I love how much Dare 2 Share trains and resources youth workers to help the teenagers in their youth groups really share their faith! They produce such high-quality, excellent material that really has the potential to be extremely influential. I don’t say that just because I’m writing on Dare 2 Share’s blog — I really believe it! I’ve seen how their conferences have inspired teenagers to live out the gospel publicly in front of their friends. I’ve seen their curriculum partner with the Holy Spirit to change kids hearts and perspective of their unsaved friends. As a youth worker, that’s really fun to see!
But I think the real key to any evangelism strategy in a youth group actually has nothing to do with Dare 2 Share nor its conferences nor curriculum. As helpful as they are, they are no substitute for the key element of prayer.
Sometimes I think youth workers quickly jump to programming efforts when they want to teach their kids about evangelism. They pick up a curriculum series or even take them to a conference and think, “This will help my kids share their faith more,” and sometimes it does! But these programming efforts usually have little long-lasting impact if they’re not bathed in prayer for an on-going basis.
What kind of prayer does an evangelism strategy need?
- Prayer from the youth worker that covers teenagers’ evangelism efforts.
- Prayer from parents who desire to see their kids spiritually challenged by sharing the gospel.
- Prayer from kids for their unsaved friends.
- Prayer from the church’s leadership for the lost souls that congregation members come into contact with every day.
It really needs to be saturated in prayer! It must be the foundation of all our evangelism efforts! Otherwise it’s all based on our efforts rather than partnering with the only one who can really change someone’s heart: the Holy Spirit.
I’m not talking about using prayer as bookends to our meetings, as if the Christian equivalent to the fat lady singing is the leader closing in prayer. I’m talking about bold pursuit of God in passionate, unwavering prayer that not only asks God to move, but expects that He will do so. The kind of prayer that continually approaches God on behalf of teenagers and lost people because our heart is as burdened for them as God’s is. Sometimes when we sing we ask God to break our heart for what break’s His. With the kind of prayer I’m talking about, that becomes a reality when it comes to unbelievers around us.
But it’s just so much easier and even feels more productive to go to a conference or buy a curriculum series instead. Those things are great and very helpful, but continual, on-going prayer will make them way more effective and powerful because now the Holy Spirit is moving on our behalf, convicting hearts and teaching minds in ways a curriculum never could.
What role does prayer play in your youth group’s evangelism strategy? How do you apply prayer?
