The words āapatheticā and āteenagerā often go hand-in-hand, especially when it comes to teens taking their faith seriously. Itās hard getting students to genuinely care about their faith, and with atheism grabbing hold of much of Generation Z, being sold out for Christ is becoming more of the exception than the norm.
But with the recent teen-led activism sweeping our nation, itās clear that teens are more than capable of passionately standing up for a cause they believe in.
Read Greg Stierās thoughts on what the church can learn from recent the āMarch for Our Livesā movement.
Teenagers are hungry for a cause, and as Christians weāve been given the ultimate cause of sharing the gospel with the lost world around us. When an apathetic teenager truly understands that, they can become a courageous leader in advancing Godās kingdom.
Sparking Revival One Teenager at a Time
Baxter McGuirt, a youth pastor from South Carolina, was leading a youth group that had lost its spark for sharing the gospel. But it wasnāt just the teens. In fact, the church as a whole hadnāt prioritized evangelism or community outreach in years, and Baxter knew something needed to change.
While at a youth pastor conference, Baxter heard about an evangelism training event for teenagers called Dare 2 Share LIVE (LIVE). āThe evangelism component really intrigued me because itās something our ministry struggles to achieve,ā he said.
Around the same time, Baxterās senior pastor was praying about how the whole church could start reaching their community for Christ, and he came to Baxter asking what he thought.
āI told him I was looking into LIVE to train our kids to share the gospel, so God was working to inject our whole church with an evangelism focus at the same time,ā Baxter remembered.

Baxter and his students made their way to a LIVE satellite site in their area where they were trained to share the basic gospel message with unbelievers. After the training, everyone was released into the neighborhood to collect canned food and share the gospel. Baxter walked around with three middle school boys from his group and watched in awe as their faith and confidence in Christ grew right before his eyes.
āYou wouldnāt think that 7th grade boys would want to knock on a strangerās door and tell them about Jesus, but they warmed up to it really quickly,ā he remembered.
āAfter about three or four homes when they were still a bit nervous, one of them wrapped his arms around the other two,ā Baxter said.
āHe encouraged them that they were there to tell people about Jesus, and then he prayed with them. That was so cool to see.ā
Using LIVE to Train a Congregation
Baxterās students came back trained and impassioned to share their faith, and now it was the adultsā turn. The day after LIVE, Baxterās church held their first outreach event of canvassing the neighborhood, inviting people to church, and sharing the gospel. And the teens who went to LIVE ended up leading the way.
āThe kids got up in front of sixty adults to share their testimonies from LIVE. Then they used the material theyād learned and taught the adults how to have a gospel conversation,ā Baxter said.
āSeeing our teenagers be so confident and excited about evangelism, it really pushed the adults to say, āHey, I can do that too.āā
The churchās passion for evangelism was ignited again as they shared the gospel with many of their neighbors who didnāt know Jesus. Now, Baxter says they are more focused on sending people out into the community rather than waiting for the world to come to them, and thatās made all the difference.
āWe had people from the neighborhood come say thank you to us,ā Baxter said. āThey said they usually see Jehovahās Witnesses or the vacuum salesman engaging with people, but they were really encouraged by Christians going out and sharing the gospel.ā
Dare 2 Share LIVE is just one day of training, but it can catalyze a desire to live for Christ and spread the gospel. āIn my six years of youth ministry, Iāve never seen students take hold of training like this,ā Baxter said. āDare 2 Share LIVE helped get our students and church members excited to share the gospel and pray for the lost to come to Christ. It was the thing that God used to help our church start outreach again.ā
If you want to jumpstart a gospel-sharing movement in your youth group and church, get your tickets today for Dare 2 Share LIVE happening October 13th at locations across the country. We canāt wait to see you there!