Back to the Basics of Youth Ministry: Part 2
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. “ 2 Timothy 2:2
TeamsIt is when we are doing life with people that we love that we get to experience more of the full life that God promises us. We knew that we wanted nothing more than the very best team for our student population at One Life, and guess what? We found it!
So after much prayer and anticipation for our first round of student life group signups, we encouraged our leaders to hang onto and flesh out Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”
I wanted to share with you only a glimpse of the first fruits we have seen after only 4 months of launching One Life Students:
After coming to know Jesus personally and being baptized only a little more than a year ago, one of our leaders decided he wanted to invest in a group of middle school boys to give back what he had been given. After only a few weeks of meeting with his group, he shared that although he had become a leader to help these boys grow in their faith, he never imagined how much it would deepen his own relationship with Jesus. Sitting in his living room, he had the opportunity to pray with three middle school boys as they decided to follow Jesus and baptized them a couple weeks later.
Two of our high school leaders had only one guy sign up for their life group after the first connection event. They took it upon themselves to make phone calls, initiate conversations with students in the lobby after services, and throughout the week. Their one has turned into a living room of 10 boys that come together weekly to talk about faith and share life together.
One of our middle school groups had a Christmas party for their girls who thought it would be really cool to come dressed in their leaders old prom gowns. They had the opportunity to enjoy together a nice dinner, family style that their leaders had taken the time to prepare.
Two of our student life groups have taken the opportunity to go serve their peers at our local Young Lives Club (Young Life’s outreach ministry to teen moms), by watching the babies so that these young moms can spend time with leaders who have been pursuing them, as well as have the opportunity to hear the gospel.
A couple months ago, I received this e-mail from one of our leaders. “Tonight I had the girls over to watch a movie when one of the moms came to pick up her daughter. The mom said she walked into her daughter’s room this week and her daughter had her Bible out, playing Manifesto, and PRAYING! She said she hasn’t seen her daughter pray in a long time, and as she was telling me this she was tearing up. That makes my heart so happy!”
Two of our leaders found themselves going back to their adult life group and sharing about what was going on with our team and the students they were pursuing. As a result, a couple of others in their life group asked how they could get connected to the team as well. This is key because we want to do more than just build a team. We desire to foster a community of believers that people are drawn to and want to be a part of.
These stories bring encouragement to my life, and I hope they do the same for you. These leaders that we speak of are not super heroes. They are ordinary people, who in the midst of their brokenness have decided to walk in the redemption of Jesus daily. They help me to see the heart of our Creator as they are living sacrificially to impact the next generation.