Has anyone ever told you that you could be a model? No, not like a supermodel. You can be a model to teenagers in how to be Gospel Advancing.
See, if you’re anything like me, you began serving in youth ministry to do more than just manage programs. You said yes because you wanted to see teenagers’ lives transformed by personally encountering Jesus and learning to follow Him with courage and conviction.
I’m sure that longing is still there. But if we’re honest, many of us feel the gap between what we hope to see in our ministries and what we’re actually seeing.
That’s where Gospel Advancing comes in.
Simply put, a Gospel Advancing ministry prioritizes integrating relational evangelism and disciple-making into its ministry DNA. But it has to start with a youth leader who’s taken up the mantle of living out evangelism and discipleship.
Gospel Advancing leaders share the Gospel personally and mobilize their teenagers to do the same. That means it begins with you!
Modeling Gospel Advancing works.
A few years ago, we at Dare 2 Share decided to investigate if a Gospel Advancing approach truly makes a difference. So, we partnered with Clarity Research to survey hundreds of youth leaders about their priorities, practices, and outcomes.
We set out to answer a simple question:
Does Gospel Advancing actually make and multiply disciples?
The answer was a clear and emphatic yes!
The youth leaders who prioritized relational evangelism, embraced a clear disciple‑making strategy, and led the way personally saw extraordinary results compared with ministries where evangelism wasn’t a priority.
When we compared a typical youth ministry with a Gospel Advancing one, here’s what we found:
- 3x more students were mobilized to share the Gospel.
- 10x more Gospel conversations
- 30x greater overall missional impact
I want you to stop reading for a second and let those statistics sink in.
Download the full report here if you want to learn more.
This is what happens when leaders model the mission of Jesus and invite students to join them. Long before the research confirmed it, Jesus demonstrated it to us. In chapters 8–10 of the book of Luke, we see a clear pattern emerge that still defines true disciple‑making ministry today.
Jesus modeled the mission personally.
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him.
Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the Kingdom of God everywhere He went. And His disciples were right there with Him to watch Him do it.
Don’t miss this: We can build great programs, host incredible events, and manage packed calendars, but teenagers won’t live on mission unless they see us living on mission first.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to be perfect or have all the right answers. You simply have to go for it.
Jesus mobilized His disciples.
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, He gave them power and authority…and He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
After He modeled the mission personally, Jesus called His disciples together and sent them out. This is where many youth ministries stall out. We train once. We host an outreach event. We check off the box. But we never send our students out to proclaim the Gospel themselves.
Jesus made evangelism and disciple-making a consistent rhythm of His ministry, not just a once‑a‑year sermon emphasis. He set clear expectations, gave responsibility, and trusted His disciples with the real mission.
We must do the same with our students.
As a dad of three boys, I’ve noticed something. Sports demand extra time, effort, and commitment to succeed. School demands extra time, effort, and commitment to succeed. Excellence in any area of life requires extra time, effort, and sacrifice. Yet within the Church, we often consider it a win when students just show up a couple times a month.
I don’t think students leave the Church after they graduate. I think they’ve already left before they graduate, because we never involved them in the mission of the Church to begin with. We don’t ask enough of our students. I too was guilty of this before I encountered Gospel Advancing.
I wonder what might happen if the Church challenged students to invest real time, effort, and commitment into Jesus’s mission. Our youth groups could look a lot more like what Jesus modeled for us in Luke.
Jesus’s movement multiplied.
After this the Lord appointed seventy‑two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’
What began with one leader (Jesus) grew into a group and then became a movement.
This is the power of the Gospel and of Gospel Advancing ministry. When leaders lead by example and mobilize students to join Jesus on mission, He multiplies the impact.
Even if you’re seeing incredible growth within your Gospel Advancing ministry, Jesus reminds us to pray, because the harvest is still plentiful and the workers are still few. So, pray that God would send more Gospel Advancing workers into the fields.
You’re invited to be a model.
When we prioritize evangelism and disciple-making, the lost are saved and the saved are sent. But it begins with an individual decision. A decision to become a Gospel Advancing leader. A decision to become someone who shares the Gospel personally and mobilizes teenagers to do the same.
The urgency of the mission is real, and the opportunity is enormous. And Jesus invites you personally to follow His example and model for others how to do the same. Join Him today!
