EQUIP STUDENTS TO REACH THEIR FRIENDS

 

Often young Christians have never thought about telling their friends about Jesus, or they want to, but don’t know how. Your encouragement and equipping will prepare them to give away their faith. Encouraging and equipping them to share Jesus, watching them do it, and then seeing their friends come to Christ is one of the most fulfilling experiences students and their youth leaders can have! 

​

Show Them Who They Are

For anyone who engages in youth ministry with a desire to reach young people with the Gospel—helping them discover who they are—their identity in Christ and their calling—is great news for three reasons:

 

• It raises the enthusiasm of the entire youth group to a new level.

 

• Once one person in a social group has come to know Jesus, the Lord often uses that person’s encounter with Christ to reach others inside that group of friends.

 

• It shows them who God has called them to be: MISSIONARIES!

 

Yet, the vast majority of Christian students do not see reaching their friends as a possibility or a priority. As a result, they do not see themselves as MISSIONARIES to their peers! How can you change the perception that they are “just going to school” to “going to school with a mission” . . . going with a laser-focused purpose: to influence every person they know to consider following Jesus.

 

Encourage Them

You can take an initial step toward helping them see their mission by encouraging them to see the possibilities of how much influence they can have. To become a “campus missionary,” students don’t need to learn a new language, immerse themselves into a new culture, spend years preparing to reach their peers, or be “sent” into their mission field. They are already there. What they need is someone to encourage them to open their eyes and see the mission field that they live in every day, and then to lead them to do what God has called them to do: share Jesus with their friends. Stories abound of “campus missionaries” who have done this and have had a tremendous influence on their friends and in their school.  

 

You can use this “Code Red” video from Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry Online to encourage you and your students!

 

Consistently reminding your students of their campus missionary role will increase their courage to step up and speak out. And when one or two do, then more will follow. Soon you will have a team of students seeing themselves as mission-minded disciples . . . going to school to make a difference in Jesus’ name! 

 

Equip Them

To equip your “campus missionaries” you have many resources at your disposal. [See “Resources” below, particularly Giving Away Your Faith.] Instead of treating this like a “course” or a “training” to go through, set aside a few minutes every week in the youth group and in their discipleship groups, to learn and practice one simple faith-sharing tool like “How to start a conversation about Jesus.” Doing this will lessen their concern about what to say or how their friends at school see them, and instead gain confidence in speaking up and speaking out in Jesus’ name—and at some point—seeing some of their friends discover Jesus.

 

You can equip them and build their confidence using one of these simple topics for five minutes each week in your youth group. As well, you can lead all of your Discipleship Groups, and/or students showing a high level of enthusiasm for sharing Christ, through these easy-to-grasp, practical topics.

 

1. See the need. The first major barrier to students speaking about Jesus is helping them to see that their friends really do need Jesus. Jesus Himself was very clear about this. He said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) The spiritual reality is that those who are lost need to be found! 

 

2. Overcome fear. Very often students’ fear cripples their faith and prevents them from talking to their friends about Christ. Rejection is a terrible thing for anyone, especially teenagers. Yet God promises to honor those who honor Him—even if we are rejected. When students grasp that reality, they will rise up and step beyond their fear.

 

3. Rely on the Holy Spirit. Sharing the love and message of Jesus goes beyond human effort. When students realize that they have the life, love and power of the Holy Spirit living in them, they will begin to grasp that they are not arguing with their friends about a religion, but lovingly sharing about a life-changing relationship with Jesus!

 

4. Make friends for Jesus. Without a friendship, a long-lasting relationship is virtually impossible. It has been said: “In the end relationships save everything.” Yes! For adolescents building healthy, positive relationships is often a struggle. Yet, part of growing up is developing the ability to relate well with others. Add to that, building relationships that include the desire to share the love of Jesus with friends is particularly difficult. Yet, a vital part of growing in Christ involves learning how to develop and deepen friendships by showing Jesus’ love to others. Youth leaders and parents play such a vital role in guiding students in relationship building.

 

5. Start conversations. Often students—and the adults around them—tend NOT to be “others-oriented.” Instead of taking the initiative to introduce themselves to other people and to ask questions about them, people often think only about themselves and what others think about them. Students can become “others-oriented” when we encourage them not to “think about themselves more highly than they ought to think” (Romans 12:3) and show them how they can start a conversation with almost anyone. Asking questions often leads to an ever-deepening relationship that soon gives the right and privilege to talk about Jesus. 

 

6. Tell their personal stories. Sharing firsthand experiences about their relationship with Jesus is difficult for most students—and many adults—often because they have not thought about it and simply don’t know what to say . . . and no older Christ-follower has coached them to think through that personal experience and write it. Guiding them to write their story is a significant step in helping them share their faith. You can do this by taking them through a simple step-by-step process that guides them to know what to say and how to overcome their fear of saying it. (You will find the specific tools you need to do this in Before-Then-After, Giving Away Your Faith, and other very helpful tools in Resources below.)

 

7. Share the Gospel. Students who have genuinely accepted Christ have at least understood the basic truths of what it means to follow Jesus. That does not necessarily mean that they grasp those truths well enough to share them with others. Coaching them to communicate to their friends the basic Gospel message in a meaningful, relevant way will give them confidence in their own relationship to Jesus, but also the confidence to boldly share that message with their friends. You can do that by training them to use one or more of the resources below. (You will find the specific tools you need to do this in Life in 6 Words, Giving Away Your Faith, 3 Circles, and other very helpful tools in the Resources below.)

 

8. Lead their friends to make a decision. Having the courage to ask a friend or another student to invite Jesus into his/her life takes conviction and courage . . . and the distinct possibility of rejection. That moment of decision is a huge hurdle for both the person asking and the person answering! Equipping your students to use one of the tools mentioned in the Resources below takes that pressure off. Once they become very familiar with that tool, then urge them to become bold and courageous! Encourage them to ask the question: “Would you like to invite Jesus into your life—to trust and follow Him from now on?”

 

9. Answer questions fearlessly, honestly and lovingly. Sharing Jesus will inevitably invite both openly hostile or genuinely interested in Jesus questions. It certainly helps if your students know the “Hard Questions” people will ask, how to handle them and answer them. In Giving Away Your Faith you will find the answers to the top seven “Hard Questions” non-believing students ask. Feel free to create a handout of the questions to give to your students and prepare them to answer those questions.

 

10. Guide their new Christian friends to grow. Once a person makes a decision to follow Jesus, then what? Students need to know how to help their friends grow in their new relationship to Jesus. See “Get New Believers Started” [Section 5.3] and use the Getting Started book in the Resources list below to guide that experience.

 

Walking through these steps with your students will help them not only to reach their friends, but also will encourage and equip them for their lifelong journey of walking with Jesus and leading others to do the same. You can help launch them into a lifetime of being disciples who make and multiply disciples!

 

Your Next Steps

We encourage keeping a notebook or journal of ideas, action steps, and resources that will help you advance your youth ministry. You can use the following questions and suggestions for brainstorming and developing your goals and plans.

 

• Continue to think about major obstacles your students face in sharing Jesus with their friends, and practically how you can help them overcome those obstacles.

 

• Develop a plan to encourage and equip your students to reach their peers.

 

• Download or order the resources below that you need. 

 

Resources                                                         

• Go to www.namb.net/evangelism/3circles/ to download free:

     –  3 Circles

 

• Go to www.dare2share.org/resources/ebooks/ to download free:

     –  Life in 6 Words

     –  Before-Then-After  

     –  Gospelize Your Youth Ministry, Greg Stier, (Dare 2 Share Ministries)

 

• Go to www.barrystclair.com to download free:

     – Giving Away Your Faith

     –  Getting Started

     –  Taking Your Campus for Christ