One of the most exciting stories last year was Dollar for a Drink — a campaign by 16-year-old Joshua Guthrie to raise $10,000 to build a well in Sudan. With a big response from rebelutionaries, youth groups, and young people around the country, Joshua met and exceeded his goal. Now the well that he (and you!) paid for is providing clean water for over 6,000 people in the Darfur region of Sudan.

This year Josh is back with an even bigger goal. Once again, he needs your help to achieve it. You’ll be tired of your $20 Christmas present in a matter of weeks or months. That same $20 would provide several African families with clean water for years. Please watch/read the following challenge carefully, take it seriously, and pray about what God would have you do. Don’t keep it to yourself, either. Pass it on.

A Challenge for This Holiday Season

With just over a month before Christmas, Josh has raised $10,343 — but needs $6,000 more to dig two wells and $14,000 more to dig three. And as we enter the holiday season, most people expect us to only care about stuffing our faces and getting the latest games and gadgets. They don’t expect us to care about the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, or the oppressed. Let’s join Josh and prove them wrong.

Anyone can give a dollar. Most of us can give more. To get us started, the Rebelution has decided to match your donations, up to a total of $1,000. Whatever you give, we’ll match it — doubling your contribution! $5 becomes $10. $25 becomes $50.

As you give or raise funds for Dollar for a Drink, leave a comment to encourage your fellow teens and let us know so we can match your donation. If you’d rather not comment, you can just shoot an email to brett [at] therebelution [dot] com.

Let’s see how fast we can raise $2,000 for the people of Sudan, not just to provide clean water, but also to share the gospel — the mission of Baptist Global Response. This holiday season (and beyond), we’ll show the world what really matters to teens.

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Send Checks To: Dollar for a Drink, P.O. Box 570, Medina, TN 38355

We weren’t familiar with the Pocket Testament League until a few weeks ago when someone handed us a pocket-sized Gospel of John. In the back it included the challenging question: “What’s in your pocket? Keys? Wallet? Small change? Why not use your pocket to change someone’s life by filling it with the power of God’s Word?”

We discovered that the Pocket Testament League has been around for 116 years and has distributed over 100,000,000 Gospels around the world! All of this has been accomplished through the work of enthusiastic volunteer members. Moreover, all of this was started by a teenage girl from England named Helen Cadbury!

From their website: The ministry began in 1893 as the vision of a teenage girl named Helen Cadbury, daughter of the president of Cadbury Chocolates. She was so excited about sharing her faith that she organized a group of girls who sewed pockets onto their dresses to carry the small New Testaments her father had provided. The girls called their group “The Pocket Testament League.” Using small membership cards, they pledged to read a portion of the Bible every day, pray, and to share their faith as God provided opportunity.

God uses young people. Perhaps more accurately, God uses anyone who is willing to follow hard after Him — no matter their age. Helen (pictured above, far left) gave her life to Christ at the age of 12 and never looked back. She understood that the Great Commission applies just as much to 12-year-old Christians as it does to 45-year-old Christians — and millions have heard the Gospel because of it.

Our Savior Jesus Christ said, in Luke 10:2, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Let us pray that many of those laborers will be young people — and then let us be some of the first to go forth.

Some questions for discussion:

• Were you already familiar with the Pocket Testament League and/or Helen Cadbury? Have you eaten Cadbury Chocolate?
• At your stage in life, how should you be involved in the Great Commission? Have you excused yourself because of your age?
• When was the last time you shared the Gospel with someone?

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)