D&W: persuade

By the name of this post some of you may already be a little leary as to what you are about to read.  Persuade is a pretty strong word.  Some people in Christian circles don’t even like using the word as it conjures up images of pushy car salesman or invasive telemarketers that call in the middle of dinner.  Unfortunately this word does come with negative baggage.  However, it doesn’t change what we find in scriptures (NLT):

• Acts 17:4 – Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.
• Acts 28:23 – So a time was set, and on that day a large number of people came to Paul’s lodging. He explained and testified about the Kingdom of God and tried to persuade them about Jesus from the Scriptures. Using the law of Moses and the books of the prophets, he spoke to them from morning until evening.
• 2 Corinthians 5:11 – Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too.

Persuade = sharing your faith!

The word persuade describes how we are supposed to reach out to those who don’t know Jesus Christ.  2 Corinthians 5:11 makes the strongest case for it in mind.  It decribes sharing our faith with those who don’t know Christ as our “fearful responsibility to God” and affirms that it is a sincere persuasion. 

So who have you persuaded lately with the power of the Gospel?  Have you challenged your teen to identify one lost friend that they need to relationally and relentlessly share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with?  Don’t be intimidated by the nature of the word “persuade.”  Be persuaded by the power of the Gospel!

D&W: pursue

Last week we touched on prayer, which as many of the responses indicated is a vital step in any aspect of ministry.  It plays a critical role in one’s worship of God, relationship with God, and should be the foundation of any evangelistic effort.  If you haven’t read the post on prayer, CLICK HERE and read it before going on.

As we challenge our teens to pray for their lost friends, we need to equip them to pursue those friends on a spiritual level.  Simply, bring God up in conversation.  It doesn’t sound that difficult, but we don’t do it near enough.

Think about it…when people meet me for the first time they are going to learn a few basics: I love my wife and sons, I love Starbucks, while I like the Denver Nuggets I am a hometown fan of the Redskins, Wizards, and Orioles (sorry Nationals – I was raised on Cal Ripken Jr baseball).  Let’s not forgot the critical college sports: Nebraska football and North Carolina basketball.  Even more than all of these things, I love God.  Why in the world wouldn’t I bring that up in causual conversation? 

Hear me on this.  I am not implying that our teens need to present the Gospel in every conversation (but certainly don’t pass up the opportunity if it’s given).  But as a believer in Jesus Christ, why wouldn’t we constantly be relationally and relentlessly seeking out our friends beliefs, sharing our beliefs, and having conversations about those things?

If we are going to talk to God about our lost friends, let’s talk to our lost friends about God.  No pressure, just talk.

D&W: pray

So prayer may sound like something that is more focused on worship vs. discipleship or evangelism.  And I really wouldn’t argue that point.  It does make sense and prayer is definitely a way that we worship God assuming our prayers are interactive (2-way communication) instead of me posting my concerns to God and saying Amen.  Prayer is vital to my worship of God.

Prayer is also a powerful tool when it comes to evangelism.  I would go so far as to say that evangelism that is not fueled by prayer probably sets the stage for the most ineffective evangelism effort one could pursue.  Essentially, you have stacked the cards against yourself.  As you continue to push your teens to share their faith and reach their lost friends for Christ, be sure that their efforts are rooted in prayer. 

Idea – have your teens start praying for a list of their friends who don’t know Christ.  It may just be 1 friend, it could be many more than that.  Simply have them start praying for those friends now.

• Pray for their salvation. 
• Pray for insights into how they can relationally & relentlessly reach them with the Gospel. 
• Pray for their campus and the school year (you don’t have to wait until See You at the Pole). 
• Pray for their Youth Ministry. 

Could you imagine how amazing our Youth Ministries would be and how effective our teens could be if they bathed this next school year, the Dare 2 Share Blaze conference tour, and their friends in prayer starting now? 

Pray!

Follow-up Post to a verse a month…

So every since I posted the D&W Idea of the week about memorizing a verse a month I have been convicted to memorized God’s Word myself.  I still advocate that our teens need to memorize scripture as it is my perception that this is a fading discipline in the church.  That being said, I need to memorize scripture as well for my personal spiritual benefit as well as owning my responsibility and setting the pace for teens that I influence in my small group and the Youth Ministry at Northern Hills.

All of that to say, you should notice a new feature in the upper right hand corner of the Deep & Wide blog page entitled, “MEMORY VERSE FOR JUNE.”  Each month I will provide a new memory verse and invite you to join me in memorizing that verse.

This month’s verse is Ezekiel 33:7, “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say and warn them for me.”  It was inspired by today’s Dare 2 Share chapel that Greg share with our staff. 

Beyond memorizing this scripture, my prayer is that I will heed the words of James and apply this to my life as well (James 1:22).

D&W: a verse a month

This week’s idea to help you go “Deep” in your Youth Ministry.

I know, this idea seems so basic and elementary, and it totally is.  Scripture memorization is so simple, yet it seems like it is a fleeting discipline in most Christian circles, let alone Youth Ministries.  Imagine what it would be like if you challenged your teens to memorize one verse a month. 

• In a school year, your teens would be challenged to memorize 8-9 verses.
• In a calendar year, your teens would be challenged to memorize 12 verses.
• By the time your junior high teens passed into high school they could have 36 verses memorized (6th-8th grade).
• By the time a teenager completed 4 years of high school in your ministry they would have memorized 48 verses.
• Think of the teens that just graduated that have been in your group since 6th grade.  They would have memorized 84 verses.

Will all of them memorize every verse?  Maybe not.  But if a few of them memorized all those verses or even if most of them memorized a several of them, you would have an army of teenagers that could recite one verse out of every book of the Bible.  Depending on where you pulled your verses, you could have teens that could recite entire chapters, even books of the Bible!  Think about it.  How cool would it be if we restored the discipline of scripture memorization back into American Youth Minstries.  It could be one step of a journey on the road to changing a generation.

How many verses of the Bible have you memorized?  What’s the first one that comes to mind when asked to recite a verse you have memorized?  I dare ya’ to share it!