders, parents, and lay people will need to be available to walk young people through excellent discipleship materials.

#3 Develop esprit de corps.

A firm sense of belonging is crucial to young people. Community is vital because teens need fellowship that’s wedded to accountability. Deep inside, they want to feel they’re part of something bigger than themselves—something substantive. This requires both local community and global community— a national (or international) family of teens connected primarily via the Web, but brought together in small and large gatherings—where the work of youth pastors and parents is strengthened and reinforced.

#4 Enter the fight.

Assume we now have a massive community of teens whose hearts have been captured by God, who are rooting their souls down deep in His word, and who are connected with one another at a local and global level. Now imagine the impact if these teens were more than a community. Suppose they were an army actively engaged in changing their culture and their government. Suppose they were reaching out with the love of Jesus in their cities around the world. The potential impact upon our nation—and the world—is enormous.

In this simple model, every caring adult can be involved in rescuing our young ones. During World War II we came together for victory. Men went off to battle after waiting in lines for hours to enlist. Any who couldn’t go still intensely engaged in the war. The women filled vacant factory jobs. Every citizen sacrificed and lived on rations in order to get the job done. Each person found his or her assignment, knowing it would take all of us together to defeat the enemy. Can we do any less for this generation?

We must turn our churches into hospitals for a broken-hearted generation, and it is not our youth pastor’s job. It is not even our pastor’s job. It’s not the Sunday school teachers’ job or the traveling youth evangelist’s job.

It is our job. All of us—the body of Christ—must see the urgency and take action. The battle plan includes you.

Copyright © 2005 by Ron Luce. Battle Cry for a Generation. Used with permission by Cook Communications Ministries. May not be further reproduced. To order, www.cookministries.com. All rights reserved.

Like this post? Subscribe to our feed .