A youth ministry buddy of mine and fellow member of Simply Youth Ministry’s IT3 Team, Mike Kupferer, recently wrote an article for Group magazine that was featured in their Jan | Feb 2012 issue. As soon as I read the title, “Selling Out the Gospel,” I knew I would be intrigued by what Mike had to say.
The premise of the article is simple to the point: Are we distracting teens from the Gospel by cramming various non-essentials, or peripherals as he puts it, into our weekly student ministry programs? I’m grateful that Mike posed the question and that Group gave him a national platform for youth leaders like you and me to hear it and be challenged by it.
We subtly start focusing more of our time, energy, and resources on enhancing the gospel, and less of our efforts on actually sharing the gospel. (Mike Kupferer, Selling Out the Gospel)
Here are two questions posed in the article that we should ask of ourselves and of our ministries: Where’s your focus? and What’s your draw? I would even encourage us to ask other staff, adults and students that are involved in our ministries.
In fact, earlier in the school year I asked the students, from the stage, to recall some of the key points we had studied through our recent sermon series. There response? Silence. While I hold to my conviction of giving the gospel weekly (which our students do remember) the teaching of the gospel on a week-to-week basis was being drowned out by video clips, games, humorous announcements, and the level of production we put into our worship environment. As I honestly evaluated the ministry, I realized our “focus” and our “draw” wasn’t the gospel. #fail
Something I really appreciated was that the article doesn’t just highlight the problem, but it offers a 4-step solution that can get us all on the road to making the gospel the priority it should be.
- Live it out.
- Reference the Gospel in conversation from the front.
- Take your focus off of the peripherals.
- Listen as an entrée to invitation.
Two additional items I would add to the list that will undoubtedly help us bring focus to the gospel in our weekly meetings:
- Pray it up. Pray for students to hear the gospel, respond to it, opportunities to share the gospel, etc. Pray these things in your own life but also with your students and leaders every week.
- Look to scripture. I love the words of Jesus in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” What better way to introduce students to the gospel than simply looking to scripture and letting it speak for itself.
“When we spotlight the gospel, we ultimately spotlight the God who thought it up. And when people come face-to-face with God, they are forever changed.” Mike Kupferer, Selling Out the Gospel
I would highly encourage you to take a few minutes and read the article in it’s entirety and if you can swing it, pick up a subscription to the best Youth Ministry magazine available: Group magazine!
CLICK HERE to read the full article online!
CLICK HERE to subscribe to Group magazine!
What are ways that you spotlight the Gospel? How do you program the Gospel each week? What do you need to do less of in order to give more attention to the Gospel itself?
