“Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent.” – Ambrose Bierce

Sometimes in life and especially in youth ministry it seems that we find ourselves with not enough… not enough time, not enough resources, volunteers, patience, you name it, it all seems to be wearing thin. So how do we use what little time we have with students most effectively to make a maximum impact?

I recently spoke with Rob Kelly who is a veteran youth pastor of Northern Hills in Brighton, Colorado, where he is currently on staff as a teaching pastor and elder. We discussed this very topic and I believe he offered some great insight on spending our time wisely in our youth ministries. Here’s how our conversation went…

What is the biggest trap for youth leaders?

 Sometimes the “squeakiest wheels” in the youth group demand the majority of the youth leader’s time and attention. It could be conflicts, drama or any host of issues that keep us away from our main goal as youth leaders. Youth leaders are usually uniquely equipped to handle conflict or certain issues that may arise, so they can get sucked into all sorts of problems that are squealing for their attention. It’s not that some aren’t important to deal with; it’s just that we need to be conscious of how we spend our time and engagement with all of our students.

What advice do you have for youth leaders in this area?

1)      Make outreach central to your youth ministry

The purpose of student ministry sometimes gets misconstrued as “babysitting” or behavior modification. When we neglect outreach we miss out on training and equipping students to be part of the huge mission of Christ to seek and save the lost. Don’t let your group stray from that mission.

When you empower your students as ambassadors of the gospel, they become the ministers and the referees. The little problems get engulfed by the bigness of God, His grace, and His goal to reach EVERYONE with the saving knowledge of Jesus. When we stay on that track, our time will never be misspent!

2)      Evaluate how you spend your time

Just like when you’re doing a budget, you have to start with where you’re at. Spend some time looking at how your time is spent with your students and determine if changes need to be made. You don’t necessarily have to go this far but when he was a youth pastor, Rob made a chart that showed how much time was being spent with each student each week (by himself and by his volunteers). This showed him if his students were being invested in regularly and consistently.

What about your teaching time? Take a look at the kinds of things you focus your teaching on. In a given year, which topic gets the highest word count? Does this align with the mission of your youth ministry? Does it work towards Jesus’ ultimate mission of making disciples who make disciples?

3)      Keep an open dialog between you and your adult sponsors

Talk to your adult sponsors regularly about your students. They usually have a pretty good pulse of what’s going on. Make sure that you’re empowering them to resolve conflict and those “squeaky wheel” situations wherever possible and appropriate. Also, make sure they’re on board with the mission and central goal of the youth ministry so that they can be guiding the students in that direction too. That way you’ll be a well oiled machine for the advancement of the gospel!

What are the biggest youth leader “time traps”? Any advice on how battle those?

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?

I usually start by saying something like, “So, tell me what you know of the gospel.” This is usually followed with Sunday school answers taught by well-intentioned Sunday school teachers.

They say, “Oh, it’s good news.”

“Right. What’s the good news?”

“That Jesus died for our sins.”

“Good! Why did He have to die?”

“Because we’re sinners.”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with why Jesus died?”

Pause… “Umm, what do you mean?”

At this point I’ll share a story that was posed to me by Charles Ryrie many years ago.

“Let’s say you’re walking down the street when a terrible car accident suddenly happens right in front of you. One of the drivers ends up on the concrete and is in critical condition. A civilian runs over to help him, sees that they’re about to pass away, and looks up at you. The person motions for you to come over and says, ‘Hey, don’t you go to that church down the street?’

‘Uhh, yeah, I do.’

‘This person only has about 30 seconds left to live! Quick, tell his man whatever he needs to know to go to heaven before he’s gone!’

You’re on the spot. What do you say?”

Usually a student’s first reaction is to point out how unlikely this scenario actually is, which we obviously agree (thankfully!), but that’s not the point. I want to hear the student strip everything out of the gospel that unnecessarily bloats it and distracts from the core message of what someone must do, know, understand, or believe in order to be saved.

Rarely do I actually answer this question during our first lunch meeting. Instead, their first assignment is to think about it, research it, and even pose the scenario to other people. I want that student to come back the next week with some sort of idea of what’s at the heart of the gospel message.

To get them thinking I’ll ask questions like, “Does the man need to know that Jesus was born of a virgin? Does he need to understand the concept of sin? Does he need to believe in the miracle of Christ’s resurrection? Does he have to say a prayer?”

Every time I go through this exercise with a student it reminds me that teenagers don’t always know the gospel message as clearly as we might hope they do, which may be one of the reasons why evangelism is difficult for them. The best thing they know to do when sharing Christ is to use a bunch of church lingo they learned in Sunday school, like, “Ask Jesus to come into your heart,” and their friends have no idea what that means. And honestly, neither do our kids. And neither do I!

Let’s teach our kids clearly what the gospel message is. The better they feel they understand it the easier and more clearly they’ll be able to share it with others.

What would you say in 30 seconds or less to that man?

1) The Sight of Excellence…“Do students see the gospel in your commitment to excellence?”

If you are a servant of God then you should be a slave to excellence. We worship a God who is committed to excellence on every level. The creative process of the universe demonstrated this clearly, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

When it comes to the quality of your worship, teaching, organization, games and lessons is it good, very good or lame? And please don’t run to the “I don’t have any budget” excuse. What you lack in finances make up for in prayer, creativity and hard work. If your youth group is not growing it may be because the quality falls short. Teenagers know when you are working hard to pull off a youth group experience that is as high quality as you can possibly make it (especially if you have little-to-no budget)…and they pay you back by attending week after week and inviting their friends.

2) The Feel of …(Read the rest of the article on Greg’s blog – click here).

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.

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?

As youth workers, we know that sharing the good news of Christ is bigger than that. It’s not limited to socially challenging confrontations, awkward moments, or jarring transitions in conversation, but sometimes the way we talk about evangelism in our youth groups can unintentionally limit a teenager’s perspective of evangelism to “weirdness.” Granted, sometimes it is weird, but it doesn’t always have to be like that.

Let’s encourage our teenagers to think outside the box of our normal ideas of evangelism. How else can they demonstrate the gospel without feeling like they’re violating social standards? Here are a few ideas that help students think outside the box of sharing the gospel.

1. Pray publicly.

For most teenagers I talk to, this seems to be a tough one, which makes sense because every time we stop to pray when others could be watching, we immediately stick out. Others notice. We like to be noticed for favorable things, such as performing well in a game or being amazingly good looking, but we’re not as excited to be noticed for things that people question or are unsure about. Praying in public sends a clear message that we’re not ashamed to be associated with Christ (Matthew 10:23; Luke 8:38; Luke 9:26) and gives our testimony a foundation for spiritual conversations because it’s almost like people begin to expect that we talk about God since it’s obviously so important to us.

2. Forgive others publicly.

This seems to be the pattern Jesus demonstrated toward people who hurt him. He didn’t necessarily go up to the individual and tell them that they were forgiven, but he demonstrated it in his response and his actions. Our teenagers can do the same. Instead of quickly snapping back with a rude remark, gossiping behind their back, or even throwing a fist, they can respond with forgiveness and let it be apparent to those watching. In so doing they will be a living example of how Christ forgives our wrong-doing without retaliation. (That and they’ll also make people wonder what’s wrong with them.)

3. Show grace publicly.

Perhaps the best part of the gospel is the fact that Christ still died for us despite us being sinners. We did nothing to deserve it nor earn it. It was freely given to us. We can model that part of the gospel to others, as well, by showing grace to those who may not deserve it. Maybe they even worked themselves into a difficult situation and they deserve the ramifications of that, such as not preparing for a test or mouthing off to a teacher. How we find ways to show grace to people like this is a real-life way of living out what Jesus did for us.

Before you encourage your kids to do these things, though, make sure you do them yourself for a few weeks first! It’s probably more difficult than you might expect.

What other ways can we help our youth groups publicly live out the gospel?

Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these priorities…

Pray

The youth ministries we’ve noticed that are growing have intercessory prayer as core to what they do. They make room to pray. In the midst of ministry and meetings they view the most important meeting as the one they have with God to intercede on behalf of the next generation. They pray for Christian teens to grow strong in their relationship with Jesus and stand in the gap for their non Christian friends to put their faith in Jesus. They pray for non Christian teens to be open to the gospel. They pray for schools, parents, teachers, and others who can help create a context for true transformation in their communities.

By the way, there is no set way that these youth ministries do this. Some, like my buddy John, do this as an organic part of how they do youth ministry. Others, like my buddy Andy, do it as a programmatic piece of their weekly youth ministry network meeting and monthly student gathering. Still others use great websites like everyschool.com to claim campuses for prayer. However you choose to do it, do it.

Live

“Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1

If you aren’t reaching out to your …(Read the rest of the article on Greg’s blog – click here).

Here it is: Ask them to give you a one minute summary of the message of the gospel. In a nutshell, can they explain to you (at a 30,000 foot, macro level) what the Bible says about God and man’s relationship across the sweep of history?

Assessing Your Teenager’s Theological Understanding

It’s always good to know how you’re doing when it comes to helping your students grasp the big picture of the gospel message. Sometimes when we break out Biblical truth into individual Bible stories or topical lessons, our teenagers can miss the macro view of the message that stands at the very center of Christian faith and doctrine. It’s important they grasp the larger framework, so they have a conceptual context for the weekly lessons you teach.

So this week, I’m challenging you to take an assessment of whether your teenagers really get the big picture and whether they can articulate it to others.

If the results you gather from your simple one minute survey yield an encouraging string of perfect 10s, celebrate! Then continue exploring ways to help them drill down even deeper into the theology of that macro message so they can even more effectively share God’s truth with others.

But if the results of your assessment are less than stellar, look at the bright side. At least you’ll know that it’s time to work on this area of your youth ministry’s teaching content.

I can’t over emphasize how important this grasp of the big picture is – both for the long-term spiritual commitment of your individual students as they graduate and emancipate, but also for the sake of Christ’s mission. For how can anyone explain the message of the gospel to others without being able to actually put words to it themselves?

Providing Students a Structural Framework

At Dare 2 Share we use a simple GOSPEL acrostic to give teenagers a structural framework for the big picture and to help them share Jesus’ message with others. It goes like this:

GOD created us to be with Him.
OUR sinse separate us from God.
SINS cannot be removed by good deeds.
PAYING the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.
EVERYONE who trust in Him has eternal life.
LIFE with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.

The core truths reflected in these six short statements are theologically rich and deep. That’s why I’ll be spending the next few issues of energize digging deeper into the theology behind each of these statements. We’ll be looking at the Scriptural basis for each and exploring some conversation starters your teenagers can use to talk about these six truths with their unreached friends.

Unleashing Theological Truth in the Real World

To give you a feel for how empowering this kind of basic theological understanding is, I’ll close with this excerpt from an email I received a couple weeks ago. The young person quoted below recently learned the GOSPEL acrostic. They’ve lead over 20 people to Christ in a few short months. Here’s a recounting of just one of their GOSPEL encounters in their own words:

Sitting next to me was a girl about my age. I began talking to her about her favorite movies, music, and such. Then I began to ask her if she believed in God, heaven, and if she thought the Bible was real.

The next 15 minutes were me listening to her share what she believed, and putting in my two cents here and there.  Then after she was done, I asked the question, “So, after saying all that, let me ask you, if you died right now, would you go to heaven?”

Her response was, “I don’t know, how can you be 100% sure?”

And I told her to listen to “this.” I explained the GOSPEL acrostic (I know it’s a guide line, but I practically did it verbatim), and at the very end she said, “So wait, you’re saying all I have to do is believe?”

I led her to Christ immediately after. That part only took one minute.

—R. Perets

So do your quick assessment this week and see where your students are. Do they grasp the big picture of the gospel and can they articulate it clearly?

If you determine that you need help in this area of your teaching content, you can find a variety of free GOSPEL acrostic resources on our website. Plus, Dare 2 Share has recently released a new DVD curriculum in our web store entitled Life in 6 Words: The GOSPEL Explored—based on our popular YouTube GOSPEL video featuring spoken word artist Jason Petty (“Propaganda”). Check it out!

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?