You might have seen the commercials on VH1, BET, or Comedy Central. They’re beautifully produced but simple: twentysomething guys hanging out in a restored classic car, while one kid watches despondently from a distance. A girl living the popular life cuts class to sob alone in the high-school bathroom. For the online ministry Groundwire, these ads are the tools to connect with hurting teens and young adults.
Why have so many young Christians today left the church? It’s partly because we haven’t been good mentors.
Likely everybody has heard about or knows a teenager or young adult who has experienced trouble with the law or who has been expelled from school or perhaps even threatened someone at school, sometimes with a weapon. People know these teens have problems, but they may not know these behaviors can be symptoms of a very real psychiatric illness affecting approximately 9 percent of all boys and 2 percent of all girls under the age of 18 in the United States.
