{"id":28767,"date":"2016-09-21T11:43:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T16:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=28767"},"modified":"2023-09-20T16:36:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T21:36:02","slug":"weathering_the_cultural_storm_lenexa_kansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/weathering_the_cultural_storm_lenexa_kansas\/","title":{"rendered":"Weathering the Cultural Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"JoshOn Saturday I walked out on a warm Midwest night into one of the most peaceful neighborhoods you could imagine. The community was fenced in with many kids playing outside under the watchful eyes of their parents and grandparents. The night would have been serene if it wasn\u2019t for the constant noise of the cicadas coming from all around. For those of you who don\u2019t know, cicadas are a giant grasshopper-like insect which hatches every 2 – 17 years and after hatching immediately begins \u201csinging\u201d (which really just sounds like a harsh insect noise) to find a mate. The song is loud, constant, and everywhere but hey, I can\u2019t say it\u2019s the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen done to get a mate.
\nWhile this scene is common place in the suburbs of the Midwest, I think it represents a much more serious spiritual reality.\"cicada\" At the conference in Lenexa Josh spoke about what he calls The Perfect storm which involves the multifaceted pressure coming against the church due to changes in our culture. This Perfect Storm is comprised of a massive media glut hitting our children combined with the increased access children have to internet pornography. While increased access to media and information is not a bad thing, it has caused today\u2019s children to have a million and one voices giving them information in competition with the values they learn at home and at church. Just as the noise of the cicadas was all around, the internet has spread the noise of information and contrary views spread everywhere.\u00a0In the midst of this media noise pornography has found ways to access children at earlier and earlier ages. Today the average age for a child\u2019s first exposure to pornography is eight years old1<\/sub>.
\nThese forces have created many discouraging statistics 80 percent of 15 – 17 year olds have had multiple exposures to pornography, and 69 percent of young people are leaving the church after high school.2<\/sub> \"childrenIt appears as though fighting to keep out negative cultural influences has become as futile as trying to rid a neighborhood of the noise of cicadas.\u00a0How do we deal with this problem?\u00a0I believe the answer is found in the small neighborhood I visited in Lenexa, Kansas. You see, many who would walk by this\u00a0simple suburb would see\u00a0nothing special in it. But to me, it is\u00a0the most special thing — functional families with involved mothers and fathers providing a positive environment for their kids to grow.\u00a0\"Josh<\/p>\n

While the stats are daunting concerning the problems\u00a0we face, the stats are likewise extremely clear on the amazing impact parents can have\u00a0even in the midst of the noise of culture. For example, children\u00a0raised in a two-parent home\u00a0who had a good-to- excellent relationship with their father are less than 6 percent likely to use drugs, alcohol or to be violent.3<\/sub> This influence even extends to areas such as sex and pornography. A Montreal study showed that 45 percent of teens would identify their parents (not their friends or celebrities) as their sexual role models.4\u00a0<\/sub>This finding led Professor Jean-Yves Frappier of the University of Montreal to conclude that Parents are the \u201cmost important role models for teens.\u201d3<\/sub> Why is a relationship with parents so important? It is not because it silences the voices of culture (cicadas can still get into neighborhoods). It is important because it can give children an example of true righteousness to contrast against the false ideologies of the world and a loving adult to go to with questions when they encounter pornography and other influences too hard for them to deal with on their own.
\nWith that being said, here is my challenge for those of you who are reading this article. Don\u2019t let the lesson I learned at Lenexa go to waste.If you are a parent\/grandparent,\u00a0get the resources you need and spend the time necessary to develop a loving relationship with your child. While developing your relationship will be one of your life\u2019s most difficult tasks; it will also be one of your life\u2019s most important tasks because your relationship with your child will make a huge difference in their lives (even if they appear unaffected by your influence at times). If you are not a parent,\"Happy I would challenge you to take the time to recognize those who are parenting well. Perhaps one of the reasons strong families are on the decline in this country is our culture\u2019s lack of appreciation for their crucial role in society. Think about it, today women who choose to put their careers on hold to focus on their kids are viewed as selling out, and men are increasingly judged by their ability to provide for their families rather than their ability to love their children. So take the time to reverse that tide.\u00a0Send your appreciation to someone who is parenting well. If that seems like an awkward thing for you to bring up in conversation, then simply post this article to their social media page and tell them it made you think of them and the positive impact they have by being a good parent.
\nFor FREE resources on relationships and parenting visit our website’s resource tab:\u00a0\/resources\/<\/a><\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Alexa research, NRC, PBS, WordTracker, Google, and MSNBC, Estherministries.org, 2002 Rob Jackson, \u201cHow to Confront Children Using Pornography,\u201d Pure Intimacy.org, 2004, https:\/\/www.pureintimacy.org\/piArticles\/A000000593.cfm<\/a>) www.Familysafemedia.com\/pornography_statistics.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. \u201cCurrent Pornography Statistics- A Brief Internet Review, 7\/29\/03,\u201d https:\/\/www.familysafemedia.com\/pornography_statistics.html<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. McDowell, Josh. The Last Christian Generation. Green Key Books (Holiday: Florida. 2006), 13<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Referring to Study: Back to School 1999 \u2013 National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse V: Teens and Their Parents,<\/em> Conducted by The Luntz Research Companies and QEV Analytics, August 1999.<\/li>\n
        2. Rochman, Bonnie \u201cWho are Teen\u2019s Sexual Role Models? Turns Out, It\u2019s their Parents.\u201d Time Magazine \u201chttps:\/\/healthland.time.com\/2011\/07\/18\/surprise-teens-consider-parents-their-sexual-role-models\/#disgus_thread<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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          On Saturday I walked out on a warm Midwest night into one of the most peaceful neighborhoods you could imagine. The community was fenced in with many kids playing outside under the watchful eyes of their parents and grandparents. The night would have been serene if it wasn\u2019t for the constant noise of the cicadas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23327,"featured_media":28782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Lessons learned on the Road with Josh McDowell in Lenexa Kansas on how the church can overcome pornography and other culural challenges of the internet age","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"translator":[],"blog-author":[78],"class_list":["post-28767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","blog-author-josh-mcdowell-ministry-team"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2016\/09\/iStock_77449315_MEDIUM.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28767"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=28767"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=28767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}