The Jesus Factor - It’s what makes Teen Challenge programs effective.

Ministry Statistics - A look at 2001 for Teen Challenge of Kentucky.

Crisis Center: Our Women’s Crisis Center provides women  a place to stay long enough to meet the immediate crisis, to receive a clear witness of the gospel, and to evaluate the need for long-term discipleship training.

Turning Point Living Free is a very simple ministry concept, not unlike a cell group or home fellowship in many ways, yet it provides a model and curriculum for relationally focused discipleship in a small group. Teen Challenge of Kentucky can help your church begin a Turning Point ministry.

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Teen Challenge and “The Jesus Factor.”

All Teen Challenge programs are based on four principles:

1. There is hope for a person with a life-controlling problem.
2. Sin (not drugs, alcohol, etc.) is the root problem.
3. The only cure for sin and its life-controlling problems is Jesus Christ.
4. Jesus Christ, living within a person, takes the desire for sin out of that person’s life.

The following is an excerpt from an article on the Teen Challenge International web site which explains the “Jesus Factor.” If you want to read the entire article, click here.

Researcher: What works? Teen Challenge Graduate: “Jesus Christ. Stressing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the only thing that will make Teen Challenge work. Anybody can run a program and get guys out of jail or whatever, but head knowledge without a personal relationship - you're gonna be back in the same junk.”

Bicknese says, “I know of no programs which are both spiritual--in the ‘pervasive’ sense of Teen Challenge--yet disease-oriented in their understanding of addiction. STI/AA/NA programs may protest, saying they are both disease-oriented and spiritual. I would grant that they are not entirely secular, since they do emphasize a ‘higher power.’ Yet their position on the secular-spiritual continuum must be a middle one, because the extent to which they are religious is up to the patient and generally not imposed by the program itself.”

Responses to survey questions by Teen Challenge graduates confirm that a commitment to Jesus Christ provided them with the moral willpower needed to overcome a wide range of serious addictions. The overwhelming response by graduates to the questions, “Why don't you use drugs?” and “What makes the program work?” was “Jesus Christ.” This connection between biblical Christianity and recovery is lent even more credence by the fact that seventy-one percent of Teen Challenge respondents were veterans of other treatment programs. It was also verified in the study that these “career drug treatment clients” are statistically much more likely to end their drug treatment careers after Teen Challenge than they are after a STI/AA program. The study found that according to responses from graduates, the nature of the commitment to Jesus Christ was crucial; it was not enough to have a vague belief in a higher power, one must commit to the Christ of the Bible.

God’s Word describes the “Jesus Factor” like this:

Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law:  “The man who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says:  “Do not say in your heart,  ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”  (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’”  (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say?  “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth,  “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  -- Romans 10:5-10 (NIV)

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Teen Challenge of Kentucky  - 2001 Ministry Statistics

Turning Point Seminars 15

Turning Point Attendees 152

Church Services 67

Church Service Attendees 3500

Jail Visits 167

Youth Detention Visits 40

Ministered to Inmates  2460

Ministered to Youth in Detention 322

Salvations 154

Recommitments 277

Other Activities:

Counseling Sessions 211

Referrals to Residential TC centers 84

Lifeline Program Participants 13

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We credit the JESUS FACTOR for The Proven Cure for the Drug Epidemic!