At Dare 2 Share, we provide youth leaders with free tools, curriculum, and an app to answer these questions for their students.
3. Leaders Fully Embrace and Model It.
“The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” (Luke 6:40)
If youth leaders aren’t sharing their faith, then the adult volunteers aren’t likely to either. If the adult volunteers aren’t sharing their faith, then the student leaders aren’t likely to. If the student leaders aren’t sharing their faith, then the other students likely won’t either.
As I’ve often said: If your teenagers aren’t sharing the Gospel, then you need a mirror, not a bullhorn. It starts with you.
4. A Disciple Multiplication Strategy Guides It.
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)
Paul discipled Timothy. Timothy discipled reliable people. Reliable people discipled others. This is what discipleship was like in the early Church. It’s what discipleship should be like today.
Multiplication is the name of the game.
Every youth ministry that was thriving in our research project had some sort of disciple-multiplication strategy in place. For them, it wasn’t just about making converts but multiplying disciples.
At Dare 2 Share, we recommend 4 Chair Discipling by Sonlife as a great place to get started. But whatever strategy you use, make sure it’s practical, teen-friendly, and most importantly, rooted in Scripture.
5. A Bold Vision Focuses It.
Jesus gave His disciples a bold vision in Acts 1:8. He told them to start where they were at (Jerusalem), spread the Gospel to the places they were comfortable (Judea) and uncomfortable (Samaria), and then take it to the uttermost parts of the world.
Our job is to help our teenagers do the same, equipping them to start with their circle of friends, then take the Gospel to their classmates and to teenagers they wouldn’t normally hang out with, and then to the world.
Do you have a bold vision for reaching your community with the Gospel? Do your teenagers have a bold vision for their schools? God told Habakkuk to “write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it” (Habakkuk 2:2). Have you written down your bold vision? Have you made it clear to everyone? Are your teenagers running with it? I encourage you to get started today.
