Customer Reviews

Battle Cry for a Generation: The Fight to Save America's Youth

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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's BATTLE CRY FOR A GENERATION is a must read. He has a gift for working with young people and has packed this book full of information and practical suggestions to help save a generation that is being attacked from every side.

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.

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.

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.

If you have children, especially teens, then you need to read this book! If you have a place in your heart for children then you need to read this book. If you care at all about the future of our country then you need to read this book!

This book is great.If you ever thought that youth ministry was insignificant, think again!!

I am a spirit filled christian and a teenager. I recently signed up for BATTLECRY, a convention taking place in San Fransico, that involves over forty-thousand teens coming together for worship and praise. I found out about this book when I visted an old friend in lord. We got to talking about BATTLECRY, and she got up and brought the book to us. I started reading it and was imediatly sucked in by the words Ron Luce exspress about are youth. I'm still reading it, but the book has inspired me to reach out to my generation and tell them of the truth. This book I think should be read by every christian and non-christian everywhere. BATTLECRY FOR A GENERATION is a call to us to go and sound the alarm. We need to save this youth before it is to late. I would also like to incurage people to sign up for BATTLECRY online at www.battlecry.com and find out how you can get to the San fransico meeting. I trust that this will be a spiritual move of God unlike ever before. So sound the BATTLECRY!

While I don't disagree with Ron Luce's assessment of the current cultural crisis facing our kids today, I was struck by the fact that Ron spends more time blaming the culture for the lack of a Christ-like reflection than he does calling on the church and the Christian home to reflect the grace and truth of God's Word to a dying and sinful world. I was also struck that in Ron's solutions, understanding that the book is primarily targeted to youth pastors, the concept and strategic role that the Christian school can play was never mentioned...not even once! Luce is dancing around something good...there is a problem, but his focus on the external misses the biblical focus on the internal - God's people were always called upon to rid their own homes of idols first, then they were called upon to influence the culture around them. Luce asks a question in jest in the book - why don't we teach our kids to swim better - well, why don't we? Why isn't Luce asking Christian parents why their children are so influenced by the current culture, why they are mere consumers of the "beautiful garbage" of the world and not discerning and critical thinkers who do not jump into the flood of dissipation? Luce tells us that our kids are influenced by various "enemies" - TV, music, video games, the Internet - why isn't Luce asking Christian parents why their kids are watching the same movies as their non-Christian friends, listening to the same music, buying the same $600 purse, wearing the same revealing and inappropriate clothes, going to the same parties, and performing the same sexual favors for their friends? Where are the Christian parents passing on their faith to the next generation?

Battle Cry should be a wake up cry for Christian parents...not just the church and the youth pastor. In fact, the youth pastor should focus a great deal of his energies on strengthening the family, empowering the parents to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord - parents are the greatest influence in the spiritual development of a child...not the church...not the youth pastor...and not even their peers. What is the church doing to equip and prepare Christian parents to rear their children so their children will not be put to shame when they face their enemies at the gate (Ps. 127:5)? Battle Cry may be a good wake up for Christian parents, but if you're looking for real solutions instead of someone telling you what the problem is, try WorldProofing Your Kids by Leal Arrington, Do Fish Know They're Wet by Tom Neven or Serious Times by James Emery White. And turn off the TV, sit down with your kids and read...those two things will be the greatest defense against this godless culture attacking your children.

This book presents relevant and true facts in an overly alarmist fashion. Obviously intended to create an emotional response that closes the ranks of Christian culture to keep the saved in and the unsaved out.