Ever since we started this blog, and especially after Do Hard Things was released, we’ve gotten tons of emails from parents who want to know what our parents did to raise us kids. Our response is always that we’re far from perfect, but by God’s grace — and largely through decisions our father and mother made before we were born — we’ve seen God use our family in ways we never could have dreamed.

Our dad is our hero. Nobody has influenced us more than he has — both in what we’re doing today, as well as how we think about life. So we’ve encourage him (for a long time) to put his best ideas and insights into a new conference for parents (and teens). It’s called Raising Kids to Do Hard Things, but it’s not your average seminar — it’s more like a strategy session with our dad, who brings a boatload of biblical wisdom and 35 years of practical experience raising us and our siblings.

For any of you who have attended one of our Do Hard Things conferences, you know what a powerful and paradigm-shifting speaker our dad is. For all of you, his new conference is a terrific opportunity to find out for yourself. There currently ten conferences scheduled in ten cities across the United States — beginning in Los Angeles, CA in February and ending in Orlando, FL in December 2010.

You probably noticed that this “parenting” seminar is for both parents and teens. There’s a reason for that — and it’s very similar to the reason why we encourage parents to attend our “teen” conferences every year. As young people you probably live with your family. And being a rebelutionary gets a lot easier when you’re doing hard things with your parents on board. They can give you wise advice, provide needed resources (and snacks), drive you around, and help you keep going.

We’re excited about how God will use our dad’s new conference to get parents and teens excited about doing hard things together. Your job is to let your parents know about it — and encourage them to make it a family event! You’ll be glad you did.

+ Visit the Website / Register Online +

We love coming across stories of young people who are making a difference — at home, at school, in their local community, or on the other side of the globe.

This evening we came across a story in the Hernando Times (a publication of the Tampa Tribune) of a 14-year-old rebelutionary named Jordan Baker who — along with his friends — is making a difference in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Baker takes on Washington
By Jeff Schmucker

BROOKSVILLE - Whether it’s debating with members of U.S. Congress, inspiring youth to become involved or establishing call centers for candidates in the 2010 elections, Jordan Baker is ready to make a difference.

His main obstacle at 14 years old — he still needs his mother to drive him.

But Jordan, who for years has harbored an interest in history and debating, won’t let age keep him from speaking out… And if he could find his voice, why couldn’t others?

Jordan called to arms his fellow home schoolmates and this summer formed the Conservative Christian Teens of America, which includes himself, as president, and 29 others.

While many teens enjoyed the outdoors during their summer vacation, [the Baker] living room was filled with teenagers who were discussing government and national issues, crafting arguments and practicing their public speaking.

Read the whole article >>

This past Saturday, Jordan and his friends met for a public debate with a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The topic? The proposed Parental Rights Amendment to protect the rights of parents to raise their children.

At one point during his speech, Jordan made the following argument:

I know that you are not suggesting to me or my peers that we should not do “Hard Things”. Someone worked really hard at both creating and passing Amendments 13, 15, and 19 so that race and gender would have equal value and the right to vote. Do you not agree that those Amendments were worth fighting for, no matter how long the process took?

Politics is one area where most people don’t expect young people to be involved, but Jordan and his friends are turning those low expectations upside down.

What do you think about what Jordan and his friends are doing? Have you ever been involved in a political campaign to support a candidate or issue that you care about? If you have, what are some ways other teens can get involved?

+ Join the Conversation +

After being eaten by a beanbag last month, our brother Josh is back with a challenge about self-control—particularly in the area of electronic media.

We don’t know about you, but his example sounded a lot like us. Can you relate? What are some areas God convicted you about as you watched?

Where have Alex and Brett been for the past few weeks? Based on the activity here on the blog, you might have thought we were kidnapped by aliens, arrested for disrupting the peace, or maybe just fell into a (really) big hole. We didn’t, really.

Actually, the last few weeks have been spent doing lots of school, wrapping up the conference season after DC, working to schedule events for next year, shooting a promo video, and doing final edits for the new book — prayers are appreciated!

Despite the busyness, we have been missing the blog — a lot. We’ve been missing the interaction with all of you. So this post is meant to be more informal: Give a quick update, muse a little, and ask a question for discussion.

Some Musing…

We first read the book The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman back in 2005. In it he contrasts studious, hard-working young people in countries like China and India with complacent American teens. It was one of the things that inspired us to start the Rebelution — “a teenage rebellion against low expectations.”

When we hosted a Rebelution conference in Tokyo in 2007, we had to ask the question: Does this message really translate to an Asian culture? Are there low expectations in a country that trounces America in math and science?

We decided there were — if not academically, then socially (and certainly spiritually). The response confirmed that. One young man came up to us afterward, tears in his eyes, and in broken English said, “What you said…” and pointed to his heart.

We were reminded of this a few days ago, when we got an email from a girl in China. She had read an article about us and Do Hard Things in a Taiwanese magazine:

Hi. I’m a Chinese girl at the age of 15. I’ve read an article about you and “do hard things” from an magazine. It said that you found that teens in countries like China and India were accomplishing far more than those in the US.

But in China, we always think that the education system makes the students’ imagination less powerful, and not do well in Practical ability (forgive my poor English, i don’t know how to translate that into English).

Many teens just do math or physics homework to get a high mark. But when they graduate from high school or college, they can do nothing except homework. We call them “high scores and low abilities.”

Clearly expectations for teens in China are very different, but still low. “High” expectations that only value test scores and academic achievement are just another perversion of the true purpose and God-given potential of the teen years.

A Question for Discussion…

So here is the question: How does the message of the Rebelution uniquely apply in a country like China? How about the Philippines? South Africa? Brazil? The UK?

For rebelutionaries in those (or any other) countries, what do low expectations look like in your country? What are some unique ways that low (or high) expectations for teens manifest themselves where you live? What is your personal experience?

For those of us in America, how do low expectations look different for us? What are some unique low expectations in our church or circle of friends? For those in public school, private school, home school? What about college (secular or Christian)?

Rebelling against low expectations is not a simple, generic formula. It requires wisdom and discernment. Let’s share with one another — and help one another — as we seek to do hard things right where God has placed us.

+ Join the Conversation +

One of our favorite things about the new book (Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are) is the way it includes the voices of so many different rebelutionaries. The book includes our answers to the 30+ most common questions we’ve received from teens around the world, but it’s also full of stories from teens just like you.

Because of that, we’re really excited about a project we’re calling 100 Hard Things. The number one question we get in emails and at our conferences is “Where do I start?” To help answer that, we’re compiling a list of a whole bunch of hard things (big and small) that other rebelutionaries have actually done.

Over the next two weeks we will be collecting submissions of hard things you have done. These snapshots should be carefully crafted, preferably in 10 words or less (20 words max). Here are some examples of the range of things we’re looking for:

100 Hard Things - EXAMPLES

• Share the gospel with a friend.
• Write a song and perform it.
• Increase your GPA this year.
• Start a Christian club at school.
• Volunteer on a political campaign.
• Hold a bake sale to fight human trafficking.
• Babysit for a single mom at your church.
• Start a band, practice hard, and book some gigs.
• Do a chore that you weren’t asked to do.
• Honor your parents even though you disagree with them.
• Sponsor a child through Compassion International.

If you have done one of the things listed as an example, go ahead and submit it. You can submit your “hard thing” here on the blog by leaving a comment here. However, if you’re on Twitter, we encourage you to get your friends involved (and possibly catch the attention of the Twitter community) by tweeting your submission with the tag #100HardThings. Multiple submissions are welcome (one per tweet)!

We’ll be taking the best submissions (with a target number of 100) to share in Start Here. But if we receive more than that, we may make it a permanent feature on TheRebelution.com — giving rebelutionaries a growing list of big and small hard things that other teens have done, and (perhaps) that they can do too.

Because we’re trying to finish up the book by the end of the month, the deadline for submissions is less than two week away — September 20th. So get tweeting!

+ Submit by Tweet +

This clip is from a sermon our older brother gave last Sunday on Proverbs 3:7-12. We encouraged him to post the video because we thought it was a terrific reminder about the danger and deception of sin.

You can listen to the audio of the full sermon here.

It was certainly no accident that we stumbled across this blog post from John Piper the morning our show aired on Focus on the Family. What a wonderful reminder that every good thing is a gift from God — and we can’t take any credit. Piper writes:

I was born into a believing family through no merit of my own at all. I was given a mind to think and a heart to feel through no merit of my own at all. I was brought into the hearing of the gospel through no merit of my own at all. My rebellion was subdued, my hardness removed, my blindness overcome, and my deadness awakened through no merit of my own at all.

Thus I became a believer in Christ through no merit of my own at all. And so I am an heir of God with Christ through no merit of my own at all. Now when I put forward effort to please the Lord who bought me, this is to me no merit at all, because

…it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Cor. 15:10)

…God is working in me that which is pleasing in his sight. (Heb. 13:21)

…he fulfills every resolve for good by his power. (2 Thess. 1:11)

And therefore there is no ground for boasting in myself, but only in God’s mighty grace. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Cor. 1:31)

Dear Rebelutionaries,

At the end of June we were invited to Colorado to be interviewed on the Daily Focus on the Family Broadcast radio program—guest hosted that week by one of our good friends and mentors, Frank Pastore of KKLA.

The interview covered the story of the Rebelution’s founding, ways our parents helped us do hard things growing up, recent Rebelution success stories, next steps for the movement, and much more. The three-day series will be broadcast next week, August 17th-19th— or Monday through Wednesday.

The daily broadcast is aired in more than a dozen languages on over 9,000 stations worldwide, heard by more than 220 million people a day in 164 countries. We are excited to see how God will use it to introduce teens and families to the message of the Rebelution—and inspire them to do hard things.

You can tune in next week on your local station (find it here, just plug in the nearest big city). But more importantly, we encourage you to use this unique opportunity to introduce family (whether parents, siblings, or relatives) and friends around the world to the “do hard things” message.

Invite them to listen in and talk to you about it later. It’s a great way to share what the Rebelution is all about, and hopefully get them excited!

Finally, join us in praying that God would cause the right individuals to hear the interview, and that His will would be done as this movement spreads.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Alex and Brett

+ Find a Local Station +

We stumbled across this list on our friend Steve’s blog, and thought it was so helpful we wanted to share it with you. Read it carefully. Print it out if you can, and meditate on it frequently. May the Lord grant us the proper motivation in our fight against sin — and may we all walk in the victory that Christ purchased for us on the cross.

35 REASONS NOT TO SIN

• Because a little sin leads to more sin.
• Because my sin invites the discipline of God.
• Because the time spent in sin is forever wasted.
• Because my sin never pleases but always grieves God who loves me.
• Because my sin places a greater burden on my spiritual leaders.
• Because in time my sin always brings heaviness to my heart.
• Because I am doing what I do not have to do.
• Because my sin always makes me less than what I could be.
• Because others, including my family, suffer consequences due to my sin.
• Because my sin saddens the godly.
• Because my sin makes the enemies of God rejoice.
• Because sin deceives me into believing I have gained when in reality I have lost.
• Because sin may keep me from qualifying for spiritual leadership.
• Because the supposed benefits of my sin will never outweigh the consequences of disobedience.
• Because repenting of my sin is such a painful process, yet I must repent.
• Because sin is a very brief pleasure for an eternal loss.
• Because my sin may influence others to sin.
• Because my sin may keep others from knowing Christ.
• Because sin makes light of the cross, upon which Christ died for the very purpose of taking away my sin.
• Because it is impossible to sin and follow the Spirit at the same time.
• Because God chooses not to respect the prayers of those who cherish their sin.
• Because sin steals my reputation and robs me of my testimony.
• Because others once more earnest than I have been destroyed by just such sins.
• Because the inhabitants of heaven and hell would all testify to the foolishness of this sin.
• Because sin and guilt may harm both mind and body.
• Because sins mixed with service make the things of God tasteless.
• Because suffering for sin has no joy or reward, though suffering for righteousness has both.
• Because my sin is adultery with the world.
• Because, though forgiven, I will review this very sin at the Judgment Seat where loss and gain of eternal rewards are applied.
• Because I can never really know ahead of time just how severe the discipline for my sin might be.
• Because my sin may be an indication of a lost condition.
• Because to sin is not to love Christ.
• Because my unwillingness to reject this sin now grants it an authority over me greater than I wish to believe.
• Because sin glorifies God only in His judgment of it and His turning of it to good use, never because it is worth anything on it’s own.
• Because I promised God he would be Lord of my life.

Share your thoughts in the comment section.