We work hard to provide a great program for young people. This next week, the teenagers are leaving for a week to go to Texas to Teen Convention. In July they will go to Youth Conference with over 7,000 other teenagers. Then in August, they will go to Kentucky to Youth Camp. They will have other fun activities during the summer, also. The thing that makes our youth group so different is that every Wednesday, all summer long, the teenagers have an activity where they go into Nashville and have a Sunday school for underprivileged children. The children and parents in Nashville love it, but our teenagers get the most out of it because they are investing in the lives of others. On the weekends, our teenagers spend some of their time working on a bus route trying to help other young people come to church on the bus.

If you have a teenager, why don’t you consider getting them in a good youth group that can help them by them helping others? If they are not helping others, then they are probably just focusing on themselves, and becoming selfish, hard, young people.

I am appalled at the pictures of so-called Christian music groups. The guys have earrings, when God says we are to avoid the appearance of evil. God says we are not to conformed to the world, but the "musicians" look and act just like the world.

So many people say that you have to use that type of music to reach the young people. That is a lie! Young people are reached by seeing someone that is real and sincerely loves God. We have a lot of teenagers that love God, and want to serve God, that do not listen to that type of music.

Many people would disagree with me, and that is their choice, but the proof is in the pudding. Check out the lives of the young people that listen to Christian rock music, and the lives of the young people that listen to good, godly Christian music without the rock style and rhythms. I promise that you will see an incredible difference.

There is nothing wrong with having good, fun, wholesome activities, but there needs to be something also to help change their life for God. We will use fun activities to get young people there, but then we have the service that is geared to change their life for the Lord. So many youth activities that I went on when I was a teenager were fun, but had nothing in them to help and direct my life. They would usually have a short devotion so they could call it "Christian," but we needed more than that.

So many churches wonder why teenagers don’t stay in church after they graduate from high school. That is the problem. We have given them some activities to keep them busy while they are a teenager, but we did not change their life, and build in them a love for Jesus Christ. They have gone, and are now looking for bigger and better things that are "fun," and usually they are not good, clean, wholesome activities.

Four years ago, we started the Lighthouse Baptist Academy. I am very glad that we now have a Christian school. My wife’s parents sacrificed many things to put ten of their children through a Christian school. They have never regretted the sacrifice. Many people think Christian education costs too much. My wife's parents always said that Christian Education doesn’t cost; it pays. It pays back in life, happiness, and eventually in finances. Thank God for Christian Education!

What young people need are people that care about them, love them, and will tell them what is right. Too many people *gray* the issues to make themselves liked and popular by young people. That does nothing but hurt and frustrate them.

I remember my pastors and youth workers graying the issues of drinking, wrong music, dancing, Hollywood movies, dress, hair and issues of the opposite sex. They did it to make us think that they were cool, *with the times,* and understanding of young people. What we needed was someone that loved us enough to tell us, not what we wanted to hear, but what God said. Young people may not like it now, but they will respect that, and they will love you in the future for telling them the truth.

The teenage years are some of the most important years in a person’s life. They are making major decisions that will affect their entire life and the lives of others. It is so important to direct them in the right way.

I have worked with teenagers for the last ten years in some way or another. I have been a youth pastor of a youth group of over 300 teenagers. I have worked with gang teenagers, and affluent teenagers. I have worked with unsaved teens and church teens. I don’t know everything about young people, but I know the two most important things that a teenager needs.

The most important thing for a teenager is to make sure that they are saved. Many young people would not know if they died that they would be in Heaven. Teenagers do die, and we had better make sure they are saved. I have done more funerals for teenagers than I would ever want to do.

The second thing teenagers need is to care about others. If a young person can be taught (by the Bible and by example) that life is not to be spent on self, but that life is to be used to help others, it will totally change their life.

When young people only worry about themselves, they complain about their parents, the rules, their teachers, their friends, their dates, their clothes, and everything else in their life. When a teenager cares about the salvation of others, the happiness of others, and the joy of others, then their life will be happy.

Jesus taught us that the only way to find our life was to lose our life helping others for Him. It may seem like a simple thing, but that is what young people need, and it works!

The thing that amazed me is how shocked teachers, educators and politicians are that something like this could happen. It seems like those things should be expected when you kick out of our schools prayer, the Bible, God and the Ten Commandments. Why are people surprised when young people kill in school when the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" has been kicked out? When there are no absolutes, when sex is encouraged and taught, when other gods are worshipped, why are we shocked when another commandment is broken?

The only way to fix the problem of violence in the schools is to put the Bible, prayer and the Ten Commandments back where they belong: at the foundation of everything that is taught. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7

Any and all boys and girls going into Kindergarten through the sixth grade are welcome to come. The cost is $10 the first week, which includes the price of the shirt, and $2 every week thereafter to provide for their snacks. Because the clubs are limited, get registered as soon as possible. Call for a free brochure, or stop by the church anytime M-F from 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.