Youth

Popular youth organization Dare 2 Share has a new drive to get teens on every U.S. high school and middle school campus talking about Jesus.

And appropriate to its mission and the young generation, the organization has renamed Jesus' age-old commandment from The Great Commission to THE Cause.

"We're renaming it because it was developed by missionaries 300 years ago," said Dare 2 Share president Greg Stier. "It was a great term then. It's old now. Teenagers are into causes. ... So we're calling it THE Cause – the cause of causes to make disciples who make disciples." more >>

A new landmark study shows that abstinence education is more effective in reducing sexual activity among youths than other programs.

One-third of students who completed the abstinence program had sexual intercourse within two years of the class. By comparison, more than half of those who participated in safe sex and condom use programs said they had sexual intercourse.

More than 40 percent of students who received either an eight- or 12-hour class combining both abstinence education and safe sex said they had sex within the two-year period. more >>

A Baptist church in Idaho whose members were detained in Haiti for attempting to move children to the Dominican Republic said Sunday that its team was “falsely arrested” and it is working to “clear up the misunderstanding.”

A ten-member team from several Baptist churches in the United States was arrested by Haitian officials Saturday after trying to take 33 children across the border to the Dominican Republic. The church members say they are bringing the children to an orphanage where they will be given medical and emotional care.

But authorities are concerned about child trafficking, a serious problem in quake-devastated Port-au-Prince where thousands of children are without parents or guardians. more >>

Opponents have again begun assailing abstinence education following the release of a report that shows an increase in teen birth and abortion rates for the first time in more than a decade.

Between 2005 and 2006, teen pregnancy among 15- to 19-year-olds increased 3 percent, to 71.5 pregnancies per 1,000 women. This ended a 15-year decline. The teenage abortion rate rose 1 percent in 2006 to 19.3 abortions per 1,000 women.

The Guttmacher Institute, which released the report on Tuesday, insists the rise is a result of steep declines and a subsequent plateau in contraceptive use in the early 2000s and the widespread abstinence-only sex education programs that were promoted under the Bush administration. more >>

During his earthly ministry Jesus was driven by an almost fanatical commitment to reach those who were lost. He pursued those who were broken, reached out to those who were hurting and transformed those who were willing. Instead of hanging out at the temple with the other rabbis Jesus hung out in the streets with tax collectors, prostitutes and sinners. According to Jesus’ own words his driving cause was to “seek and save what was lost” Luke 19:10.

Not only did he spend his three and a half years of earthly ministry on a gritty search and rescue mission for lost souls, he also invited twelve young disciples to join him in his holy quest. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he called them to finish what he had started by taking the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The disciples died trying to complete the mission that Jesus had left for them.

The same fanatical focus that drove Jesus, his disciples and the early church should drive our ministry efforts as well. But, more often than not, youth leaders are not engaging their young followers with THE Cause that drove Jesus. Many youth leaders have been distracted from the original call of Christ to reach the lost by making disciples who make disciples. As a result youth ministry in the typical church is failing to gain ground on the kingdom of darkness and is succumbing to a model that is, at best, ineffective. more >>