First BattleCry for Nation's Largest, Lost Generation
It is the largest generation in the history of America, and youth leaders are making their first battle cry not to lose the next generation.
It is the largest generation in the history of America, and youth leaders are making their first battle cry not to lose the next generation.
Some 25,000 high school and college-aged students are getting ready to jam pack into the AT&T Park in San Francisco Friday night for the first ever BattleCry Stadium event.
An initiative of one of the world's largest youth organizations, Teen Mania’s BattleCry is a national movement for teens who are responding as the new counter culture group against popular culture. In an MTV-dominated society where 8,000 teenagers contract an STD every day and more than five million high school students admit to binge drinking at least once a month, Teen Mania founder Ron Luce says, "There's a problem. We need to do something about it."
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At the present rate of evangelism among youth, there will only be about four percent who become evangelical Christians, according to a Battle Cry promotional video. Leadership experts, youth leaders and today's top Christian speakers, including John C. Maxwell, Charles "Chuck" Colson, and Greg Laurie, all agree that there needs to be a battle cry strategy.
"We have to reach the lost generation right now," they declared.
San Francisco is the first of three large-scale stadium events hitting major cities in the next two months. Registration for the Detroit event has already reached 35,000 people and the Philadelphia venue is sold out at 15,000.
This weekend's BattleCry will feature speakers Jack Hayford, founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif.; Steve Saint, son of missionary Nate Saint, and Mincaye, who took part in the killing of the five missionaries in Ecuador; and Luce. Christian bands slated to perform include Pillar, Toby Mac, Cross Movement, Delirious, Jeremy Camp and The Groovaloos.
With the youth at risk, the nation is being called to invest in creating one generation under God. Ninety-percent of those who receive Christ receive him in their teenage years. The mega-event is set to bring a massive army of teens and adults together to take back this generation for Christ.
The first BattleCry Stadium event will be followed up next year with Barna research surveys conducted throughout the year to track the progress of the young attendants.
