Attention all parents, teachers,
youth workers, pastors, and even grandparents! This book is for
you. You cannot afford to miss the thesis of this book. We have
been focusing our ministry on the rising generation for years in
CE&P, yet I read this book with a fresh challenge that makes
me pray David's prayer, "So even to old age and gray hairs, O
God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another
generation, your power to all those to come," Ps 71:18. I
have prayed that prayer daily for years and now after reading Chap
Clark's book Hurt, I pray it with a renewed fervency that has
given birth to an even deeper passion to minister to the rising
generation.
Buy a copy, read it carefully and
listen to the plea of the rising generation as you read through
it. Have you heard them? Are you listening? They are asking for
help and what they are getting is not the help they are begging
for.
Chap Clark teaches at Fuller
Theological Seminary and has specialized in youth ministry for
some time. His book is full of credible research on how the
younger generations have been and are being abandoned by the adult
generations. They are not abandoned geographically or materially.
Yet the older generations are not helping them develop a biblical
worldview to help them live this incredibly complex and difficult
life.
It is amazing how young people are
telling us they feel threatened, insecure, and unable to face
daily issues. While parents are giving their children material
things, even sacrificing their own resources to provide the best
education and resources to create "superkids," they are
leaving them alone to design their own systems for life and it
hurts.
While the younger generation seems
to be normal and stable on the surface, underneath their feeling
of abandonment is causing great upheaval. Clark includes many
testimonials from high school students: "I have many friends
and acquaintances, and my home life is more than I could ask for.
I just wish sometimes I could find somewhere to belong." Or,
"I therefore suffer in silence, longing to be understood but
refusing to share such a nightmare with the unknowing. It is a
lonely place in the mind of an unwilling actor." Or,
"People think I have the 'perfect' life…They never see the
real me. I have to put on a mask. I deal with struggles of beer
and alcohol. They don't know." Are we listening?
Clark writes, "Adults who care
for the young, however, can make a long-term difference in the
lives of students when we allow ourselves to be involved, to
engage their ethical and moral belief systems and behaviors. If
adults commit to train the young to care for others instead of
just themselves and reinforce this view with commitment to
integrity and honesty, then we have the best chance of influencing
their moral development in a positive way."
The truth is that adults will
influence the younger generations for good or for ill. We have the
choice to influence them for good but it takes commitment, time,
and energy to serve God's purpose to this generation. Clark
reminds us that the church has a calling to care for the young. I
would like to be able to proclaim loudly and repeatedly to our
youth, "help is on the way. There are adults, including
parents, who really do care and are willing to listen and interact
with you."
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