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| Battle Cry for a Generation: The Fight To Save America's Youth | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Luce
Publisher: David C. Cook
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $1.54
You Save: $18.45 (92%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 45536
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 213
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0781442672
Dewey Decimal Number: 259.23
EAN: 9780781442671
ASIN: 0781442672
Publication Date: June 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
There is a battle raging. It's not in the Middle East. And terrorists are not the threat. But millions of souls are at rish. There is but one hope, and if we fail - the youth of our nation could be lost...forever. Now is the time to read the Battle Cry for a Generation. In North America today, there is the largest number of teens since the baby boomer generation. These teens hold the future - yours our ours - in their hands. Battle Cry for a Generation tells us why and how to reclaim our youth for Christ.More Information at : http://www.battlecry.com/
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Do you even care? June 9, 2005
24 out of 27 found this review helpful
Being a part of Ron Luce's Honor Academy, I've had the privelege of hearing from him firsthand his heart for this generation, and his heart behind this book. I don't know many other books out there that are ENDORSED so widely by DENOMINTAIONAL LEADERS, SENATORS, GRAMMY AWARD WINNERS, and many other big names: Joyce Meyers, John Maxwell, Josh McDowell, Willie George, Ted Haggard, Jack Hayford, Kay Arthur, SEAN HANNITY, SENATOR Rick Santourm, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Kirk Franklin- among others.
Here are a few REAL quotes from the book:
...1/3 of high school students have been drunk in the past month
...1 in 4 us illegal drugs
...8,000 contract an STD EVERY DAY!
...1 MILLION are pregnant
...750,000 get abortions each year (that's 3/4 of teen pregnancies)
...1 in 10 have been raped
...9 out of 10 have seen porn online (and the average age to first see it is 11)
...50% of them are no longer virgins
...1 in 5 have attempted suicide...
[these quotes come from such sources as Barna and other highly acclaimed resources]
Do you see the need? Do you see the pain? Well, I do. And Ron Luce did, and it's about time someone is stepping up to the plate to make these things known. The issue is this: this battle needs warriors. Are you willing to step it up and fight the battle against this generation? Christian or not, I'm sure you are concerned with the wellbeing of this nation- and I guarantee you that MY generation is going to directly affect this generation... we ARE the FUTURE generation...
If you want to join this army, or are a concerned parent, student, teacher, pastor, or AMERICAN- you NEED to read this book.
I would also encourage you to check out the battlecry website at www.battlecry.com
You can read exerpts from the book there, and validate all of those endoresments that I just listed...
There's a battle raging- are you ready to fight? Sound the BATTLECRY!!!
 Ron Luce - Well-Meaning Wolf? February 9, 2007
21 out of 24 found this review helpful
Ron Luce is the founder and president of Teen Mania Ministries. Among many other things, he has been at the forefront of the Acquire the Fire youth conference, which have now morphed into the Battle Cry youth conferences. In this book, Battle Cry for a Generation, Luce sets out his `battle strategy' for reaching the youth of this country.
The book has some impressive endorsements from Josh McDowell (guru of anything related to Christian ministry to teens) and Jack Graham (former president of the SBC), to Kay Arthur (Precept Ministries and Bible Study author extraordinaire) and Church Colson who writes the forward. So, seeing the book at one of the Battle Cry conferences, I decided to buy it and see what had everyone talking.
The book begins with something of an intended shock-effect couple of first chapters. There, through voluminous statistics, song lyrics, teen testimonials, etc., Luce points out the incredibly negative influence society is having on our teens. In fact, he shows how the media and advertisers are marketing towards them like never before, dangling everything they shouldn't have before their eyes to entice to their produces, leaving the companies wealthy and our teens emotional, physically, and spiritually sick. Luce leaves us wanting to know the answer for how to fix the problems we have seen.
Luce presents his plan in an appealing way (at least for most guys). The plan is presented as a `battle plan' with militaristic terminology and imagery. I find this appealing because the Bible often presents our spiritual conflict as a war - Matt 11:12; Rom 7:23; 2 Cor 10:3; Eph 6:10-20; 1 Tim 6:12; 2 Tim 4:7; Jas 4:1; 1 Pet 2:11. Other pastors and preachers, like John Piper, use this dramatic imagery to help illustrate and tease out the implications of such teaching for our lives (see especially his book, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy).
Despite the appealing nature of his book's themes and organization, I noticed something disturbing as I was reading - a lack of explaining Scripture. Luce hardly ever explains what the Scripture teaches about an issue, or applies that teaching to the problems facing teens. In fact, in a book that numbers 199 pages, Luce only mentions the Bible 31 times! Again, these not explanations of the Bible teaching either, they are simply proof-texts thrown on the back of a sentence or paragraph to support what we says, as on pg 56, where he cites 6 passages to show that God's people are in a spiritual war. He doesn't try to explain the significance of those texts teaching, he simply quotes them to prove his point.
But what is most disturbing of all is that I cannot find the gospel anywhere in the book! As far as I could find, the word `gospel' is only used once. And it's not as if he talks about the gospel without using the word `gospel.' You cannot find any explanation of the Christian gospel anywhere in this book. That is, quite frankly, shocking. In a book on Christian ministry to teens, the gospel should be soaking its pages! After all, the gospel "is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). Paul says that gospel is so important that "even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8-9).
Then again, this may be the heart of the problem. Maybe Luce doesn't believe the biblical gospel? I know those are strong words to write, but consider the only way he mentions Christ's death is in an exemplary way. Because Jesus died in obedience to God's will, so should we. In fact, Luce sees the heart of Christian commitment being death to self and life for God (pp 66-67). This is not bad! What how can we do this? How is it possible to die to ourselves and our sin when our hearts are sinful and only sin comes from them (Jer 17:9; Prov 4:23)?
The Bible teaches that ...
1) Christ died as a sacrifice that appeased God's wrath against our sins (Rom 3:25);
2) This allows him to forgive our sins and remain just, having punished our sins (Rom 3:21-26);
3) What's more, when we confess our turn and turn to God with faith in Christ, we receive the righteousness of Christ that allows us to be in right relationship with God (Rom 4:1-5:1);
4) Having been united to Christ in his death and resurrection by God's Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13-14),
5) we can then follow his leading and put sin to death in our lives (Gal 5:16-25; Rom 6:1-23).
In Luce's book I see nothing of Christ's atoning death for his people's sins, nothing of Christ's righteousness for his people, nothing of the need to trust God for something we cannot do on our own, nothing of the true gospel. Luce does talk about God's forgiveness, but never of the basis of that forgiveness. It seems, if we simply say we're sorry and live like we're sorry, then God will forgive us.
This is not simply an oversight in his book, either. Having attended on the huge, stadium Battle Cry events, I saw his beliefs in action. During the `invitation' time on the first night, hundreds of teens stood and shouted `I choose the cross.' But again, Luce said nothing of Jesus dying for sins. The only time he talked about the cross, he showed it to be an example to us to die to our selves as Jesus did. Thus, choosing the cross was choosing our own cross to die upon. Though, rooted in Jesus' own teaching (Mark 8:34), it is nothing less than a distortion of the true gospel.
In the end, I can only believe that Luce is not leading teens to a true knowledge of Christ, but instead is a false teacher who comes in sheep's clothing but inwardly is a ravenous wolves (Matt 7:15). If I am wrong, then I will gladly admit it! I would love nothing less than for Luce or someone from Teen Mania to respond here or elsewhere with an affirmation of their belief in the biblical gospel and then see them preach it as Paul did (1 Cor 1:23).
I am not trying to attack Luce on a personal level. I think his heart is in the right place. But I do think he does not understand the gospel and therefore is less than Christian. I do not write that with glee or delight. Instead, I write out of a deep concern for our teens who are caught in the mire of our culture's sin. But what they need is not a call to pull themselves up by their boot straps and live better lives. What they need to hear is the powerful, life-transforming message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
 "Battle Cry" March 26, 2006
18 out of 46 found this review helpful
Battle Cry is the latest big movement from religious conservatives who, like their parents and their parent's parents, think that young people are going to hell in a handbasket and need to be "saved" from themselves.
There has been a moral crisis for every generation. For my generation, the Millennials, it has been videogames (and the issues presented in this book). For Generation X, it was probably their tendency to be thirty years old and still living at home. For the Baby Boomers, it was rock and roll (among many other issues). For the so-called "Greatest Generation" (I personally don't like that term, but will use it for the sake of clarity), it was dancing and ragtime music. Eventually, the younger generation grows up and shows the older generations that they did not turn out as badly as they originally thought. Then, the moral crisis temporarily ends until the next generation.
Not everything that this book asserts is bad. Teen pregnancy, drug use and underage alcohol use IS out of control. I've heard of middle school kids having sex between classes. I've only been out of middle school for eight years, but it wasn't like that when I was there. The book gets an extra star for its work to stop the rampant sexuality of culture.
I have to object, however, to the book claiming that only "4%" of the younger generation is Christian. I don't trust that statistic; it seems highly suspect to me. By whose standard is only 4% of my generation Christian? The fundamentalists? It's been said that you can prove anything by the artful use of statistics. It's my personal opinion that that's what's happening here.
Contrary to what Luce and his supporters would tell you, I have heard quite a lot of very good news about my generation. According to Strauss and Howe, generation researchers, my generation is REVERSING the trends of our parents. We are driving under the influence less. We are more politically engaged. We're optimistic. We're humble.
And are Millennials truly to blame for the sex and violence you see on TV these days? I don't believe that we are. TV was already headed that way by the time our oldest members were born in the 1980s. To say that we're responsible for what airs on TV these days is like saying that it's our grandparents' fault that we had the Depression. Neither generation can help the conditions under which we were born.
I further object to Battle Cry's approach. I don't believe that the way to "save" my generation is to instill in them a rigid moral code and turn them into political and religious conservatives. I think that this does more harm than good. Now, does that mean that I disbelieve in morality? Of course not. I do believe, however, that teenagers (and young adults, for that matter) who are entering or have entered adulthood should be allowed to decide what they believe - WITHIN REASON. Parents who put their foot down and declare "you MUST become a religious conservative and Republican (though I should say that I think the problems laid out in this book should be a bipartisan issue)" has the possibility of creating rebellion. Teach people in my generation basic ethics and morality, but don't make that morality so black-and-white that there are never any "gray areas".
Finally, I object ot the half-truths and outright lies about church/state issues that are propagated in this book. In the first place, we are NOT a Christian nation. 100% of our population is not Christian. Christianity is not our official religion, because we are a melting-pot in this country. Lots of religions are represented in our population.
Secondly, it's not true that teens cannot pray or read the Bible in public school. I invite those who disagree to find a NATIONAL act of legislation that bans such an activity. If God was truly "kicked out of school" as many Christians assert, there would be no Fellowship of Christian Athletes, countless Bible study groups, See You At The Pole, or Christians openly expressing their faith through T-shirts or tracts. In fact, to say that prayer and Bible reading is banned from public school is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many teachers who don't know the truth have likely disallowed Bible reading or prayer because they believed the religious conservatives.
Not everything that this movement is trying to do is bad. I applaud the members of this movement for attempting to reverse the trend of rampant teen sex. I only wish that the battle cry was sounded from moderates - not religious and political conservatives with an obvious agenda.
All adults should read this book June 26, 2005
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
As a youth leader I was shocked to read the statistics about our youth which were given in this book. The author Ron Luce has worked with kids for the past 20+ years and has seen and heard their cry. This book gives concrete ways that any person can do their part to help save this generation from the current downward spiral. I would say buy several and hand them out to any adults who care about kids.
This Generation is depending on us. August 13, 2005
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
I don't usually read. On my list of things I like to do, reading is right above root canal. However, I read this entire book in about 1 day. The statistics were that rivetting. PLEASE read this book. As I read it, I saw some of what he was talking about in my own life during my teenage years, and even into my adult years. Please read this book and then give it to your youth pastor.
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