There is no question that young people need to be discipled to grow in their leadership abilities. The implications of the pandemic have disoriented and discouraged many leaders. I encourage you to rest on God’s sovereign involvement and leadership of your life as a leader. Scripture shows us the Lord determines your place, people, and purpose, even when you may not understand or have planned for it.
Friendship is powerful. During adolescence, it becomes central to almost everything, especially trials. One of the privileges of discipling young people is being able to walk through trials with them and point them to Jesus when they need healthy support. From our smallest needs to our most epic feelings of desperation, we all long for someone who loves us, is reliable, is capable, and is willing to humble themselves enough to help, even if it requires sacrifice. The Gospel of John shows 4 reasons why we should turn to Jesus in times of trouble that you can use to point young people to Christ. He is the best friend and ultimate support in times of need.
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.
Here are some questions you can ask to help you think of creative ways to share the hope of the Gospel with others.
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.
Recent studies from the Pew Research Centerb and Springtide Research Institute show something significant happening in peoples’ spiritual lives. People are turning from religion. Millennials are raising their children without the church. People have lost trust in religious institutions. However, even though people are walking away from religion, they aren’t necessarily abandoning spirituality. How are faith leaders going to meet this reality as they evangelize and disciple young people in their relationship with Jesus?
Springtide Research Institute has one of the largest datasets on the state of youth in America. The data undeniably points to the need for discipling leadership from adults. Springtide summarizes their enormous dataset like this:
You’ve probably heard this before: “Everyone has a story.” For some people, telling their own story comes naturally. But for others, it can be a real challenge. One of the main things that keep leaders from sharing their personal life story with students is insecurity. If you’re a leader who wants to witness the relational power of your life story, you can combat your storytelling insecurity by intentionally building 3 things into your life:
If you simply invest the time to build these three things, you can share your personal life story (and help other people share theirs too!) the way it was meant to be shared: as a gift that changes lives and deepens relationships in ministry.
Leaders who tell the gospel story and their personal life story are off to a great start with becoming impactful storytellers. But there’s one more story type that’s worth keeping in your back pocket: the symbolic story.
Photo by Carter Canedy on Upslash
What’s a symbolic story? A symbolic story uses simple language to convey a complex point. A few examples of these are Jesus’s parables, personal word pictures, legends, or historical anecdotes. In a previous post, we looked at the way Nathan the prophet used a symbolic story to gently confront David about his sin. Using a symbolic story that represented David’s situation (rather than exposing it explicitly from the get-go) softened David’s heart and brought him to a place of repentance. Symbolic stories are powerful!
One of the best ways to reach people is through storytelling. Storytelling softens people’s hearts and makes space for transformation. In the last post, we talked about the why behind storytelling. Youth leaders tell stories because Jesus told stories, people remember stories, and creation is a story. But which stories should leaders tell? There are three kinds of storytelling leaders should learn: The Gospel story, symbolic stories, and life stories.
As a youth leader, are you ever scrambling for a natural way to introduce students to Jesus? How can we present Jesus to kids as the winsome, relatable Lord that he is?
Leaders who understand the power of storytelling see transformation in the lives around them. By the end of this story series, I hope you’ll be able to practically use 3 specific kinds of storytelling in your ministry and witness their transformative power. To get there, we’ll unpack these 3 questions:
Let’s dive in! Why should youth leaders tell stories?
When we look at the call of youth ministry, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the scope of such a calling. Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus called his disciples to, “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15). This is no small task! As Christian leaders, we too have been invited to proclaim the good news of Jesus to the whole of creation. Jesus asks us to think big. But how do we even begin such a giant mission? The only way to understand Jesus’s design for mission is to learn from his perfect example of life on earth.
Photo by Jonas Wurster on Unsplash