Youth Evangelism?

A few years ago I was driving along a rural road in the Southeast United States, and I saw a church sign advertising an evangelistic “Youth Gospel Sing.” My first thought was, “Wow, they still do those!” My second thought was, “Wow… they still do those?” I wondered how many unsaved teens would see the sign and say, “Oh boy, a gospel sing! I can’t wait to go to that this weekend!” Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against gospel sings. I also have nothing against yodeling, balloon animals or mimes. I just wonder how effective gospel sings, yodeling, balloon animals and mimes are at reaching teenagers today.

More recently a received a phone call from a motivated young lady from another country who wanted to bring her “youth evangelism team” to Vienna to teach us how to evangelize teenagers. This piqued my interest. As a missionary to youth, I am always interested in new ways to reach teenagers with the gospel so I asked her, “What exactly do you do to reach teenagers?”

“Well” she replied, “We come to your church and teach your teenagers dramas and then we do them on the streets of you city.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I have been involved in that type of ministry since the 1980s, so instead I asked, “How does this type of ministry specifically target teens?”

There was a long pause and finally she said, “Yeah, I suppose it doesn’t. I never thought about that before.”

Again, just like there’s nothing wrong with mimes, yodeling, and gospel sings, there is nothing wrong with this type of evangelism. Our friends at On The Red Box do a phenomenal job of reaching people via street ministry. My question is this; what is youth evangelism and what does that look like in a multicultural context? While there can be a lot to unpack here, let me leave you with three thoughts.

Youth Evangelism Targets Teens. This may sound over-simplistic, but sometimes I think we throw too broad a net. When we fish with a net, we are bound to get some fish we were not fishing for, but that’s OK. But when we cast our net, let’s at least aim for the school of fish we are trying to catch. What are some ways that you target teens for evangelism? In the past, we have used sports, food and even video games. I don’t want to get lost in fishing metaphors, but let me just add some people are fishing with nets, some with poles, and others are just sleeping on the shore. If we are in youth ministry, we should be doing something to reach teens (and their families) with the gospel.

Youth Evangelism is Culturally Relevant. I once heard a young youth minister say to reach teens you have to talk like them, dress like them, and play secular music to get them in the door. Ummm… no. Nothing will scare teens away faster than a chubby 50-year-old man wearing torn skinny jeans, who is tossing around “woke” slang while grooving to Shallow by Lady Gaga. In my book, I give the example of my friend Mac who uses music by LaCrae and spoken word to reach teens of different cultures and ethnicities. When I speak of cultural relevance I’m not talking about us conforming to the world to trick teens into coming to church, but instead, what we do to contextualize the gospel in a way that is relevant to the cultures and co-cultures around us.

Nothing will scare teens away faster than a chubby 50-year-old man wearing torn skinny jeans, who is tossing around “woke” slang while grooving to Shallow by Lady Gaga.

Youth Evangelism Serves as a Bridge. Not only are we called to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8), but we are called to make disciples (Matt 28:19). Making disciples is hard, messy, and wonderful. While much of the discipleship processes take place one on one, a significant portion takes place at the church. This can be problematic when teens who have never been to church and whose parents have never been to church show up and they have no idea how to behave (In the parlance of cultural anthropology, they don’t have the appropriate cultural scripts). As we reach teens with the gospel, part of our evangelistic/growth process is to foster healthy relationships and to make their initial church experiences positive.

How about you? What have you found effective in reaching teens with the gospel? What are you doing to reach teenagers from different cultures and ethnicities? What structures have you put in place to help bridge your new teens to the youth group and the church?