In the last three previous newsletters we have looked at three of the CONNECT points:
- God
- Each Other
- The Legacy
Today we look at the final CONNECT point: The Need. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Jack Smart’s message at the opening session of the Teen Challenge national conference in Denver Colorado in August of this year.
Maybe some would say that this is the last thing we need to focus on while here. After all, we come face to face with the need every day in our ministry. Sometimes, however, we can get callous or jaded to the need. Unfortunately, statistics show us that the need is greater today than ever before.
- SAMHSA tells us 22.6 million were illicit drug users in the past month
- 22.1 million (8.7%) were classified with substance dependence or abuse. If placed in their own state it would be the second largest behind California and just ahead of Texas.
- 3 million used an illicit drug for the first time for an average of 8,100 initiates per day.
- 20.5 million (8.1%) needed treatment for illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty facility past year.
- 6.4 million (2.5%) needed but did not receive treatment at a specialty facility for an illicit drug problem
And those stats certainly do not tell the whole story. Prescription drug abuse has more than doubled since 2003. Synthetic drugs are spreading rapidly across the country and even though legislation has been produced to outlaw these drugs with such dangerous side effects, every time they are outlawed these diabolical chemists make a slight change that alters it just enough so that it is no longer covered under the law.
In regards to “Connecting to the Need” I am calling us to focus on three groups: 1) Individual; 2) the peoples; 3) the cities.
Individuals
First and foremost God is calling us to connect with the need of the individual.
Of course, you may say, “we focus on the individual.” If you have a smaller ministry you may be able to do so very effectively. But, if your program has 30 students or 60 or 90 or 120 or 150, focusing on the individual becomes a greater challenge.
But even with smaller numbers the longer you are in ministry, the harder it is to keep your focus on the individual. But it is clear that as God’s ministers we must focus on the needs of the individual while at the same time trying to meet the needs of the crowds.
In Luke 15 there are three stories we are familiar with: The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin and The Lost Son. Let me make one point on each.
The Lost Sheep – Jesus makes it clear that in heaven’s economy we must be willing to give a great deal of effort to find and save the one. It takes time to make a jail visit and interview a prospective student. It takes time to run down a Public Defender and convince them that it is better for their client to spend a year in Teen Challenge than to spend 9 months in prison. It takes time to go to court. We already have dozens of students and they take up all our time as it is. But Jesus said it is worth it to save just one. You never know who the one is or the lives they will come to impact themselves.
The Lost Coin – Here the coin is lost in the ladies house. It is very valuable because it is part of her dowry. Once she realizes that it is missing she lights the lamp and sweeps, checking everywhere until she finds it.
To me this speaks to us about the student in our program who “falls through the cracks.” This is the student who may be somewhat quiet. He or she does not have a dramatic salvation experience, is slow to memorize scripture, etc.
This student is usually not a troublemaker but neither do you get too excited about them. But they don’t cause waves so you just let them drift through. Maybe they just decide to leave one day but no one on the staff gets too upset because no one gets to know them. They were in the house but, they were lost to us.
The Lost Son – Please allow me some leeway here. This student is the troublemaker. He or she is the one who breaks the rules, who comes back from pass and has a dirty UA. They are the ones who back talk staff, who are discussed in just about every staff meeting. The comment is “Why are we wasting our time with this loser? They are not serious; let’s get them out of here.”
First of all, really all of our students are prodigals to some degree. But for some of them it takes longer to get tired of their life of sin than others. Sometimes they have their ultimate pigpen experience while they are in the program!!
I have seen students not truly turn around until their 8th month, their 10th month, until their final month in the program. We need to continually offer the prodigal an invitation to the Father’s table for as long as they are with us.
We need to find the lost sheep, the lost coin or the lost son wherever they may be.
But there is another parable that Jesus told that also strongly reminds us that we must be aware of the individual needs of our students.
The Good Samaritan – Luke 10:25-37.
We know the story. Nobody was willing to help until the Good Samaritan came along. We look at this and it would be pretty easy for us to feel self-righteous and say, “Yes, we are Teen Challenge and we help those that many others would be unwilling to help” and to a large extent I believe that we can say that is true.
But let’s look closer at the action of this Good Samaritan. 1) He bandaged his wounds, pouring in oil and wine; 2) he put him on his own donkey and took him to the inn; 3) he paid for his care.
My point is that the Samaritan took time with this individual, paying attention to his wounds and then taking time to treat them properly. It is important that we do everything we can to pay attention to the hurts and wounds of the individual student and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, minister to them the best that we possibly can.
I’ll give just one of what could be dozens of examples. Significant percentages of our students, men and women, have been sexually abused in one way or another while growing up. Whatever their outward behavior is that caused them to need TC, they still have this deep hurt down in their inner being. But we have a counseling curriculum that can help them, “Committed to Freedom”. Do we use it? I know all the reasons we have for not doing it. “It takes too much time,” ”We don’t have anyone qualified to use it,” “I feel uncomfortable dealing with this,” or we say, “We just believe in the power of prayer, and if they get a good dose of the Holy Spirit then they won’t need this,” etc.
Yes, we may have picked them up, and yes we put them on our donkey and yes we put them in a shelter but they still have wounds that are crying out to be bandaged, to have oil and wine poured in to bring Jesus’ complete healing in their lives. Like I said, this could be said about many areas and I realize we are not experts in every spiritual or psychological area but we need to minister to each student individually so that the Lord can bring healing. Yes, I am thankful for the thousand who are in our programs everyday but I remain concerned: “What about the one.”
All peoples
In the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells us to disciple all “nations.” In Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost in verse 5 it said there were God-fearing Jews from all nations. In the Greek that word is “ehtnos” meaning race, or tribe. No self-respecting evangelical, let alone Pentecostal, would argue with the fact that we are supposed to reach all nations with the gospel. God is using Teen Challenge around the world to set people free.
I want to focus on the “ethnos” here among us. One of the things that excited me when I first went to Cape Girardeau to be a part of that ministry was that we had a diverse student body. To me it was especially gratifying to minister to many African-American students. Already in the late 70’s it was clear that the family unit in the African-American community was falling apart. I was so excited to see Robert Williams, Donald Mayes and many others devoting themselves to Jesus and becoming godly husbands and fathers.
It seems to me that as the years have gone on, we are not seeing as many minority students of all “ethnos” in our programs. Three things, 1) I know there are exceptions in student body and staff; 2) I do not believe this is because of anything anyone has done on purpose; 3) I am not trying to be politically correct.
Because we believe that we are called to reach every nation, every “ethnos”, we are going to form a task force to examine this issue, attempt to evaluate what has happened and why, and make recommendations of what local centers can do to reverse this trend.
I believe TC is called to make an impact in this country but not just in some areas of it but all areas of it. We need to do the best we can to reach across all racial and ethnic lines to meet needs in every community possible. I believe we must be proactive about it, beginning with admitting it is a need and asking God to help us find a way to reach out to those in need, regardless of the ethnicity.
Cities
First of all we recognize that there is a drug and alcohol addiction problem in every geographic area of this country. We have our 240 centers in a wide variety of areas. How many of you believe that of every city in the US? Did you know there are 26 cities in the United States that have 150,000 people but do not have a TC within 50 miles? There is still a great need in our cities. That gives us something to think about. That gives us something to pray about regarding what God would have us to do. That is the need we face.
