TeenMania Wraps Up First BattleCry Season
The large BattleCry movement born from a response to the outcries of a young generation beleaguered by today's sex- and violence-dominated culture ended its first season with 75,000 teens emboldened for Christ.
After kicking off on the west coast in San Francisco with 25,000, TeenMania's new initiative attracted a larger faith-filled crowd of 35,000 in Detroit and made its final round in Philadelphia where 15,000 got on board. The "Reverse Rebellion" rallies and large stadium events drew media attention from TIME Magazine, NBC's Saturday Today and FOX's O-Reilly Factor.
"It's been a wild few months," said 19-year-old Amanda Hughey, who helped lead teens in "Reverse Rebellion" rallies in San Francisco, Detroit, and Philadelphia. "We had no idea that taking a stand for our beliefs and rejecting the negative influences of pop culture could cause such controversy. It has been great to see teenagers, in the face of protestors, embrace what God says is 'cool' and reject what pop culture, like MTV and Seventeen magazine, says is 'cool.'"
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The first counterculture rally in front of San Francisco's City Hall drew a group of protestors. Rally participants, however, remained under the rain with their red flags and BattleCry signs. Teens in the Detroit and Philadelphia rallies met no protest.
The BattleCry stadium events were held to catalyze TeenMania's larger movement of building and doubling youth ministries across the country in the next five years. That could signify 32 million teens discipled and raised, as TeenMania founder Ron Luce had noted.
Teens across America will continue to gather and unite as members of the BattleCry Coalition, advancing their own battle plans through the website battlecry.com.
Luce will embark on a 40-city tour with Christian leaders Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Jack Hayford, best-selling author and founder of The Church on the Way, for this fall's BattleCry Leadership Summits.
The counterculture movement with tens of thousands of teens will continue next spring as TeenMania returns to the three cities visited this year along with three additional venues.
