Andrew Riddle
Associate pastor, student pastor, and minister of music
Trinity Baptist Church
Idabel, Oklahoma, USA
Tell us about a moment in ministry when all hope felt lost, but God showed up in a powerful way.
Beginning in summer 2022, we really pushed a Gospel Advancing approach in our student ministry. It took a little while, but heading into the fall, our student ministry began to grow. Leader and student excitement was building, and people were having Gospel conversations left and right.
Then, in November of that year, we had a category F4 tornado come through and destroy our church’s buildings. It was devastating to say the least. Without a church building, we met wherever we could—the amphitheater downtown, a school gym, a movie theater, and even an axe-throwing place! Our numbers began to dwindle, and enthusiasm was quickly dissipating. We felt defeated.
In the midst of this season, our team decided to devote ourselves to praying consistently, week-in and week-out, for nearly a year and half. We finally began to see the Lord move during summer of 2024. Since then, we’ve had more than 125 students say yes to Jesus for the first time, and over 100 baptisms. Our student ministry exploded from 12 students in January of 2024 to 200 in November of that same year.
Only God could do something like that!
What does collaboration with other churches look like in your context?
Over the past couple years, we’ve partnered with other churches in our community to put on an event we call One Church Tonight. Once a quarter, a bunch of different churches work together to host this special night. Student ministries from different churches in the area will all gather in one place, worship together, and hear the Gospel.
To promote youth group, we’ve worked with these other churches to create T-shirts that say Church Tonight. We give them out to students for free and ask them to wear them on Wednesdays, to school or practice or wherever. There aren’t any church names or logos on the shirts, because it’s not about promoting a specific church. It’s just a way for students to let their peers know that on Wednesdays, we have church tonight!
Who or what keeps you accountable to personally share the Gospel?
I have a discipleship group of men I meet with weekly. We discuss the Word, our lives, and the Gospel conversations we’ve had recently. It’s been great to have these men hold me accountable.
I also talk most Wednesday nights to students about having Gospel conversations. We have a display we created that holds ping-pong balls, each representing a Gospel conversation. I tell our students that we, as adult leaders, are sharing the Gospel personally alongside them.
This is another great way of keeping me accountable to share the Gospel personally. I can’t stand up there and ask students to share the Gospel if I’m not doing it myself. It’s my responsibility as a Gospel Advancing leader to model to my students sharing the Gospel personally.
