The helicopter camera panned away from a crowd rivaling those of the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games, a brightly coloured throng of people waving hands in the air, celebrating and singing.
It wasn’t a sports event; it wasn’t a concert. It was Mass, the first of World Youth Day, a Toronto gathering of more than 300,000 Roman Catholic youth from around the globe to celebrate their faith.
It was only the most visible of several youth events taking place across Canada in recent months.
Earlier this summer, 200 young people gathered in Calgary, Alberta for Soul Survivor, a prayer and renewal conference. In June, a group of youth spearheaded Youth On a Hill, an effort that started as prayer groups in their high schools and turned into a public prayer gathering in Toronto.
This month, thousands of youth are expected to make the trek to Ottawa to gather on Parliament Hill to pray during The Cry. In September, the annual See You at the Pole prayer event will draw thousands of participants from schools across the country.
These are just a few examples. There are dozens, if not hundreds, more.
But what would happen if the light was extinguished and the salt lost its potency" What if the Christian kids were no longer in the schools" It could happen.
Across the border, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, has been in the news lately urging Christian parents in states to remove their children from public schools, in large part because of a "godless and immoral curriculum" that is "gaining momentum across the nation in ways that were unheard of just one year ago.
"It’s as though the dam has now broken and activists representing various causes, including homosexuality, are rushing through the breach in ways that are shocking," he says. "It is aimed at the very core of the Judeo-Christian system of values, the very core of Scriptural values."
A former teacher, Dobson says he supports Christian teachers in the schools, but suggests they too might want to leave. "I couldn’t be in an organization that’s supporting that kind of anti-Christian nonsense," he said.
In a later broadcast, he maintained he stands with the teachers who remain, but that "it’s in spite of them that we are saying there is a problem here," and that children take priority "even over our desire to stay and influence the schools."
Dobson says he realizes he’s going to "take a hit" for airing these views. However, according to news reports, support is soaring and hundreds of parents are removing their children from public schools.
Point taken
I can see their point. Apparently much of the U.S. curriculum is even more liberal than the homosexual storybooks being debated in the courts of B.C. Although I’m not yet a parent I know there are issues to be faced in determining the best possible education for a child—and it is no secret that private institutions often beat out public.
I would also be the first to say we need to protect kids from physical, emotional or spiritual abuse. But pulling out of a public school does not equal protection from the bad things of this world—former students from the Christian school in my hometown became homosexuals, got pregnant before marriage and abused drugs and alcohol.
The cries for help are loud, no matter what the institution.
"Some days you’ll be walking down the hallway [at school] and hear students as they’re talking with each other about what a rough time they’re having, just crying with their friends for whatever reason," says Matt Wan, a Christian student in a Toronto public school.
"These people need Jesus. We’re there in high school to get an education, but God’s placed us there for another reason, as a part-time missionaries. High school is one of the greatest opportunities we have to reach out to our peers. We should use that opportunity."
I think Jesus would agree. He wasn’t much for abandoning those who were caught in the real world"He waded right in there with them, just like the students who are standing up for their faith and making a powerful impact here in Canada.
But if students and teachers abandon ship because things have become just too bad, too dark, for Christians to stay any longer, what is our message to a dying world"
Kelly Henschel is the managing editor for ChristianWeek.
The sixth issue of ChristianCurrent found its way into more than 1,200 Ontario churches earlier this month, and I thought the readers and supporters of ChristianWeek would be interested in the status of CW’s bold and innovative expansion into Christian community newspaper publishing.
Six issues of ChristianCurrent have been published in Ottawa, six in the Golden Triangle and four in the greater Quinte and Kingston area. These are "beta test" papers; helping us to learn both what works and what doesn’t. We are happy to report that virtually every element of our implementation is working better than expected. Community and advertiser interest is growing as more and more people discover what we are doing.
And what are we doing" ChristianCurrent is a free distribution, Christian community newspaper network, sharing national stories and regional content as well as local reporting. Our goal and mission is to create a valued resource and to educate. We want to assist fellow Christians by exploring what other churches are doing successfully, or even what they are struggling with. At the very least, we want to help avoid duplication and funnel our collective energies positively and productively.
ChristianCurrent also helps Christian readers in practical ways with sections on finance, youth issues, education and home improvement. Last but not least, we want to expand the reach of the awarding-winning editorial ChristianWeek readers know and respect.
ChristianWeek is continuing a capital fund-raising campaign to expand the ChristianCurrent papers. Our initial estimates of a $25,000 cost to start each paper are proving to be almost exactly correct. Our goal of producing papers that are profitable and self-sufficient within six months is also proving itself out. Both these statistics convincingly beat the industry norm. We believe God is blessing the efforts of the very diverse group—unlikely partners—who collaborate each month to produce these publications.
We are still aiming to cover Canada with local editions of ChristianCurrent and beginning to plan our next expansion. If you would like to see your community served by this effective unifying tool, please start praying for the right people to become involved. And, of course, please consider a financial gift to ChristianWeek to assist with the capital costs of each launch.
Never before in the history of Canada has the possibility of uniting more than 1,000,000 Christian voices together with a common message, diverse opinion and Christian community news been so close to fruition. And, I believe, this is just the start of what the Lord wants to do if we are faithful to His call.
