Youth are being empowered in gangs and dying in the streets, yet Larry Acosta of Urban Youth Workers Institute finds many churches giving teens nothing more than the role of passing the offering plates every fifth Sunday.
“Are you kidding me?”
Acosta further challenged urban youth workers not to simply conduct the usual Vacation Bible School for a bunch of church kids this summer. Instead, he called them to send their youth to the projects – public housing areas – and to show communities what it looks like when Jesus shows up.
“We want you to know that we believe in you,” he told next generation leaders. “We need you … to rise up and lead the church into the future. You’re alive at this time in history at such a time as this. We need you to help us complete the Great Commission in the cities, in the … neighborhoods, in the projects, in the parks, in the places where too many from my generation are afraid to go.”
@darellano thx im happy 2 b doing that i luv helping out w/ jesus stuff i luv 2 watch how the little kids accept jesus in2 there hearts. from my niece (a servant leader/kid) @kaylahmtz
@darellano thx 4inviding me 2the backpack driv and how u mad us pray 4them i was shy but than i wasnt thx 4letting me take a step 4ward 2God
“Awe fell upon the whole neighborhood (Barrio), and the news of what had happened spread throughout the Judean hills. Everyone who heard about it reflected on these events and asked, “What will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was surely upon him in a special way.” Luke 1:65-66 (New Living Translation)
“The percent of children in drug-infested middle schools—usually kids 12 to 13 years old (and younger)—has increased from 23 percent last year to 32 percent this year, a jump of 39 percent,” says the report.
The definition used in the survey for drug-infested schools is that “drugs are used, kept, or sold on school grounds.”
“A child who gets through age 21 without smoking, using illegal drugs, or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so,” says Califano. But the odds of finding such youth are becoming increasingly less. He spoke at the Kaiser Foundation Building, Aug. 19, when the report was released.
Public vs. Private/Religious School
Nearly half (46 percent) of teens from public schools report that gangs are at their schools compared to only 2 percent of teens at private and religious schools. Even though the focus of CASA surveys is on drug abuse of teens, this difference in gang-infested schools is itself a remarkable finding.
Differing perceptions of drugs by teens in private and public schools is yet another disturbing trend in the survey. In 2001, CASA found 62 percent of public school students and 79 percent of private and religious school students said they attended drug-free schools. In this year’s survey the percents are 43 and 78, respectively. Hence, the difference in drug-free schools widened from 17 to 35 points.