War With The World: The Teenage Battlefield
By: Pastor Stephen J. Mitchell
In the fall of 2005, I felt burdened on my heart by God about the growing lack of
knowledge Christian teens had of the Bible and of God in general. During the
summer of that year I helped a large youth ministry for a Christian college project.
During my three and a half month tenure, I was shocked at the lack of teaching from
the Bible. In the entire time I was there, the youth minister only had some kind of
message/talk from the Bible less than a handful of times. God strongly burdened
my heart concerning the lack of knowledge God's kids really had about His Word
and ways. Research has confirmed that this youth ministry isn't alone in its lack of
Bible teaching. In fact, according to a Time Magazine article called "In Touch With
Jesus" (October 2006), Evangelical Christian youth know the Bible less, pray less,
know the basics of faith less and stick with their faith less in the past ten years than
ever before.
For the next year, I wrote a teenage devotional/inspirational book called, War With
The World: The Teenage Battlefield, a thirty-two chapter book which interconnects
the Bible with today's youth culture and world. The book also incorporates personal
stories, movie scenes and lines, as well as lyrics from music artists. Being a teenager
recently, I do believe that I have a special kinship with this generation. The book
talks about all the classic teenage issues such as peer pressure, pre-marital sex, hurt,
pain and self-esteem. But it also talks about purely spiritual subjects such as what
the Bible is, prayer, the heart of Christianity, spiritual backsliding, and much more.
These topics are packaged in a catchy, interconnected way designed to effectively
communicate biblical truth to this generation.
more from Phil Chalmers...
"In my more than two decades of experience working with young people, I have
witnessed what Stephen is talking about in this book, which is the falling away from
God's word by this generation, with teen guys and girls trying to make decisions based
on their own feelings, and based on the advice of the world."
"As you read this book, Stephen will take you into a battlefield, a war against the
world. The world has plans for you, and those plans are much different than the plans
God has for you. Hopefully you will accept this truth, and make the right decisions,
so your choices will lead you to hope, peace, purpose, and a future."
"...In Jeremiah 29, verse 11, one of my favorite bible verses says it all,
when God tells us, 'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you a hope and a future.'"
-- Phil Chalmers - national speaker and author of Can You Handle The Truth and Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer