I’ve been reading about this 4% thing about teenagers. I have been involved with a couple of ministries that like to quote this statistic. Knowing statistics, I see in this article how the statistics are being misused. The other thing that I have heard from other blogs, is that most ministries are using this information to scare the rest of us as if Christianity will disappear. I highly doubt that, I serve a God that is so much bigger than that. However, I wonder if we are looking at this wrong. In most cases, all of the groups say that we have to evangelize the teens. Well, that’s fine and dandy, but the problem that I have run into, over my 9 years of youth ministry, is that you can’t evangelize until they trust you. One reason that I think that our current ministry that Mary and I are involved in is being “successful,” is that the core group of kids trust us, and they bring in their friends. However, it doesn’t stop there. We have to show concern and an ability to listen. Most of the kids that are in the youth ministry are pretty good, they just have some area of their life that needs to be repaired. They just need someone to listen. I think that this generation will be ok; and I don’t worry about the 4% claim.