4. Giving weak or inconsistent gospel presentations
Do you give the gospel every week in your youth group? If so, way to go! If not, why not? And please don’t tell me that you only have Christian teenagers in your group (how would you really know that anyway, and since when do Christian teenagers need to stop hearing the gospel?).
I love Charles Spurgeon’s response to someone who asked him his style of preaching. He said, “I take my text and make a bee-line for the cross.” To preach a sermon without giving the gospel is like telling a joke without giving the punchline or climbing Mt. Everest and stopping three feet from the top!
Giving the gospel adds gravitas and power to any sermon. As 2 Corinthians 2:2-5 reminds us, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
But sometimes the problem is not with our consistency in sharing the gospel but the actual substance of the message we are preaching. Far too many youth leaders give a human-centric version of the good news that is all about what their teenagers must do to get right with God, instead of what Jesus did on the cross so that he could declare them righteous through faith and faith alone. I call this a “turn, try, cry” gospel that focuses on what we must do for Jesus instead of what Jesus has done for us.
This brand of “good news” is not good news at all. Instead, it’s a slap in the face to Jesus and all he did for us on the cross. We receive the free gift of eternal life through simple faith in him, based on his death and resurrection (Romans 3:21-25). And, of course, after that we get the privilege of serving him and going all in, not because we have to in order to be saved but because we are saved!
Youth leader, I strongly encourage you to give the gospel consistently and clearly. When you do, your teenagers’ understanding of the gospel will grow and they will know that any time they invite a friend out, that friend will hear a clear gospel message at some point.
5. Avoiding outreach altogether
With all the swirling opinions about what constitutes effective outreach and how to pull it off in a youth ministry setting, some youth leaders have dropped it altogether. Evangelism is no longer a priority because it is nowhere to be found in their programs.
I strongly encourage you to not forsake outreach. This generation needs reached with the timeless message of hope only found in Jesus. God has strategically placed you in your community to lead the charge in this process. If Jesus “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and if we claim to follow him, then his mission becomes our mission!
Take that mission personally! Start in prayer, equip your teenagers, “gospelize” your talks and watch what God will do!
What are some other mistakes youth leaders make when it comes to outreach?
