Getting the Word Out in Public High Schools

Are we trading in our right to free speech, especially our freedom of religion, in exchange for being non-offensive and politically correct? Separation of church and state may restrict public prayers in schools, but there is still an avenue for high school students to rightfully distribute God’s Word in their schools.

Founded by The Gideons International, The Life Book Movement is an innovative strategy to reach high school students with the Word of God. The movement is a Christian mission centered on The Life Book, a unique presentation of Scripture designed to engage high school students with the truth of God’s Word, created by Carl Blunt, president and CEO of The Life Book Movement. The Life Book presents a brief overview of the Old Testament and the Book of John using an interactive format with honest student comments and real-life questions in the margins. Readers are drawn into the only story that can change their lives forever.

The Life Book Movement works with churches throughout the country by providing free copies of The Life Book for students to give as gifts to their friends and classmates during school. Blunt’s organization brilliantly takes advantage of a student’s freedom to distribute religious literature by getting The Life Book into the hands of Christian high school students and having them pass the books out to classmates at school—a practice that is acceptable, as long as the books are not distributed by school staff or other adults.

Blunt says, “In mission-speak, it’s like we’re helping students get God’s Word into a closed country (public high schools) to reach an unreached people group because studies show that only 4 percent of today’s teenagers are Bible-believing Christians.” The goal is to ensure that every student in every high school in the United States has an opportunity to receive the gift of The Life Book. This approach presents a phenomenal opportunity to impact a generation with the good news of Jesus Christ.

Local churches contact The Life Book Movement to schedule saturations, described to students as a short-term mission trip to their local high school. Local church youth ministries work together in targeted areas to ensure The Life Book is offered to students in each chosen high school. The churches receive the books at no cost from The Life Book Movement and provide the books, along with some evangelism training, to the students in their youth groups. The students then spend a week or two passing them out to their friends and classmates at school.

In less than a year and a half, almost 320,000 copies of The Life Book have been distributed. That number is expected to increase by 200,000 by the end of May 2011. This year alone, saturations have occurred in more than 80 locations in 26 states. According to Blunt, 1.2 million copies are being printed for distribution in the 2011-2012 school year.

For more information, visit TheLifeBook.com, Twitter.com/CarlBlunt and Facebook.com/CarlBlunt.