When you hear the word, “Reverb” (Word of Life’s all-night evangelistic event), phrases like “exciting professional sports game,” “activities,” “food,” “prizes,” “all-nighter,” and “a clear gospel message” might come to mind. What if you could turn this event into a discipleship movement for your students, training them to share the gospel with their friends? What would your youth group look like? What would your church look like if you had youth soul-winners?
Reverb as a discipling event can take your youth ministry to the next level. At Word of Life, we believe if we want to reach the next generation for Christ, student must be sharing the gospel with their friends. How do we get this started?
The Importance of Gospel Fluency
There is a church in Michigan that took this challenge. With the help of a youth ministry coach from Word of Life, they took multiple Saturdays to train their youth to be gospel fluent. Using the “Life in 6 Words” resource from Dare2Share (https://www.dare2share.org/resources/life-in-6-words/), they learned and rehearsed what each letter of “GOSPEL” stands for. The definition of fluent is being able to speak easily and smoothly. This might mean you need to continue to follow up with training even on Sundays and Wednesdays to make evangelism a part their everyday lives.
Okay, it’s time to step on a soap box. We in the American church, for the most part, have drifted away from personal evangelism. We have arrived at a place where our “evangelism” is a check box, where if I’ve invited someone to come and hear the youth pastor share the gospel, I’ve checked off my evangelism for the week. We must get back to providing evangelism discipleship and training for our students – and maybe even for ourselves.
The Result of Gospel Readiness
Back to the story of our group from Michigan. When the night of Reverb came, they were ready. During the invitation time, their students were trained to go back and have one-on-one conversations with other students about the love of Christ. Then, they were challenged to continue having conversations with other students from midnight to 6:00 AM. These students got it. They wanted to see their friends and peers know Jesus as their Savior.
Embracing the Gospel Challenge
What about you and your group? Do you want to take your students to the next level and use this Reverb season to train them in sharing the gospel with friends and peers? What if you took ten percent of your students through Dare2Share’s “Life in 6 Words” training or another system your church uses to train members in sharing the gospel? Contact a Word of Life youth ministry coach near you to schedule some training dates. Let’s see Reverb as not just an awesome night of fun, but also a great movement to take your students to the next level in their faith – reaching the next generation for Christ.
Here are a couple sites you can visit for some resources to train your students to share their faith with a friend (The “Life in 6 Words” app and the “Dare2Share” app are also useful in sharing the gospel.):
https://youthministry.wol.org/courses/evangelism/
https://www.dare2share.org/resources/
Matt Dooney is a youth ministry coach for Word of Life. He has been serving with Word of Life for 14 years, developing disciple–making youth ministries in Jacksonville, Florida. He believes in teaching the next generation to reach their generation for Christ. Matt, his wife, Katie, and their three children (Wesley, Calvin, and Raelynn) love serving with their local church and pointing people to Jesus.