Acton Bowen wants youth to know they can filter out the world’s noise and concentrate instead on the plan God has for each one of them.
And he’s hoping they’ll be able to accomplish that by reading his new book, “Escape the Noise: A Thirty-Day Devotional Journey for Students.”
“The noise is the culture, the things that are demanding their time and their attention,” said Bowen, student pastor of CrossPoint Community Church, Gadsden, in Etowah Baptist Association and founder of Acton Bowen Outreach. “I think all of the noise in our culture kind of drowns out God’s voice in their lives.”
He believes that applies even to Christian youth, who occasionally take their eyes off their walk with Jesus because of all they’re involved in — athletics, extracurricular activities and social events.
“I think there are students who are great — they’re going to church, they’re involved in [missions] trips, they’re involved in their student ministries — but there’s so much noise in their life that they’re missing the God who’s at the heart of it all,” Bowen said.
“That’s what was really behind this book, encouraging them to escape the noise and know that there’s the voice of their Creator that longs to speak to them and guide them.”
“Escape the Noise” includes 30 practical devotionals drawn from experiences in the author’s life. He said each devotional can be completed in about 15 minutes or less but each also prompts the student to think about what he or she has just read.
Why just 30 devotionals? It takes just over a month to complete the book, including a day each for the introduction and conclusion, Bowen said, referencing a statistic indicating most things become a habit after a month.
“Maybe it will be something that will … start a habit of a daily quiet time with God,” he said.
“Escape the Noise” is the first of a series Bowen plans, with the second installment scheduled for release this December.
If the response to the first book is any indication, then the second will be popular also. More than 10,000 copies of “Escape the Noise” were pre-ordered, with 40,000 sold to date. The book spent several weeks on Amazon’s top 25 best seller list soon after its release.
CrossPoint member Erin Savage, 17, is currently reading “Escape the Noise.” She said Bowen’s writing style is much like his preaching style.
“He always has a story that relates to his sermons, and that helps [keep] us focused on what he is sharing,” Savage said.
Bowen, 27, thinks his age helps in relating to members of his youth group and readers of his book. He still remembers the struggles he faced as a teenager, even after growing up in a strong Christian home and accepting Christ when he was 8.
But Bowen thinks youth can learn to face challenges when they know what a walk with Christ truly involves.
“This is all about a relationship; it’s not about a bunch of rules and regulations,” he said. “It’s not about having a laminated list of the do’s in one pocket and a laminated list of the don’ts in another pocket.
“The heart of this book is that there is a God who wants to have a relationship with [these youth],” Bowen said. “And I think when they grasp hold of the fact that He wants to have a relationship with them and that becomes real, our response is automatic.”
“Escape the Noise” is available at Target, Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble, along with their Web sites and Amazon.com.
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