By Allie Martin and Jody Brown
March 1, 2002

(AgapePress) - A new reality-based television show will follow twelve Southern Baptist teenagers as they travel through California, reporting on and taking part in missionary work.

The show is called TruthQuest: California and will feature thirteen half-hour episodes which will chronicle the teenagers’ summer journey. The twelve-member group includes teens from New York City, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Colorado. They were chosen based on their writing ability, devotion to missions, spiritual walk, and community involvement.

Todd Starnes is an assistant editor for Baptist Press who says he came up with the idea for TruthQuest after seeing a Road Rules marathon on MTV.

"The average young person is not what you see on those MTV shows," Starnes says. "Instead, we wanted to show young people -- who, when they have disagreements -- don’t go and backstab one another. But they work out issues when they encourage one another. When one of them is having a rough day, they give them a helping hand."

Starnes says the show will follow the teenagers as they look for ways to serve the Lord together. "You’re going to see some of the students involved in some really exciting things," he says. "For example, there is a church out in San Diego that has a surfing ministry -- they minister to surfers out on the beach. Our young people are going to be learning how to surf, and then they’re going to learn all about this outreach to surfers."

The series will be taped over a 16-day period in July. TruthQuest: California will air on FamilyNet, a 24-hour family values network run by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The TruthQuest team will be featured on an interactive website, complete with bios of the team members, Bible study helps, and the plan of salvation.

The team members were introduced at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville in mid-February.

See BPNews article on Truthquest: California.

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