HS Small Group 4/21/09

I am so blown away by my teens tonight!

I had told them about a month ago that we would begin going out to different hang-out spots to start spiritual conversations and share our faith.  So tonight was the night that we would get after it.  When I told the kids they were stoked!  Then after the euphoria wore off, a few of them had moments of holy crap, what are we gonna say?  Before we left we reviewed the GOSPEL acronym they learned at the Dare 2 Share conference to get it fresh in everyone’s mind.    Then we headed to the Orchard (a local shopping mall).

I broke the 10 teens into 3 teams making sure there was at least 1 strong evangelist in each group, prayed for them, and then we set out.  Here are a few observations about what happened:

1. Each group engaged in at least 3 spiritual conversations with an individual or a group of people (teens and adults alike).
2. To open the conversation they would tell these strangers (a few kids got to share with people they knew from school) they were hanging out with their Bible study group and wanted to ask a few questions.
3. None of the groups got shut down.  Everyone they approached was willing to share, talk, and listen.  It was amazing!
4. We had conversations with a variety of different people: a 30 something agnostic man, an 18 year old Zehn Buddhist, a couple of Catholic high schoolers, a few families, a few teens who hadn’t quite figured out what they believed, and a few believers as well.
5. In some instances, because authentic conversations and relationships were started, cell #s were exchanged and promises to continue the conversations were made.
6. My teens walked away impressed with themselves because they realized how easy it was to have spiritual conversations and share their faith.
7. No one was led to Christ tonight, and I’m honestly not too surprised by that.  However, after tonight’s experience these teens are poised and ready to share their faith with their friends at school.

I’m stoked right now.  God literally filled my heart with joy watching these teens share their faith and seeing the difference that they could make and what they are capable of.

I can’t wait to do it again…I can’t wait to hear the stories of how they shared their faith with their friends in school later this week…I can’t wait to see what God will continue to do with the rest of their lives…

Traveling Drama

So last Wednesday as our Dare 2 Share team was checking in online for our Thursday morning flight we realized that due an incoming blizzard the flight had been cancelled.  Thank God we found out early enough and were able to make alternative travel plans.  Our fast acting staff (thanks Toyja and Teri) got a 15 passenger van rented for us at the last minute.  I headed home to pack quickly, picked up the van at the airport, and was back to the office.  11 of us piled in for the road trip through Hades, I mean through Kansas and arrived in St Louis, MO 14 hours later. 

The Invincible conference in St Louis was amazing as 8,500 teens were trained and equipped to share their faith.  The were unleashed on Saturday afternoon to take it to the streets collecting canned food and sharing the Gospel with people that they met.  We packed up Saturday night and caught our early flight back to Denver on Sunday morning.

I am now sitting in DIA as Greg Stier and I are headed to Dallas, TX.  Greg is speaking at Epicenter and I am hosting the D2S booth for the week.  Everything was going well last night – got packed, plenty of rest, the forecasted snow was supposed to avoid the entire metro area…Well, not so much.  Our 8:15am flight was cancelled and again, thanks to a fast acting D2S team (thanks Stacey and Neva) we grabbed the last two seats on a 12:19pm flight (now delayed 15 minutes) to get to Dallas.  We have 3 hours to kill before take-off, praying that wait doesn’t grow in to 4 hours or more.

It’s these fun little excursions that make me realized how much I loved working at D2S, especially the people!  We have each others backs and can endure 14 hour road trips in a 15 passenager van…good times!

TWITTER-pated

If you couldn’t tell by my blog, I love online social networking.  It allows me to have “relationships” and stay in touch with friends, family and youth workers all over the world.  How cool is that?  Who would have thought even 10 years ago you could have a global youth workers network literally at your finger tips?  Technology allows us to do some really cool stuff – and TWITTER  is currently my favorite.

Here at Dare 2 Share we have just begun utilizing TWITTER as a way for you (youth workers) to keep up to date with the latest happenings in our various conference regions.  Follow any one of our conference regions by clicking on their TWITTER link below:

D2SDenver
D2SColumbus
D2SLincoln
D2SPhoenix
D2SSeattle
D2SChicago
D2SStLouis

See you in cyberspace!

HS Small Group 12/22/08

Tonight was somewhat of a milestone in the life of our small group as we have maintained over 20 teens for about 6 consecutive weeks, ever since Dare 2 Share’s Invincible conference.  What was so momentous about this occasion?  It was the last night that our group would meet together as a single unit.  We have reached critical mass for my friend Sam’s living room in the mid-twenties.  So in a bitter-sweet move due to growth we are splitting the group and launching a second group on Tuesday nights. 

When we started the 2nd or 3rd week of September there were 13 teens.  We quickly shot up to the upper teens within the first month and by early November had over 20 teens a time or two.  Since D2S we have accumulated about 30 teens so as we launch in to two groups in the new year, each will have about 15 in them.  Part of the growth and momentum is due to the fact that we have seen 4 teens come to Christ over the past 3 months, 3 of them since the D2S conference!  I cannot wait to see what God will do in 2009 through these two groups.

Pray for both of our groups as we launch the new study, Gospel Journey MAUI in each of them.  I have no doubt that we will continue to see God change lives, stretch their faith, and more and more teens come to Christ not just through the Gospel being shared within our group, but by our teens on a daily basis.

Shred the Gnar!

HS Small Group 12/1/08

Tonight was another sweet night as our group dove into a great spiritual question that stirred up a little controversy but even more than that, prompted the probing into additional questions that we will tackle in the weeks to come.   This week we asked the teens, “If someone lives their whole life doing bad things, and then on their death bed hear’s the Gospel and accepts Jesus, do they still get to go to heaven?”  We had opinions all over the board from yes to no and everything in between.  Typically, with the ALT-ernative teaching style, we try to avoid Yes/No questions because it can limit conversation but our group plowed through and asked additional questions about once saved, always saved, faith vs. works, if I have been raised in church am I a Christian.  It was 20-30 minutes of solid conversation.  And God did another amazing work beyond what Sam and I did with the teens.  A brother and sister combo both accepted Christ into their life tonight…WOOHOO!!!  I love it as our group is all over Shreddin’ the Gnar!

Above and beyond what we are seeing unfold in our small group on Monday nights, our teens have committed to share their faith with 5 friends that don’t know Christ = Shreddin’ the Gnar.  Our group has compiled a list of 109 names of teens that don’t know Christ that we are going to go all out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

In addition to our small group Shreddin’ the Gnar, here’s a great testimony from a Youth Leader who attended the Washington, DC conference earlier this month.  Check out what he is doing with his teenagers!

 Hey Greg, I wanted to encourage you! We came back from the DC conference and wanted to capture the commitment that teens made to shred the gnar with 5 friends. So this past week at youth we challenged them to sign a board. It is really cool to see the changes that God has used D2S to have an impact. I resonate in a huge way with the deep & wide approach. It has been an answer to many prayers i have had over the last decade of serving in youth ministry. I am on the edge of my chair waiting to hear about the campus outreach component you have in the pipeline. I want to be able reach the teens that don’t have Christian friends. Let me know if you need a guinea pig ministry to test it out on. Cheers mate! In Christ, Andrew