Reality Check Youth Rally

Jesuslove

A Different Kind of Youth Rally

What We Do

The rally usually starts with a short concert by Richard “Stonefingers” Johnson, featuring his original and unusual blues/acoustic/gospel music style, performed on a collection of instruments including the first electric guitar. (For details on the concert part of the ministry, visit www.stonefingers.org).

The concert segment tends to break the ice…and then, the conversation between the generations begins.

An announcement is made that “there’s no such thing as a dumb question or an off-limits topic.”

Teens are free to ask Richard and Dawn anything they want. If they wish to ask their questions anonymously, a ballot box is placed where people can write out their questions in advance, privately and secretly. This gives everyone an opportunity to get answers without running the risk of exposure or punishment.

Richard & Dawn Johnson have years of experience talking with…not at…young people, including young people in church, in prison, or those involved in drug use or other risky behavior. They have an ability to draw them out, and draw them in.

During the rally, our immediate goal is to establish honest and direct communication, and then to address the concerns that young people have about Christ, the Christian faith, the Bible, and life in general.

These are the kinds of questions teens may ask us: “Why should I wait for marriage to have sex? How will I know if the sex is any good if I wait?” “If God created marijuana, then why is it wrong to smoke it?”

Questions like these don’t usually come up in Sunday school or youth group, and most adults are uncomfortable about answering them…but these are the kinds of things kids want…and need…to know.

If the Church doesn’t answer their questions, then someone else will.

The purpose of Reality Check is to lead young people (and their parents) to Jesus Christ, and to present the Christian life as the only sane way to live in an insane world. Jesus has all the answers!

Through Reality Check, we demonstrate to teens, their parents, and other adult authority figures how to build relationships that prepare teens to enjoy their own lifelong, intimate friendship with the Lord.

As the rally draws to a close, we give everyone an opportunity to receive God’s forgiveness, and begin a new relationship with, and a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We also pray for other needs…and after the “formal” program ends, Richard and Dawn make themselves available for one-on-one conversation, questions, and encouragement.

During the course of the rally, young people’s real needs may be exposed. We encourage our host to demonstrate the love of Jesus, and follow up the Reality Check rally with whatever spiritual, emotional, or physical help that those who attended may need.

Why We Do What We Do

It’s our calling, and we love it! After years of ministering to teens and adults in prisons, jails, youth detention centers, and churches throughout the United States and Canada, we decided to see what we could do to head people off at the pass, before they got into trouble.

It may surprise you to learn that a significant number of young people and adults behind bars come from good Christian homes, and that many made a genuine life commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ before they got into trouble.

It is also true that substance abuse damages people, and so does prison. People tend to get spiritually and emotionally stuck at the age they were when they got into trouble. We minister to a lot of children in adult bodies.

Reality Check developed over years of prison and church ministry. The Lord showed us how to break through “churchianity” and stop giving people in pain “knee-jerk scripture responses” to their need. We began to get to the heart of the matter, and started to minister effectively in the areas where people were hurting.

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is intensely spiritual; it is also intensely practical. Jesus has all our answers.

We believe that Christians should not fear any challenge to our faith; truth will always stand against anything anyone can throw at it. We further believe that Christians should not be ashamed to hear, or to answer, any question, on any topic. Who can answer difficult questions better than the Spirit of Truth Himself?

We believe that the best (and only) answer for someone who needs to walk in the freedom and fullness of life, is to personally know the Father and the Holy Spirit through the Son…Jesus Christ.

Teens have questions, and if they don’t get answers from us, they will get them from someone else…and that  someone else may not have their best interests at heart.

Christian teens walk away from their faith for a number of reasons. Reality Check addresses at least one of them; parents and other adults tend to talk at kids…but rarely listen to them. We mean…really listen.

Listening is almost a lost art…it’s a skill that we need to re-acquire. Listening is a powerful demonstration of love. Listening to someone says “You are important to me; your thoughts, feelings, questions…your life…matters. It is well worth my time to drop what I’m doing to listen to you. I love you.”

The not-so-hidden truth about Reality Check is that it’s not just about answering teens’ questions. It’s about demonstrating Jesus’ love in a concrete way, through listening to them. And genuine love, demonstrated by Jesus Christ Himself on the Cross, changes lives! Christ’s love heals all wounds, and restores all relationships.

Please contact us at the address below if we can serve you.

Jesuslove

Copyright © 2005-2008 Richard H. & Dawn M. Johnson