Excerpts
- Notice that a riot does not take place in private. It is out in
the open where everybody can see it. By its nature, it cannot be
private. It has to get people's attention. Those in the riot are not
ashamed that others are watching; they are proud. They will get their
message out no matter what the cost. They feel they have tried
everything they know and no one has listened. They feel forced to do
something in a big, very visible way.
Page 7
- IT'S TIME FOR A 20TH-CENTURY HOLY RIOT!
RIGHTEOUS: Acting
in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin. Arising
from an outraged sense of justice or morality. To conform to the
Bible.
INVASION:
Military aggression. Incursion of an army for conquest or plunder. An
armed attack.
OF TRUTH:
Loyalty or faithfulness to a standard. Reality. The real state of
affairs.
Page 12
In a Righteous Invasion of Truth (R.I.O.T.), rather than being
destroyed, people's lives are put back together. There may be some
wreckage, though. When Satan's plans are destroyed he gets stinking
mad. But we say it's about time we made him mad! Page 13
Before the L.A. riot, racial tensions mounted for a long
time. People felt abused, taken advantage of and deceived. They felt
they always got the raw end of the deal. Finally, they were pushed
over the edge to DO something about it. The Rodney King trial verdict
was the motivation they needed to revolt. A riot was the natural
result. It's time for us to be mad that young people sit mesmerized
for hours by mind-numbing music videos, distracted from paying
attention to eternal issues. We should get mad that teens listen to
hours and hours of anti-God, anti-Jesus music every day and spend only
a few minutes reading the Bible (if that much!). We ought to be
infuriated that many young people find their purpose for life in
sports rather than in the One who made them in the first place.
Likewise, we should be sick and tired of all the safe-sex
jargon and of school officials who pass out condoms and advocate
homosexuality as a normal, alternative lifestyle. The fact that 6,000
teens kill themselves every year ought to make us mad. We ought to be
ticked off that teenage drunk driving is the second biggest killer of
young people today. In addition, hearing statistics of the huge
numbers of teens into drugs should make us want to do something about
it. The fact that 1.2 million babies are born each year to unwed teens
ought to drive us to action. Page 19
A R.I.O.T. Squad is a group of wild teens who want to stir up some
trouble for the devil. They are tired of living a boring Christian
life and they want some action. Page 26
Remember, there are no rules in a R.I.O.T. except:
- Obey the Bible
- Honor your authorities
- Establish your own operating procedures as you go
Remember the unrestrained uproar we talked about earlier? Now is the
time to let it kick in! Are you mad about what the devil has been
doing? Now is the time to do something about it! Page 30
Don't measure your success by how many souls you save; leave that
to the Lord. Set your goals in terms of how many tactics you implement
(see Weapons and Tactics Checklist, p. 140-41). The minimum goal for
each R.I.O.T. Squad is to implement three weapons and three tactics
for each R.I.O.T. Zone. That's twenty-seven weapons and twenty-seven
tac tics put into action. Just imagine what you can do to destroy the
devil's plans with that many tactics! Page 33
There are gun detectors and metal detectors installed in many high schools today, but they don't have any Holy Ghost detectors yet! What are they going to do
- send you home if you bring the Holy Spirit to school? Nah! Kids say, "We can't pray at school!" Who is there to stop you? They say you can not bring God into the school. You cannot help but bring Him in; He lives inside you!
Page 42
We'd like you to implement these tactics all the time, but put at
least three or four into action each and every week. Page 67
All this evidence of God demands a verdict; it demands that we make a decision. Are we going to give our lives to Jesus or keep our lives to ourselves? We can't not make a decision; we decide either for God or against Him.
Page 73
Once a week plan a major activity for your R.I.O.T. Squad in front of your school before school starts. As students and teachers walk by, they stop and watch because you capture their attention.
Try holding a mock funeral - with a casket
even! - in front of your school. Use music and a whole funeral
service. In the middle of it, someone jumps out of the casket and
tells the crowd, "I'm alive, like Jesus is alive today."
Page 78
Implement the Captive Audience tactic whenever you give a speech
or presentation or write a paper for class. Don't let a chance like
that go by without talking about the Lord. It takes courage and guts
and needs to be done creatively. You don't have to share a sermon,
just weave God into whatever your topic is. You have a captive
audience; they can't go anywhere. They have to listen to you, so give
them some thing worth listening to and remembering. Page 88
With the Mall Blitz tactic, your R.I.O.T. Squad infiltrates a
shopping mall. Be careful with this one - some security guards may see
this as harassing the customers. In a Mall Blitz, you arm yourself
with tracts, then march through the mall handing them out and going
crazy letting people know that Jesus loves them.
This has been tried with more than a thousand kids at a time in one
mall. Although you probably won't have that many people, go in with
the idea of completely canvassing the mall. Leave tracts with every
person and in every place you can. For example, go into bookstores and
place them inside books, so when people buy a book they also get a
tract. Put tracts in the hands of mannequins and in pockets of
pants. It's exciting to think you can massively impact a number of
people with a message from the Lord, helping them become God-conscious
and leading them closer to making a decision for Jesus.
Page 89
In most towns you'll find Mormon or Jehovah's Witnesses
churches. There are other cults represented in almost every city in
America. Find tracts that address the cult's perspective of life from
a Biblical viewpoint, then go Behind Enemy Lines - into their church
buildings. When the building is open, go in and pray and bind the
devil. Then, discreetly insert tracts into books in their pews. When
they have their next service, those who see the tracts will get a
surprise that could give them a new life!
Page 94
Street drama doesn't have to be complicated. It could be as simple
as one of your R.I.O.T. Squad members falling on the ground pretending
to be choking. You fall down beside her and ask, "Does anyone know
CPR?" Another R.I.O.T. Squad member runs up while everyone is
gathering around. When you have everyone's atten tion say...
Page 97
Here is another unique tactic for getting into people's
hearts. Take your R.I.O.T. Squad out with a video camera and do
interviews at the mall, at school, at a ball game or at a local
hangout. Walk up to a group of people and tell them you're making a
video program. You aren't lying - just don't say it's going to be on
T.V. Ask them if you can videotape them. Most people will agree... It
gives you an excuse to talk to people you don't know, because you are
"making a video program." Page
99
I left my private school to go to public school so that I
could start a Bible club and be a witness. We asked the principal for
permission and he was all for it. We even got our own page in the
yearbook without even asking. Page 102
You see some body at school or work who is in big trouble. She
is not her normal self. You can tell by the way she talks and acts
that she's hurting. Maybe her grades are messed up. Maybe she hasn't
been coming to class or youth group like she used to. You've heard
she's been doing drugs and that they are now messing up her
life. There is a big-time reason to go after her, so implement the
High-speed Chase...
Focus on chasing that person down and giving her the gospel. Begin to
hang out with her and go places with her. Sit next to her in class and
start conversations. Ask all the other R.I.O.T. Squad members to do
the same. Relentlessly pursue this person until you know you've got a
good dose of the gospel in her. Don't give up until she has responded
positively to it. Page 106
The Locker Invasion tactic simply means your R.I.O.T. Squad
puts tracts in every locker in your school... You might decide to use
this tactic regularly - once a week or month. But be creative and use
a different tract each time. When there is a Carman concert or a youth
event coming up, use the tickets as tracts. On one side print the
gospel, on the other side advertise the event, then shove them through
those slots. Why do you think they put slots on lockers - for
ventilation only? No way! They're there to help you get the gospel
into people's lives.Page 112
Another Bathroom Revival tactic is putting tracts in the toilet
paper dispenser. If you have the roll-up kind, unroll it and put the
tracts in one at a time as you roll it back up. As the paper is
unrolled, the tracts will fall out one at a time.
Page 113
...you can infiltrate the cafeteria by putting a tract
on every tray before people pick them up. As they're holding their
tray in line, they will begin to read the tract and find out more
about the Lord. When they reach for a napkin, they'll pick up a tract
because you've infiltrated the napkin holders
with tracts. After a while people will get the message that there is
an invasion going on in their school - a Righteous Invasion of
Truth. Page 114
Also, many of the tactics we described in Part 3 directly apply to
your school. As a teenager, most of your time will be spent in
school. So from sun up to sun down, let people know that there is a
group of radical young warriors ready to cause a R.I.O.T. It is time
for people to realize that God is alive and on the scene. He lives in
the hearts of thousands of fired-up, wild teenagers who refuse to
compromise their walk with God.
Page 125
...show discretion when implementing a
R.I.O.T. tactic at work; you could lose your job if you do too
much. This is where you need to hear the Holy Spirit. If you lose your
job you will not have the opportunity to minister to that group of
people anymore. However, if you compromise you may have a tough time
living with yourself knowing those people will go to hell while you
did nothing to prevent it... you may have to
refuse to do something your boss asks you to do because it goes
against Scripture. It may cost you your job, but that's better than
their losing salvation for eternity.
Page 127
Petition your local cable company. Get signatures of people who
want to see MTV taken off the air. Ask area church members to sign
petitions saying they will cancel their cable
unless they take MTV out of your region. There are documented cases
where this has worked. Try this radical R.I.O.T. tactic, and keep your
community from being brainwashed with MTV.
Page 129
Sign a petition. Last year on The Standard tour, Carman
gathered one million names on a petition that said, "We want prayer
back in school."
Page 130
Last updated August 29, 1999
