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Every Wednesday night at our weekly youth worship service called REVIVE, we send around offering baskets. However, we are not asking our students to through in money or any love offering. We ask them to put their cell phones in the basket.

Yes, every time we meet together as a youth ministry, we take up their cell phones. We challenge them to for one hour be willing to turn off their phones, not have them in their pocket, and focus on God. With a bold move like that, their are the normal moans, groans, and complaints. After reading THIS ARTICLE and THIS ARTICLE, I am totally confirmed in our actions. 

Here are some of the amazing highlights from the article:

• Teens feel that cell phones have become a vital part of their identities.
• Second to clothing, teens say a cell phone tells the most about a person’s social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes.
• Teens believe that they can gauge a peer’s popularity or status by the phone he or she uses.
• About four out of every five teens carry a cell phone. This is up from 40 percent of teens owning a cell phone in 2004. (SIDE NOTE: I got my first personal cell phone my freshman year of college.)
• Almost half of the teens surveyed today say that having a cell phone is “key” to their social lives. ”Leaving home without my phone almost feels like leaving the house naked,” said Brenna, 17, who participated in the panel.
• Six in ten teens (57 percent) credit mobility for improving their quality of life.
• On average kids get their first cell phone between the ages of 10 and 11 years old.
• About 28 percent of all teens and 34 percent of kids 13 to 15 years old said that having the latest cool cell phone is absolutely essential. A mother of a 14-year old boy on the teen panel said the social pressure to have a “cool” phone is intense.
• Teens on average send and receive about 1,742 text messages a month. Teens also talk on the phone, but at a much lower rate, only making and receiving about 231 calls per month.
• Texting is so important to them that if texting was no longer an option, 47 percent of teens say their social life would end or be worsened – especially among females (54 percent compared to 40 percent of males).
• Teens say texting has critical advantages because it offers more options, including multitasking, speed, the option to avoid verbal communication, and because it is fun – in that order.
• With more than 1 billion text messages sent each day, it is no surprise that 42 percent of teens say they can even text blindfolded.

Crazy, huh?

I am not saying that cell phones are bad. I am not saying that text messaging is bad. I have an iPhone, which according to this study was the coolest cell phone to own. And I send text messages.

I am saying that if ANYTHING (including cell phones) takes the place of adoration and attention that should only be reserved for God, that is idolatry. Be careful not to let anything steal from you what was only intended for your Heavenly Dad.

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FOR TEENS:

• What’s your reaction to these facts?
• Has your cell phone taken a place in your life that should only be reserved for God?
• Would you be willing to turn off and fast from your cell phone for one week? Why or why not?

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FOR ADULTS:

• What’s your reaction to these facts?
• Have we contributed in any way to this cell phone culture our teenagers are living in today? If so, how?
• How do we balance living in this technological world without it taking the place of God in our lives and our teens’ lives? What’s our responsibilities?