Category Archives: Orange Zone (proclaiming the Gospel)

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Don’t Be A Cloud Without Rain: How to Creatively Share the Hope of Jesus

The people in your life are there under God’s sovereign authority. As a disciple of Christ, it is important to intentionally invest in the relationships around us and to be verbal about what we know about Jesus.

There is an immense challenge in Jude 12-13 to not let our knowledge of the Gospel go to waste. “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”

People who have not put their trust in Jesus Christ are like withering plants who desperately need water for their roots. In the same way that plants need rain, people need a personal relationship with Jesus. Imagine how plants respond when their roots are watered. Being verbal with what we know about Jesus is like rain to a dry soul. We can communicate the hope people need and will nourish their roots. As a disciple of Christ, we must be responsible to make sure we are not clouds without rain. To be intentional and loving in our relationships we must not hold back the rain that their souls need.

share the hope of Jesus, don't be a cloud without rain
Photo by Herbert Grambihler on Unsplash

Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone and Be a Cloud that Rains

Here are some questions you can ask to help you think of creative ways to share the hope of the Gospel with others.

  1. What would I want if I were ________ (person’s name)?
    • The answer to this question is what we can strive for and pray for. Assume more often than not that we might be the one to provide the need rather than think it is someone else’s calling.
    • Don’t assume that this person will care about you and your needs at first. Focus on asking them probing, preplanned questions and actively listen to their responses.
  2. What does _________ (person’s name) want that Jesus has to offer? What do they need that they might not realize?
    • How can you creatively show the person that what they want and need can be found in a relationship with Jesus?
  3. How can you restate their objections into a goal?
    • An example: “I would lose so much freedom if I became a follower of Jesus.” You can consider ways that you could show this person that freedom is gained by following Jesus. Our life expands and opens up when we follow Jesus, it does not narrow and become boring like some might think it does.

This takes prayerful consideration and creativity. It is important to also remember that people will always have concerns that we strive to address, but it is ultimately God who draws people to himself (John 6:41-44). He will use you in the time, place, and community he has placed you in. Remain in Him, and you will bear much fruit.

Stay Accountable

  1. Evaluate your own roots. Are they healthy? Do you need rain?
  2. In my last post, I offered a worksheet to identify your 12/3. How have you been intentional with those people?
  3. Who in your life needs to hear the Gospel? Humbly choose to step outside of your comfort zone and be rain to dry souls.

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God Goes to the Absolute Extreme for the Lost

Understanding Jesus from the perspective of the Father’s love can really inform the way you abide in Him, serve others, and pray. The Gospel of John tells the story of the relationship between the Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus and their indescribable love for you and for me. It is a story about Jesus Christ’s extravagant and extreme love for the lost. I challenge you as a leader to ponder this truth and consider how it may change you by fully embracing it.

the father goes to an absolute extreme for the lost

The Greatest Opener of All Time

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5)
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How to Tell the Gospel Story

Let me ask a question. When was the last time you told someone the story of Jesus Christ? Can you remember?

how to share the gospel story

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Unsplash

A disciple’s desire is to joyfully spread the good news of Jesus with others. Yet many followers of Jesus struggle to share the gospel story on a regular basis. Why? Since the gospel has the power to restore people to a right relationship with God, it encounters the most spiritual resistance of any story. Satan wants to stamp it out before we share it with other people. But as disciples of Jesus, we have no excuse to keep God’s good news to ourselves. We must push past the enemy’s resistance and our own inhibitions so we can proclaim the good news even more boldly to a world that’s literally dying to hear.

 

In this post, I’ll offer 3 strategies to help you spread the gospel story with confidence.

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Time to Get Creative! Share the Gospel (Orange Zone)

Imagine traveling to a place where you did not speak the language spoken there. What would you do to communicate so that you could be understood correctly? How would you connect with people? What strategies would you use to learn? You would not be able to simply speak your known language and expect people to understand you. This scenario would require you to
get creative!
Sharing the Gospel can be like cross-cultural travel into someone else’s life. Young people who are curious about Jesus, but do not know Him yet may not be able to fully understand the miraculous work on the cross in the language that Christians are used to. Youth leaders must be creative in communicating the Gospel in a way that young people can connect to and understand.
orange zone - creatively share the gospel
The orange zone of Full Spectrum Youth Ministry is representative of proclaiming the Gospel to those who are curious about following Jesus. Orange is in the middle of the color spectrum and this color symbolizes creativity. To inspire some creativity, let’s look at some ways Jesus communicated with others.
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Full Spectrum Youth Ministry: The Full Picture Jesus had in Mind for Making Disciples

FULL SPECTRUM YOUTH MINISTRY? WHAT IS THAT?

On a recent trip to Finland, I had the opportunity to come alongside some Finnish youth workers who have a passion for reaching the young people in their communities.  I was asked in an interview what the term “Full Spectrum Youth Ministry” meant because I use it a lot while teaching groups how to develop catalytic and effective youth ministry.  I’ve been involved in youth ministry for about 30 years and have been involved in a variety of organizations like Young Life, Cru, YWAM, Intervarsity, Navigators, as well as lots of church-based student ministries.
As I have made observations, learned from many skilled leaders, and worked on a theology of youth ministry, we landed on the term “Full Spectrum Youth Ministry” to describe what others have referred to as relational youth ministry or incarnational youth ministry. When I was living and serving in New Zealand years ago, a friend of mine, Duane Major introduced me to the term “Full Spectrum” as a visual way to describe a biblical theology and practice of disciple-making student ministry. In other words, Full Spectrum Youth Ministry is a way to help leaders understand what Jesus had in mind for developing disciples.
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17 Ways to Improve Your Speaking Skills for Student Ministry

In my recent post, 12 Steps to Making You a Better Speaker or Teacher, I provide a simple pathway for how to develop a student ministry talk that will connect with your audience and communicate the Gospel in a language that they can understand. When you speak to a group of college, high school, or middle school students, you want to get them excited about Jesus and curious about how the Bible will radically impact their life. You want them to see how they can turn the world upside down by following Jesus. This is our goal, but it also takes some work to grow in your speaking skills.

Felix speaking in the Philippines

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Research Says Great Teams Know How to Assimilate New Team Members

GREAT TEAMS KNOW HOW TO ASSIMILATE NEW TEAM MEMBERS

After reading, would you be willing to share this and offer a comment below? I respond to each comment.

Each semester it is common for a student ministry team to add a new leader or two. It is rare for teams to remain static for too long and it is actually a sign of health in your recruitment and training strategy if you are regularly adding new leaders on your youth ministry or college ministry team. God is constantly at work raising up new laborers for his harvest field so it is really important to have a plan for assimilating new leaders on your team:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;  therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’ – Matthew 9:36-38).

How to assimilate new team members in student ministry

All of us have been “new” to a team at some point so it should be easy for us to relate. But in reality it takes discipline to keep reminding yourself how others might be feeling like an outsider. It is helpful to step back and put yourself in a new team members shoes. This greatly improves your ability to help them assimilate to your team.

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How the Cross Draws Secret Believers out of Hiding

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. (John 19:38-39)

Hans sharing about secret believers in Austria

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had significant influence in the Jewish community and had kept their faith a secret all the way up to the day Jesus died on the cross. But witnessing all that happened that day and the last breath of Jesus on that cross changed everything. They threw caution to the wind and asked Pilate for his body. Then single-handedly in the light of day, they prepared his body for burial. Working together and quickly to lay him to rest before sundown (the beginning of the Sabbath), these two secret believers made their love for Jesus a spectacle. Joseph’s tomb was near the hill upon which Jesus had died, so their work to lay him to rest would have been visible to all.

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8 Ways to Recruit and Retain More Volunteers for Your Church or Non-Profit

Non profits and churches depend on volunteers. A non-profit organization without a growing community of volunteers is like a ranch without enough ranch hands. Things break down and eventually the ranch goes belly up. A great vision or cause gets a non-profit started or a church planted, but without teams of healthy, motivated, volunteers to help, you will likely not go the distance. To finish what you have started you need a steady stream of volunteers joining in and remaining on board.

How to recruit and retain volunteers

Volunteers freely offer to undertake a task. They want to do what they are doing or they wouldn’t be doing it. So can you recruit and retain more volunteers for your mission? Here’s how…

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15 Ways to Help Students Find Peace they are Longing for through the Gospel…

As a youthworker or parent, to give hope and solace to teenagers, we need to tell them how to find peace. The world has questions. The Bible has answers. Students, ages 13-25 in particular are beginning to shift from a totally concrete view of the world to a more abstract perspective.

bible outdoors

This means that adolescence is a time where we begin to process our environment and relationships by asking lots of questions. Most of these questions go unspoken, but they are there if you dig for them.