Teen Mania Ministries: Difference between revisions

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Teen Mania Ministries is an Evangelical Christian youth organization located in Garden Valley, Texas. Teen Mania focuses primarily on four key programs, with a few additional smaller endeavours. Its primary program includes the Battle Cry Campaign and "Acquire the Fire" events, described by one writer as "a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service,"^[1] that are held in over 30 cities across the United States and Canada each year. Next, the ministry focuses much of its energy towards its domestic and overseas mission trips, operated under the title "Global Expeditions". Teen Mania also operates a one-year-long residential leadership training program on its campus, titled the Honor Academy, aimed towards high school graduates, and college students. Finally, Teen Mania's media branch of the organization works as a separate unit, titled the "Center for Creative Media", which provides a two-year internship for students desiring to work in live events, new media, television, and audio fields of the media industry. Teen Mania also has a separate Canadian division titled Teen Mania Canada, to handle Canadian inquiries, and donations.

Teen Mania is a member in good standing with the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) and adheres to all policies, procedures and reporting guidelines of the ECFA, IRS, and CCRA. Ron and Katie Luce do not receive royalties for any product that is sold through the ministry or used for fundraising or other promotional purposes by Teen Mania.^[2]

Teen Mania Ministries' mission, as stated on its corporate website, is "To provoke a young generation to passionately pursue Jesus Christ and to take his life-giving message to the ends of the Earth".^[3]

Teen Mania is not affiliated with a specific denomination; the organization works with local churches of various denominations as a para-church organization, while providing its programs and other resources for youth, parents and church leaders.^[4]

Ron Luce is the president and founder of Teen Mania Ministries. He and his wife Katie founded Teen Mania in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1986.^[5] Luce has publicly condemned "purveyors of popular culture" as "the enemy," who according to Luce are "terrorists, virtue terrorists, that are destroying our kids... they're raping virgin teenage America on the sidewalk, and everybody's walking by and acting like everything's OK. And it's just not OK."^[6]

There are five primary ministries within the organization that serve to facilitate its mission.

(ATF) is a youth conference that is presented in over 35 cities across the United States and Canada each year. These conferences consist of Christian teachings, full-length stage dramas, worship via song, and live concerts. The other ministries of Teen Mania are also promoted at these conferences. Similar mass events are held in stadiums and arenas as part of the Battle Cry Campaign. In past years, ATF / Battle Cry producers had adopted a militaristic tone, with frequent use of words such as "battle," "enemy," "soldier," "foes" and "warfare," accompanied by the display of military imagery and, at one such event, the use of simulated weapons. Recent events however have focused on Christ's call to sacrificial love, and having an encounter with God.^[7]

Global Expeditions is a short-term missionary ministry. Young people are sent between 1 and 8 weeks to countries around the world for service-related work as well as drama and street evangelism. Trip activities have included: service projects, literature distribution, leading children's programs, local orphanage & ministry assistance, drama presentations, teaching English as a second language, and others. Global Expeditions focuses on safety, and ministry during their trips. They recently began spring break and holiday trips, sending missionaries for 1 or 2 weeks. Occasionally, Teen Mania will offer trips after a disaster (Hurricane Katrina, Haiti, etc.). To date Global Expeditions claims to have taken over 60,000 teen missionaries to 60 countries around the globe.^[8]

The Honor Academy is an internship program for high school graduates and college students. Honor Academy interns perform most of the day-to-day functions of the different ministry programs through ministry placements. First year interns are often referred to as Undergraduates. Undergraduates that decide to return for an additional year or more are referred to as Graduate Interns. Key areas of the Honor Academy include, Ministry Placements, Weekend Retreats, Classes, and Extra-Curricular Activities. In order to participate in the Honor Academy, individuals must raise their own financial support, which ranges from $650 to $850 per month depending on the specific program. These funds are a tax-deductible contribution directly to the ministry and are non-refundable.^[9]

Extreme Camps is an annual series of summer camps held at their campus in Garden Valley, Texas. The format is much like an Acquire the Fire in a camp atmosphere.

CCM is a two-year film and television internship program. These interns participate in producing media for Teen Mania related live events and broadcasts.

The School of Worship is a one, two, or three-year-long program where students learn music theory, song writing, and the ins and outs of worship leading. They learn how to lead personal lives of worship both on and off the platform. The School of Worship exists to equip, train, and mobilize musicians and worship leaders. It assembles bands of its members and sends them out. The School of Worship recorded its first album entitled "Praise Is Awaiting" at Rosewood Studios. "Praise Is Awaiting" was released under Ee-Taow Records in 2008. From 2009-2010, School of Worship Band went on the national "Encounter Tour" with Acquire the Fire. School of Worship is set to release their second album under Ee-Taow Records entitled "Christ In Me" on September 28, 2010.

In 1996 Teen Mania relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Garden Valley, Texas, purchasing the property that was formerly the location of Keith Green's Last Days Ministries. Garden Valley is now home to 5 other major Christian ministries. One of the dormitories on campus is named Green Hall, in memory of Keith. The other dormitories are named after Jim Elliott (Elliott Hall), William Carey (Carey Hall), Samuel Morris (Morris Hall). The campus is set in East Texas on over 400 acres (1.6 km²) of wooded forests, and open fields. Buildings on the campus include the Cafeteria, Administration/Auditorium Building, Global Contact Center, Student Activity Center, Center for Creative Media/Fitness Center, Warehouse, and other housing for mission trips & camps.

Based on Teen Mania's doctrines and behavior, some Christian mental health professionals have labeled them a cult.^[10][11] In an MSNBC documentary, counselors Doug and Wendy Duncan identified all of Robert Jay Lifton's "Eight Criteria for Thought Reform" in the Honor Academy program, as described in personal accounts and video footage from several alumni and former staff spanning the past twelve years. ^[12]

A blog published by a former intern, entitled "Recovering Alumni," has raised concerns about recurring spiritual abuse and health and safety issues at Honor Academy, publishing firsthand accounts from many other interns alleging mistreatment over the past 15 years to the present. In an interview in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, the blog's author claimed, based on an email list, that about 200 Honor Academy alumni consider themselves "recovering."^[11]

In September 2010, Texas local news station KLTV reported a three-part story on the Honor Academy's "ESOAL" retreat (an acronym for "Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime"). Modeled after the Navy Seals' "hell week" program, the yearly 90-hour ordeal subjects interns to extreme exercise, exposure, sleep deprivation, unpalatable food, and other militaristic games, in an attempt (according to the leaders) to stretch interns spiritually to help them deal with traumatic emotional experiences.^[13] Some of the interns who went through the program, including current interns in 2010, describe it as abusive and authoritarian with ongoing safety issues, questioning the spiritual value of activities such as being forced to roll down a hill repeatedly, and pointing out similarities to hazing.^[13] Injuries including cuts, bruises, infections, sprains, dislocations, and exposure were reported by area doctors over the past three years, raising concerns about the event's safety.^[14][15]

In response to the KLTV news story, Teen Mania leadership denied that ESOAL had any elements of hazing or militarism, and promised to form an independent committee to investigate the charges of safety violations.^[16] The committee presented their report to the Honor Academy Administration on June 13, 2011. ^[17] In a video announcement on his blog, the Director of the Honor Academy, David Hasz, explained that ESOAL will remain "similar to the last several years" but would be renamed PEARL (Physical, Emotional, And Relational Learning), with militaristic titles updated to team-building terms.^[18]

Critics described the renaming of ESOAL to PEARL as "a bit of a whitewash," saying that the changes did not substantially alter the event's structure.^[11] The Tyler Morning Telegraph reported that of the 272 participants in the 2011 PEARL, 42 were admitted to a clinic with potentially serious physical concerns. ^[11]

Teen Mania's Battle Cry Campaign has been widely criticized in mainstream and Christian media for its militaristic imagery, hyperbolic emotional appeals to inaccurate statistics, and politicization of faith and cultural issues.^{[19][20][21][22]}

• Teen Mania Ministries website
• Global Expeditions
• Acquire the Fire
• Honor Academy
• Honor Academy Alumni
• Extreme Camps
• Teen Mania Canada
• Teen Mania Financial Profile from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability
• Recovering Alumni Community

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