He’s been a part of our youth ministry for about 4 years now and it has been cool to see the Word of God take root in his life as he has matured. He’s gone from a bouncing off the walls and couches, not sure he understands a word we say, 6^th grader to a leadership and newcomer oriented 9^th grader who still seems to always be running around the church somewhere.

Here’s what Avery has to say about InZane:

InZane is a great book. Zane explains that no matter how messed up someone’s life is, God can change it all around. It could take 10 minutes or 10 years.

The thing I like about this book is the way Zane explains how God can change people and change lives no matter where they’re at. Seeing how Zane is on fire for Jesus, you would have never thought that he used to be a drug dealer.

Then the awesome thing is that he goes on to explain the love that God gives to us, and how we can share that love to others that are around us.

Now this book didn’t significantly change my life, but I believe God planted a seed in a way that I hadn’t figured out yet. I have an awesome feeling that God is going to do awesome things in my life, in the lives that are around me and in your life as well. Because He has a plan for all of us, whatever it may be for you and for me, it’s going to be AWESOME in a way that I can’t explain. In the meantime, pray and have faith in God.

-  Avery, 9^th Grade, Colorado

The key word there seems to be “awesome.” God used the book InZane in Avery’s life to plant a seed, a small vision for the awesome plan He has for this young man. Exciting stuff!

I’m looking forward to seeing what God does as Avery continues to grab hold of that vision!

What about you? Which books have you seen really transform your student’s lives or views of God?

Now that we have shared and delegated to our students the ministry that Christ gave to all believers we now transition in our role as their Youth Leader to a less hands on approach, but never compromising the urgency of what is at stake.

Jesus made it a point to meet with his disciples following their tours of service to hear their reports and to share with them the blessedness of his ministry in doing the same thing. In this sense, one might say that his teaching rotated between instruction and assignment. (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 81)

I find it all to easy to focus on teaching but not putting as much emphasis on assignments for my students. Probably because it’s messy and I tend to have less control in those situations. How much more effective would I be at making disciples out of my students if assignments in ministry came more frequently than a quarterly outreach or an annual mission trip? Imagine the depth of discipleship that could take place in our Student Ministries if we included regular assignments to do ministry and gave instruction based on their feedback and experiences.

When will we learn the lesson of Christ not to be satisfied merely with the first-fruits of those who are sent out to witness? Disciples must be brought to maturity. There can be no substitute for total victory, and our field is the world. We have not been called to hold the fort, but to storm the heights. (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 87)

This line of thinking naturally brings us to the end goal of , “The Master Plan of Evangelism,” that of spiritual reproduction. The end game is not just raising up our select students to lead others to Christ on their own, free from our oversight. The end goal is that they can lead others to Christ and then replicate this whole model of discipleship that they have learned from us so that they are raising up a 2nd generation of disciples that will raise up the 3rd generation that will raise up the 4th generation…and on and on and on it keeps going.

His whole evangelistic strategy—indeed, the fulfillment of his very purpose in coming into the world, dying on the cross, and rising from the grave—depended on the faithfulness of his chosen disciples to this task. It did not matter how small the group was to start with so long as they reproduced and taught their disciples to reproduce. This was the way his church was to win–through the dedicated lives of those who knew the Savior so well that his Spirit and method constrained them to tell others. As simple as it may seem, this was the way the gospel would conquer. He had no other plan. (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 91)

What do you think of a less hands on approach to discipleship with the intention of evengelism?  Have you done this in a way that is successful?  How?

We have to continue to be extremely intentional with the teens that we have chosen, spend time with, have raised the bar for, and are pouring ourselves in to. We now need to demonstrate very critical spiritual disciplines that Christ demonstrated for his disciples (prayer, scripture reading & application, EVANGELISM, and teaching). The level of discipline we instill in our teenagers directly correlates to their spiritual effectiveness down the road…and the end goal is always that of EVANGELISM?

Practically everything that Jesus said and did had some relevance to their work of evangelism, either by explaining a spiritual truth or revealing to them how they should deal with people. He did not have to work up teaching situations, but merely took advantage of those about him, and thus his teaching seemed perfectly realistic. In fact, for the most part, the disciples were absorbing it without even knowing that they were being trained to win people under like conditions for God. (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 66)

What’s extremely critical to remember in this process is that class is always in session. When we are with our teens they are absorbing whatever it is we are putting out there. This is why it is so important to carve out time to draw away and refuel our spirits with prayer, scripture reading, time with mentors, and certainly with our family. Because in a very real sense, when we are with our teens we need to be “on.”

…judging from the printed text, he spent three times the amount of time explaining this story to the disciples than he did in giving the initial lesson to the crow (Matt 13:10-23; Mark 4:20-25; Luke 8:9-18). (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 67)

The next step in this 8-step process, as outlined by Robert Coleman, is the one I find both critical and difficult for me: delegation. It was Jesus’ intent from the outset of his ministry when he promised the disciples, “I will make you fishers of men,” (Matt 4:19) and then solidified that strategy when he said, “Go and make disciples of all nations,” (Matthew 28:18-20). His intentions all along were to hand the reigns to the disciples.

Christian disciples are sent men and women—sent out in the same work of world evangelism to which the Lord was sent, and for which he gave his life. Evangelism is not an optional accessory of our life. It is the heartbeat of all that we are called to be and do. It is the commission of the church which gives meaning to all else that is undertaken in the name of Christ. (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 79)

How have you been successful at delegation for your students?  Do you have a story you could share that would help another youth leader delegate well?

Having gone through the series personally, I would consider several parts of the curriculum very valuable for teenagers to hear and wrestle through when it comes to sharing and living out their faith. But before I get to that, a quick point to consider: Bill Hybels is not young and hip. Nothing wrong with that:) however some of the things he mentions in the curriculum (i.e. developing 10-year friendships, hosting dinner parties, talking to his son’s soccer coach) might need a little discussing to help students realize how that relates to them.

Now, about the curriculum. Just Walk Across the Room does a great job of offering practical steps to sharing Jesus in the context of genuine friendships. Oftentimes, the people on our students’ hearts are the friends they care about deeply. In this case, the apologetics and faith-sharing methods they’ve learned might not seem to cut it, and students may shy away from approaching their friends with the gospel even though they care about them the most. This point is good for all of us to realize as we lead out and teach evangelism. Sharing our faith in the context of relationship is the most powerful thing we can do, and our students need to be equipped for this as well as for reaching out to strangers and acquaintances.

Hybels in Just Walk Across the Room also reminds us of the power and importance of testimony, our faith story. He stresses that it is just as important to listen to the other person’s story as it is to tell our own. And when it does come time to tell our own, there are ways to tell it wrong. This section of the curriculum is pretty funny as he goes over some of the “wrong” ways to share our faith story: the long-winded story, the fuzzy story, the religionese story, the superiority story, and the weird-God story. This helped my group to realize that intentionality is key when sharing a testimony. We must remember who we are speaking with; otherwise the words may just fall flat. A great exercise that came out of the curriculum was to write out our faith stories (life before Christ, how we found Christ, and life now) and practice sharing them with each other.

For all of the practical steps and activities in this curriculum, it still reminded me that ultimately sharing the gospel is not always formulaic, or even practical, but it is always intentional, just like a walk across the room.

What do you think of Bill Hybels’ thoughts on equipping the Church for evangelism? What are some other ways we can help our students share their faith with their friends? Respond below.

Next Steps:

• Check out the curriculum at Dare 2 Share’s online store and preview the leader’s guide and some of the video content. You won’t regret making this purchase!
• I’d also like to invite you to join a Facebook Group that was created to share ideas, tips and tricks on how to implement this curriculum. You can also ask them their take on the curriculum.

If you’ve already purchased the curriculum or previewed it, share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Sometimes we get excited when public and popular figures express interest or belief in Jesus because we think that somehow it will bring more credence or popularity to the Christian faith. But in the same breath I think we speak about their faith with a skepticism that comes from watching public figures fall just like we would. That’s the tone I got from this Christian Post article. They even seemed to make fun of or question her belief in the end of the article by mentioning her tweet about a lingerie shoot days after church. Kim Kardashian’s attendance at church was news because she somehow seemed an unlikely person to be there. But how is that even remotely true? She is a person seeking peace in Jesus, a perfect candidate for grace.

I think I’ve sometimes fallen into that same trap in youth ministry when I revel at the fact that a very unlikely student (in my eyes) has made his or her way to our youth group. When I spend more time thinking about how much they stick out (by their hair, their clothes, their attitude) I miss what was going on in their life that might’ve drawn them to church in the first place. Have you ever caught yourself thinking this?

When I do, I need to remember that Jesus sought out the least likely people and the nobodies (fishermen, tax collectors and crazy guys in the desert) to be the forerunners for His Kingdom. So why should I be the least bit surprised that he’s drawing an unusual crowd at our Wednesday night youth group? That should be a cause for praise and a genuine interest in how Jesus can meet them where they’re at!

So… it’s great that Kim Kardashian went to church! Why? Because God can meet a need in her life that no one else can! Let’s be faithful with the “unlikely” people that God draws into our church doors and across our paths and not get caught up in what our culture says about whether or not they should be there.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13

I would love to hear your thoughts about the whole Celebrity going to church argument…is it something you think we should even highlight and why?  Just respond below

When it comes to making disciples the idea of “Selection” almost seems to be counter-intuitive. When you select a few from the masses, specifically from your youth group, it immediately feels like we are leaving students on the outside looking in. The reality is…we are. Yet as we study the life and ministry of Christ He selected only 12 from the masses.

Nevertheless, we must acknowledge that there was a rapidly diminishing priority give to those outside the Twelve (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 24).

As a Youth Pastor, I find this a tough pill to swallow. One of the many reasons I feel called to work in Student Ministry is to impact every teenager I can with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As I continued to read and digest this book I realized that in order to reach every teenager I possibly could, I would have to pour into fewer to make a greater impact.

Though he did what he could to help the multitudes, he had to devote himself primarily to a few men, rather than the masses, so that the masses could at last be saved. This was the genius of his strategy (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 28).

As difficult as it will be to “Select” a handful of students from the masses, it’s just as difficult to realize that my “Association” is given to the few that I’ve selected. In other words, once I have selected those to be my inner circle (and ruled out the majority) the vast majority of my time is spent with the selected.

Having called his men, Jesus made a practice of being with them. This was the essence of his training program—just letting his disciples follow him (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 33).

His whole ministry revolved around them (The Master Plan of Evangelism, p 37).

Of course we still love ALL of the teens we minister to and we teach/preach to the masses. I strongly believe there is a need for large group ministry which is also seen throughout Jesus’ ministry (i.e. feeding the 5000) but the large group setting has limitations. We have to come to the understanding that when we cast a wide net it’s not going to be deep, but by casting a deep net and pouring into a few, they in turn have the power to help us reach more and more and more.

If we want to reach the masses, we must Select and Associate with a few.

Read part 2 of this review series: Consecration and Impartation

What thoughts come to your mind when you consider Coleman’s principles of Selection and Association? Does this line up with your philosophy of Youth Ministry or challenge you to reconsider your ministry paradigm? What do you use in determining which teens to select?

Coleman explores the methods in which Jesus built His ministry, more accurately, how He did life with His handful of disciples in order to reach the world and advance the Kingdom. The book is written in 8 sections that outline the intentional and strategic way Jesus went about setting up a ministry that would take the Gospel to the ends of the earth:

1. Selection
2. Association
3. Consecration
4. Impartation
5. Demonstration
6. Delegation
7. Supervision
8. Reproduction

The book also includes a 13 lesson study guide that helps you take these principles and transform them into real life and ministry application.

If you don’t have a copy of, “The Master Plan of Evangelism,” I highly encourage you to purchase a copy of it for yourself. I’d love for you to be able to begin reading it as I post 4 articles over the next few months that each review, in order, two of the principles that Robert Coleman identifies. Beyond just discussing the concepts, the focus of these posts will be how to apply them into your Youth Ministry setting and get some idea sharing through the blog.

Until then, I leave you what I found to be one of the most fascinating and saddening truths that Coleman reveals about the ministry that Jesus left to the early church:

Suffice it to say that the early church proved that the Master’s plan for world conquest worked. So great was the impact of their witness that before the century had passed the pagan society of the day had been shaken to its foundations and growing churches had been established in most centers of population. Had the momentum continued in the evangelist outreach of the church that characterized its beginning, within a few centuries the multitudes of the world would have known the touch of the Master’s hand.  (Robert Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism, pg 95-96)

Check out the four part series reviewing the concepts from the book.  Start with part 1 : Selection and Association

If you are familiar with the book I’d love to hear what you have to say about it. Would you encourage other Youth Leaders and church leaders to read it? Why? How has it impacted your life and ministry?

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.

1. Live it out.
2. Reference the Gospel in conversation from the front.
3. Take your focus off of the peripherals.
4. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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?

As I read through the pages I literally found myself getting emotionally involved in the tension that both authors communicated as they balance being relational and relentless in their own lives and ministries. It’s not just a tag line! I find that I struggle in my own mind finding an appropriate balance of being relational in sharing my faith, while not mission opportunities to share with strangers, as well as being relentless in my pursuit of the lost, while note being overly obnoxious in my approach.  Being relational and relentless feels like a battle in my soul of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Here’s a short excerpt from the beginning of the chapter and Kurt and Tim set the stage for how they approach the subject:

For the sake of clarity, let’s state some assumptions that will influence the rest of this chapter: Evangelism means “sharing the gospel.” The “gospel” is the “good news.” The “good news” is the truth that the Kingdom of God is made available to all through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Regardless of how you articulate the good news, fostering a sense of evangelistic urgency means building into students a clear understanding of the gospel and a driving, burning passion to share it with a broken world in need of some good news. (Johnston, Kurt; Tim Levert, 2010. The 9 Best Practices of Youth Ministry. Simply Youth Ministry. p. 68.)

Well said boys! Throughout the rest of the chapter the book advocates and encourages some best practices when it comes to communicating the gospel and instilling urgency within the hearts and minds of your students.  Here are the take-aways:

• Take a few minutes in every lesson to show how the story of God fits into whatever you are teaching
• Personally share the gospel and equip your students to do so as well
• Help students understand to love on people in the midst of sharing the good news
• GOING is a part of the gospel, not so much BRINGING
• Balance “urgency” with patience

In the midst of all the good I found in this chapter there were two areas I found myself differing from the authors, primarily Kurt since he identified himself as the author of the section. He shares that he trained his kids to memorize a “canned gospel presentation” and then took them out to share with strangers with results that he found to be “borderline horrific” (p 79).

1. “canned gospel presentation” – While I don’t want my students reciting an outline or script of the gospel for fear of them sounding like a robot Christian I do want them to memorize as a basic outline to follow along in their minds to help them communicate the whole story of the good news. That’s why I find Dare 2 Share’s GOSPEL Journey so effective.  It’s not a script to present, but an outline to keep them on point when they share their faith.
2. sharing with strangers – I agree enough with Kurt that it’s not the best way to share the gospel and just like Jesus was with the woman at the well in John 4, we need to seek ways in a conversation with strangers to bridge the relational gap. However people have come to faith through this approach and I’ve personally seen teens grow in their own faith and gain confidence by sharing the good news of Jesus with strangers. I wouldn’t call it the best, but it is infinitely better than what many Christians do when it comes to evangelism…NOTHING.

I’m so glad that I came across this book as a Youth Pastor. Kurt and Tim do an amazing job sharing their passions through personal and Youth Ministry experiences.  It’s so nice to hear of other Youth Pastors who are passionate about evangelism and who are equipping students both with the heart and head to reach the world for Christ!

You should add The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry to your 2012 reading list.  CLICK HERE to purchase the book!

Do you struggle with being too relational when it comes to sharing your faith? Or are you like my good friend Greg Stier who guards himself from being too relentless in sharing the Gospel?  What end of the spectrum do you find your self shifting toward? How does this impact the way you do Youth Ministry?