Today begins the month-long fast for at least a hundred young people who will be going overseas for a year (and we hope many others like you who will join us). Time to ask the question: Why fast for a generation?

My answer: Do it for God and do it for yourself. Jesus asked us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” and asked us, along with his disciples, to participate with him in building it, declaring and demonstrating as we go, that “The kingdom of heaven is near.” So, obedience to his directive is one reason.

But, self-interest alone should light a fire under us. Within a generation, current trends will result in an American culture that looks like what you see in Europe where 4% of the population now follow Jesus. What kind of a world will that be? What kind of heritage will we be handing to our children and our grandchildren? What kind of future are we trying to create during our 75 years here on the planet?

We are at an inflection point in history. In the last generation, the center of gravity in the Christian world shifted from America to Africa and Latin America. And now the Church in Asia is growing rapidly. The American consumerist brand of faith is repulsive to them (as well as to the faithful of other religions around the world). They pray that we might know persecution that our faith might be purified.

This generation stands on a knife’s edge, able to change the course of history if we will listen to the trumpet of the Lord and take our place in the battle for the Kingdom. To do so, we must put away our iPods, media-addiction, and the self-absorption of our culture and focus on what God is doing on the earth and the role He is calling us to play.

The trumpet of the Lord is blowing – will we listen? Will we take the time to fast and pray?