Youth Evangelism What the Bible teaches us about reaching

young people

Ken Moser

Thank you for your purchase of this PDF “Youth Evangelism – what the Bible teaches us about reaching young people” by Ken Moser. A book by Youthsurge Australia and Effective Youth Ministry Press.

Visit us at: youthsurge.com.au and effectiveyouthministry.com (North America.)

Also by Ken Moser

Changing the World Through Effective Youth Ministry

EFFEC TIVE YOUTH MINISTRY

PRESS

Creative Christian Ideas for Youth Groups

Programs 2 Go

Small Group Bible Study booklets:

Luke: Who is Jesus

Luke: Carry Your Cross

Luke: Parables of Jesus

Starting Out:

Starting Out: Volume 2 (Foundations for Christian Living)

Young Men

Work, Rest, Play

Big Issues for Today’s Youth

1 Thessalonians: The Changed Life

Job: Trusting God in Hard Times

The purchase of this PDF is with the agreement that apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Ken Moser December 2004

ePublished January 2012

PDF Published August 2013

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version.

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

National Library of Australia ISBN 978-0-9872887-2-1

Cover and page design: Anthony Wallace

Typesetting: Michelle Gendron

Thanks and dedication

This book is dedicated to Lindsay Stoddart and Tim Foster.

These two men are keen evangelists who have had a deep influence on an organisation that is impacting this world for Christ. Without them Sydney would not have a specialist youth/children’s ministry training college, Youth Surges, countless training events and youth groups that have turned their programs around. Lindsay and Tim are two men who love Christ and are desperately keen to see this world won for him. God bless you brothers!

I want to thank several friends who read this book in manuscript form and helped shape it. They helped correct mistakes, sharpened up dull areas and gave me practical examples. Thank you Duncan Barlow, Steve Jeffrey, Scott Petty, Graham Stanton and Ian Weaver.

Thanks also to the team of Youthworks who gave helpful criticisms - especially in the section on the early church. Thank you Mike Hyam, Louisa Jonker, JodieMcNeill, Julie Moser, and Tony Willis. It was a much more expensive lunch than you realize!

As always, this is for the God of the second chance. May this be for his glory.

Finally, Mike thanks for your words; I will not be seduced by the routine. Enjoy the King!

About the authorKen Moser has been involved in youth ministry for over 25 years. He has taught youth

ministry at Sydney Missionary and Bible College as well as Anglican Youthworks Children’s and Youth Training College. He currently teaches youth ministry at Briercrest College and Seminary in Saskatchewan, Canada. He is the author of Changing the World through Effective Youth Ministry and Creative Christian Ideas for Youth Groups.

ContentsA letter to the reader

Section 1: Introduction

1 Evangelism defined

2 Duncan’s evangelistic journey

Section 2: Evangelism in the early church

3 Public preaching

4 Going to the Jews

5 Preaching in Christian places of worship

6 Philosophic argument in public places

7 Semi private instruction

8 Personal witness

9 Family witness

10 Outstanding acts of kindness

11 Personal witness of martyrs

12 Christian writings

13 Sending out missionaries

14 Learning from the early church

Section 3: Key thoughts for evangelism

15 The harvest is plentiful

16 God brings the growth

17 Our evangelistic strategies must honor God

18 Guilt-free evangelism (Croc Hunters and Bush Tucker Men/Women)

Section 4: Snapshots from the Bible

19 The power of love!

20 The power of being different!

21 The power of being prepared!

22 The power of living the attractive life!

23 The power of unity!

Section 5: Putting it all together

24 Structures that will cope with growth

25 Planning for effective evangelism

26 Hot tips for effective evangelism

27 My plan for the year

28 Evangelising the local high school

29 The evangelistic community

30 Mistakes to avoid

31 Run an ‘encouragement mission’

Epilogue: When all is said and done

Appendices

1 Starting from Scratch:

2 What do I do if my church is not youth friendly?

3 The evangelism most of us grew up with

4 Why we do things the way we do

5 What is wrong with the old way of evangelism?

6 Mixing edification with evangelism,

is it possible?

7 Basketball for Jesus: is it an option?

A letter to the readerWriting this book has proven to be more difficult than I had planned. I lost even more hair

and drank way too much coffee. It was hard because let’s face it, evangelism is hard. A number of us have tried valiantly for years to bring numerical growth to our youth groups and it just seems like the whole thing may be too difficult. Some of us ache for the lost yet we have people in our youth groups who seem not to care. Others struggle with insecurities and fears about reaching out. Most of us have experienced the pain of running events and no one shows up. We have a minister or elders who tell us repeatedly that the youth group should be a lot bigger than what it is now. Finally, many of us are realizing that the evangelism strategies we have been taught are not productive in bringing the results we hoped for.

In the end, it seems to me that many of us are struggling to see a real increase in numbers over the long term, especially in the area of reaching non-Christian young people from unchurched families.

Four Questions that forced me to write this book

Having visited and spoken to countless youth groups I have discovered that there is one similar characteristic that almost all groups share—a desire to grow numerically. However, there is one more similarity, most of us aren’t actually growing. We might grow a bit here and there but it usually tapers off or the numbers fall and we are back to where we started.

As I reflect on this, there are four questions that concern me.

1. Why is evangelism so difficult?

While many of us find it tremendously exciting, evangelism can be hard work. It takes time, effort and resources. We try to plan creative, attractive events but in the end many of us see few results and wonder if it was worth it. In addition, many of us wrestle with building a level of confidence in our regulars so they will reach out to their friends. “Don’t they share our passion for the lost?” we wonder. In addition, I have found that many Christians feel guilty when it comes to telling their friends about Jesus. They labor under feelings of inadequacy and guilt. When the minister/youth leader stands up in front of the group and tells them that their friends are lost without Jesus, many Christians just look blankly at the ground thinking, “He doesn’t understand. I try, but it is so hard.”

True story

Sam was a key member of our youth group. He showed up at everything and was always helpful and reliable. He was also a wiz at organizing things. He could whip together a database and was the master of PowerPoint. One day I said to him, “Thanks a lot for all your help with youth group.” His reply was one I’ll never forget. He said to me, “This is the way I serve Jesus and his people. I’m not a great evangelist, but I can do this!” I assured him that it was ok not to be a “great evangelist” his job was to be a faithful member of God’s community. It struck me that he had created a link between his work for the youth ministry and his ineffectiveness in telling people about Jesus. Clearly there was some degree of guilt or fear here. I wonder if a lot of Christians feel inadequate because they don’t see themselves as good evangelists. How can we overcome this and help them?

Without offering false hope I need to ask, “does evangelism need to be this hard?”

2. Why is evangelism so ineffective?

Many groups are dedicated to outreach and evangelism. They run outreach groups with activities designed to bring people to faith. For many of us, evangelism is our lifeblood and intense goal. Yet, when we look back over years of labor, we see very little (if any) real success. If you don’t believe me just do a bit of investigative work and find out some statistics of your church

or denomination. Is it thriving with recently converted young people? Teeming with new Christians? Probably not. Many of us are finding that the brick wall is a lot harder than our head. Is it possible to overcome this?

Example

I once ran a training event for a group of leaders who had been running a youth program for over 10 years. Week in week out they ran a group devoted to reaching the local youth. Each night consisted of an hour of games, a short devotion, supper and then a lift home. I asked them how many kids had decided to follow Christ as a result of this group. Looking down, one of them said, “None that we know of.” I need to say clearly that these people were godly, devoted Christians. It wasn’t their hearts nor their prayers that were the problem. These people deeply wanted to reach the youth in their area. However, there was little fruit to show for their efforts.

I want to humbly and gently suggest that this group of leaders would have been much better off adopting a different evangelistic strategy. For most youth leaders, the “games & devotion” combo just hasn’t proved to be a winner. In fact, many of the “evangelism” strategies that are used today may actually work against us rather than for us.

I believe it is time for a change in the way we think about evangelism and in the strategies we put into practice.

Is it necessary to sacrifice Christian growth for the regular in order to reach the non-Christian?

Many groups seem to be so committed to evangelism that the Christian regular often suffers in the process. Basic Christian staples like prayer and deep Bible study can be sacrificed on the altar of “trying to win the outsider”. This causes many of our young people to grow up to be spiritually malnourished. If our focus is weighted too heavily on reaching the outsider in the end we neglect those we have already reached. In addition to this, some groups run multiple programs—one night devoted to evangelism and one night devoted to discipleship. In today’s world, is this really a viable option? Are there other ways to achieve the same results?

My goal is to develop a strategy for evangelism that actually builds the Christian young person as we seek to reach out to the lost.

How can we put into place effective evangelism in our youth groups?

The word evangelism tends to bring one of two responses. There is either stark terror (my first experience) or there is burning excitement. Some people are so scared of what their friends might say that they rarely share their faith. Others feel no fear and are ready to start knocking on doors or visit the local shopping mall with a megaphone. They will do anything to tell people about Jesus. You may have these two types of young people in your church or youth group. How can we excite the one group to evangelize more? How can we harness the evangelistic fervor of the other group and use them the best way possible?

Many of us just aren’t red hot when it comes to reaching the non-Christian effectively. How can we change this? What things do we need to change to see more young people come to Christ? Hopefully the next few pages will give you some assistance.

Final things you must know:

I need to say from the start that this is not a book of miracle cures. I can’t give you that. What I can do is try to help you correct any faulty practices that you may have inherited. What I will do is to concentrate on a number of issues:

What the early church did to reach this world for Christ

What the Bible says about evangelism

Some helpful hints and strategies for your youth group

This book isn’t perfect. None are. In addition, all of us have strong views on the subject of evangelism. Please read this book with your mind and Bible open. It won’t solve all your problems but hopefully it will help you to be the best you can at reaching the lost through your youth ministry.

Blessings,

Ken

P.S. This is the third in a series of books. You may want to get a copy of Changing the World through Effective Youth Ministry in which I outline a model of youth ministry I describe as ‘build, reach and flow’. In addition I will refer to the second book, Creative Christian Ideas for Youth Groups. This is a practical resource for ensuring your meetings are creative and Christian. You may want to have a copy nearby.

You can contact me at effectiveyouthministry.com.

Some questions to reflect on as you read this book:

What strategies does God’s word give us about evangelism?

Has the Bible informed our strategies for reaching the lost or are we following strategies based more on mass marketing?

Is it possible to separate evangelism from something social (like ice skating, going to the movies etc.)?

Following on from this, it is possible to have effective evangelism without running programs built around entertainment? (i.e. games, activities etc.)

How do we prepare the young people in our youth group to be effective evangelists? What does this mean in practical terms?

Finally, how can we implement more effective evangelism in our group? In other words, how can we really grow numerically?

SECTION 1INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1Evangelism defined

evan·ge·lism (a’voendgelizam, i-/)noun

1 : the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ

2 : militant or crusading zeal

“To share or announce the good news.1”

“To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is every kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as savior and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the Gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his church and responsible service in the world.” (The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, 1974).