Our teenagers are used to being challenged. They’re challenged in sports. They’re challenged at school. They’re challenged to give into peer pressure by their friends. But students are rarely challenged where they should be challenged the most: within the walls of the Church. Instead, they learn safe lessons about comfortable things.
But, in the Gospels we see Jesus calling His disciples to a dangerous cause: active participation in His search-and-rescue mission for lost souls. In Matthew, He warned them of the dangers they were about to face before He unleashed them into the world to advance the Gospel.
‘Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me. When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.‘
Matthew 10:16-20
Discipleship should be dangerous.
Much of what passes as disciple-making today is a faint echo of Jesus’s model. We have discipleship without danger. But discipleship without danger is not discipleship at all. The only cost of discipleship for teenagers in a typical youth group is time. The most physical danger students are in is the danger of getting a paper cut from turning the pages of Scripture during a lesson.
But when teenagers are put in a position where they have to share the Gospel with their friends, everything changes. Suddenly they have purpose. They have a vested interest in understanding their faith so they can explain it to others in a clear and compelling way. Sharing the Gospel makes them hungry for a spiritual truth that can transform the lives of their lost and hurting friends. It motivates them to pray with passion as they see their friend’s souls caught in the balance between Heaven and Hell.
Evangelism is a firestarter.
If you’re worried that your students aren’t prepared to share the Gospel, perhaps that’s because we have a twisted understanding of discipleship. We think of evangelism as an outcome of discipleship, but Jesus thought of it as the trigger. If evangelism is an outcome of discipleship, then after a certain amount of church attendance, Bible study, and prayer, our teenagers should be ready to evangelize. But, how has that worked out for the adults in our churches? Most adults have attended countless hours of sermons and classes and yet rarely share their faith!
Jesus turned this model upside down by putting His disciples in dangerous situations. He challenged them, coached them, and trained them along the way.
Challenge your students to put evangelism into practice.
Imagine if your church leadership made you sit through a mandatory, six-week, twelve-hour-a-day, bomb-defusing class. You don’t have to pass the class—you just have to sit through it. Do you think you’d be bored after a half-hour?
But what if you were told that after finishing the class you were being sent Afghanistan to defuse bombs? You’d probably pay closer attention!
We often force our teenagers to sit through what feels as exciting as a twelve-hour-a-day, six week long, boring, bomb-defusing class, because we’re never actually deploying them to Afghanistan! What is their “Afghanistan”? It’s sharing their faith in their schools, with their families, and with their friends.
Our teens are hungry for purpose and meaning in their lives. Let’s give them a cause to live for: the Cause of telling others about the salvation Christ offers. The cause of Gospel Advancing. Jesus made spreading His message the centerpiece of His discipleship strategy, and you can too. Light a fire underneath your apathetic teenagers by making evangelism the centerpiece of your discipleship strategy.
What can you do?
What can you do to get started? Here are a few ideas to help you increasingly prioritize Gospel Advancing in your youth ministry:
- Set yourself ablaze! Are you personally on fire for evangelism? Are you burning with desire to reach the lost? Do your teenagers see Gospel Advancing in your own life? Identify one person you haven’t shared the Gospel with yet, and commit to share with them this week. Then tell them about your results.
- Read or reread Gospelize Your Youth Ministry. If you don’t already have a copy of this handbook for how to build a Gospel Advancing ministry, get your free digital copy of the book here. Or here, if Spanish is your preferred language.
- Be persistent. Work evangelism into as many messages as you can. Have teens identify everyone in their circle of friends who needs to hear the Gospel. Then hold them accountable, and ask them to do the same with you.
- Take 5 for the Cause of evangelism. Set aside five minutes in every youth group meeting to make evangelism a priority. Take a couple minutes to have one teen share a story of what they’re doing to reach their friends, whether their story is good, bad, or ugly. Then challenge the other teens in your group to share their faith with the people around them too. Invest a few minutes each meeting to share the Gospel with the group and invite students to put their faith and trust in Jesus.
- Pray for the lost! Set aside a few minutes each week to lead students in prayer for their friends who don’t know Jesus.
Jesus had His followers with Him for about three-and-a-half years, pretty much the same amount of time the average youth leader has their teenagers from 9th to 12th grade? Let’s use those important years to ignite a passion for Christ and His cause.
