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Evangelism: A Catalyst for Spiritual Growth

by Shane Stacey on April 7th, 2011

It is often assumed that evangelism will be the natural by-product of growing in our relationship with Jesus.   It doesn’t take too much reflection to realize that if this is true then why is it not working with our adults?   How many people in their 50’s have sat through countless sermons, Bible studies, small groups and conferences and yet sharing their faith with others seems to be nearly non-existent?

As our National ReachStudents Council (RSC) has been working on the Disciplemaking is Relationships Training we’ve been asking ourselves:   what is it that encourages young people’s faith to begin to overflow in word and deed?   This question spurred us to sit down with Greg Steir from Dare2 Share, a ministry passionate about equipping teens to join The Cause of making disciples that make disciples.  

Greg identified that, as church leaders, we are called to care greatly about the spiritual formation of our young people.  We all want them to grow deeper.   But, he challenged, how we get there.  Greg suggested that evangelism is not an outcome of growth but a catalyst to growth.

The way we grow our physical muscles is through resistance.   This is why we head to the gym and bust through several reps on the bench press.   The resistance we are encountering strengthens our muscles. 

The same is true of spiritual growth.  When young people encounter resistance to their faith through engaging in spiritual conversations with friends, sharing the gospel with words, encountering differing viewpoints, and dying to the friendship to care more about the friend; their spiritual convictions are strengthened rather than weakened.  Evangelism therefore is not only an outcome of spiritual growth;  it is also a trigger for it. 

Greg shared five ingredients that his team has found in leaders and ministries that are helping students strengthen their spiritual muscles and engage in making disciples that make disciples.  Here they are:

1. Pray: Ministries that see young people both being reached and released with the gospel are those that are making prayer their strategy rather than a “tacked on” tactic.   We see this all through the life of Jesus.  All through the gospels we see Jesus engaging the Father in prayer (Lk 3:21; 4:42;6:12;11:1).
2. Live:  Luke 6:42 challenges us with the truth that, generally speaking, our students will value and do the things that we as their teachers do.   This is both encouraging and challenging.  If want to encourage students to be disciples who make disciples by sharing Christ with their peers, then it needs to be a part of our own way of life.  We don’t have to be good at it, we just need to be in the game of sharing Christ with our peers.
3. Inspire:  Many of Jesus' parables inspired people to see the heart of God for the lost (Luke 15). Ministries that are releasing young people to be missionaries on their campuses are ones that are weekly sharing stories of sharing Christ with others.  When students hear stories from adults, peers, past revivals and the scriptures, they are inspired with the thought that they too have a role to play in God’s mission. The stories don’t all have to be successes.  In fact, stories of failure or rejection can be just as inspiring. 
4. Equip: Ministries that are both seeing students share their faith and seeing young people come to Christ are those that equip their students to share the gospel. We may think that teaching students a gospel outline makes sharing their faith unnatural, but when we first started riding a bike we needed training wheels.  Eventually, once we found our balance we removed the training wheels.  The same is true for equipping students.   They don’t need more preaching on sharing their faith as much as they need more tools to know how to enter into conversation, engage with culture and articulate their story and God’s story clearly.
5. Deploy: Finally, ministries that see students engaging in the Great Commission are those that are deploying their young people onto their campuses and into their friendships as missionaries.  They are carrying the name of Jesus to those that are unreached.  This is when our ministry becomes a sending center rather than simply a drop-in center.

Dare2Share has posted eleven training podcasts for youth workers on their website that you’ll find to be encouraging, helpful and challenging.   As you plan both summer missions and for ministry next year, I think you’ll find these very timely. 
My prayer is that we’ll see these five ingredients become staples throughout the youth ministries of the EFCA.