Book
They Were Young – Book 1: Called
Six who met God as teenagers
Book 1 of 4 in They Were Young·Next in the series: They Were Young – Book 2: Tested
- 7 chapters
- 1 hr 30 min read
- Accessible Reading difficulty
- Ages 13–17
Free to read·No account needed
Introduction: Before You Were Grown
Taking books where there’s no signal? See Ochorus for missionaries or chaplains
About this book
They Were Young is an original Ochorus series of true stories for readers aged 13 to 17. Every person in it was once a teenager, unsure of God. Its verse is 1 Timothy 4:12: “Let no one despise your youth.” Each chapter tells one life in full, lingering on the teenage years, when the story turned, and then follows it to the end.
Book 1, “Called”, gathers six people who came to faith as teenagers. Charles Spurgeon, aged fifteen, heard a stand-in preacher in a snowbound chapel in Colchester. Samson Occom, a Mohegan teenager, heard the preachers of the Great Awakening in Connecticut and went on to become a minister to his own people. Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a popular student in Edinburgh, turned after the death of his older brother. Billy Graham, a farm boy more interested in baseball, went to a tent meeting in 1934. Kanzo Uchimura was pressured into signing a covenant of faith at a college in Sapporo and then found it was true. Richard Allen, enslaved in Delaware, met Christ at seventeen and went on to found the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The stories are true, and we have tried not to add to them. Each ends with the person’s own words, four questions to think through, and a pointer to read on: their own books and sermons where the library has them, and their biography where it does not. They are honest about slavery, racism, grief and pressure, and they work well for a youth group to read and discuss together.
On a Sunday morning in January 1850, a fifteen-year-old boy set out through the streets of Colchester, an old market town in the east of England, to go to church. It was snowing.
Contents
- 1 Introduction: Before You Were Grown 4 min
- 2 Charles Spurgeon: The Boy Who Looked 15 min
- 3 Samson Occom: The Boy Who Taught Himself to Read 14 min
- 4 Robert Murray M’Cheyne: A Brother Who Cannot Die 16 min
- 5 Billy Graham: The Boy Who Hid in the Choir 13 min
- 6 Kanzo Uchimura: The Boy Who Prayed Against God 15 min
- 7 Richard Allen: The Night the Dungeon Shook 14 min
Questions and Answers
What is They Were Young?
A series of true stories for readers aged 13 to 17 about people whose faith began, or was tested, while they were teenagers. Each chapter tells one life in full and ends with the person’s own words, questions to think through, and a pointer to their own books and sermons in the library, or to their biography where the library has none of their writing.
Who is in Book 1?
Charles Spurgeon, Samson Occom, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Billy Graham, Kanzo Uchimura and Richard Allen: six people from England, North America, Scotland and Japan who all came to faith before they were twenty.
Are the stories true?
Yes. They are drawn from the people’s own accounts and the earliest biographies. Where the sources are silent or disagree, the stories say so rather than filling the gap.
How is it different from Brave for God?
Brave for God tells short stories for readers aged 8 to 12. They Were Young is for teenagers: each story is much longer, spends most of its time on the person’s teenage years, and is honest about doubt, pressure and failure.
Can it be used in a youth group?
Yes. Each chapter can be read in one sitting and ends with four questions written for discussion.
Which Bible translation does it use?
Scripture is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain. Where a story gives the words a person actually heard or read in their own day, such as the verse preached to Spurgeon in 1850, it keeps the wording they heard.
Read in your language
People in this book
More like this
Cite this book
Copy a citation in the style you need.
- MLA
- Ochorus Originals. They Were Young – Book 1: Called. 2026. Ochorus, https://ochorus.com/books/they-were-young-1/.
- Chicago
- Ochorus Originals. They Were Young – Book 1: Called. 2026. Reprint, Ochorus. https://ochorus.com/books/they-were-young-1/.
- Chicago footnote
- Ochorus Originals, They Were Young – Book 1: Called (2026; repr., Ochorus), https://ochorus.com/books/they-were-young-1/.
- BibTeX
- @book{ochorusoriginals2026they, author = {{Ochorus Originals}}, title = {{They Were Young – Book 1: Called}}, year = {2026}, publisher = {Ochorus}, url = {https://ochorus.com/books/they-were-young-1/} }