Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-48, “‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This brand of love only comes through the Father via his Holy Spirit to us (“…because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” Romans 5:3.) As we learn to walk in a moment-by-moment declaration of dependence on Him he will enable us to love the unloveable and pursue them with the gospel in love.

If we truly have the divine agenda as the top priority on our human agendas then our #1 mission should be to “go and make disciples of all nations….” We should long to see everyone in our circle of influence (and outside of it for that matter) receive the forgiveness, life and hope of Jesus. This is the call of Christ for each of us: to lovingly, gently, persistently and prayerfully nudge anyone and everyone into the kingdom of God.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus was relentless in his pursuit of you? In spite of us trying to get away from him and turn to our own ways he wouldn’t stop until we were his. He chased us down and caught us. In spite of our protests he wooed us and won us. Jesus is the most relentlessly relational being in the universe.

Well guess what? We are his hands, feet, mouth and eyes on this earth! We are the eyes of Jesus so that we can see the lost from a divine perspective and have our hearts break for them in the process (Matthew 9:36.) We are his hands to touch the hurting (Mark 1:40-42.) We are his feet to run after them with the good news (Romans 10:15.) We are his mouth to preach the gospel (Mark 16:15.) If we truly want to be like Jesus then we won’t give up, shut up or back down until everyone possible comes into a relationship with Him!

Let’s love those around us enough to “seek and save what was lost” (Luke 19:10) through a relentlessly relational pursuit of them. Let’s be kind, humble and wise as we do, but let’s do.

I close with the words of Charles Spurgeon, “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay….let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

Viva LA Cause!

*My point is, not that we should avoid politics as Christians, but that we should focus more on the gospel.

This is a great video from Missouri Valley Church about their experience at Dare 2 Share. Watch it and be encouraged!

When you do this you are doing more than making sure every teenager in your youth group has an opportunity to hear and believe the gospel, you’re also indirectly equipping teens to share their faith. When they hear you give it week after week then, over time, they will master the gospel and not even know how they did it.

2. Tell stories.

Relentlessly inspire your teenagers by telling stories of transformed lives as a result of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tell both stories from the Bible, church history and teenagers down the street.

3. Let teens tell stories.

Have an open mike in youth group for teens to tell stories of other teenagers they are engaging with the gospel every week. Let them tell the good, the bad and the ugly. Spend time afterward praying for the teens who heard the gospel that week as a result of your teens evangelism efforts.

4. Make baptisms a big deal.

However you do it (sprinkle them, dunk them or send them down a slip-n-slide) do it. Baptism is a big deal. It is a public declaration of an inward transformation. When a teenager in your youth group puts their faith in Jesus and gets baptized make it a party of Biblical proportions. Have it match the party that happens in heaven every time a sinner repents (Luke 15:10.) Have them invite all their family and friends, especially the non Christian ones, and use this as an opportunity to spread the gospel some more!

5. Mobilize your teenagers for consistent evangelistic action.

To mobilize means to “inspire, equip and deploy a group for action.” Have an evangelistic training program for your teenagers (Dare2Share can help with that by the way) that is consistent, practical, Biblical and relevant. And don’t just train your teenagers take them out to share their faith consistently. This can be done through direct evangelism, social justice projects (where the gospel is given of course!), mission trips and, virtually, during every youth group outing.

Making evangelism a priority in your youth group is not as difficult as you may think. But it takes intentional, prayerful action. And when you start taking this action God will take action as well and your youth group will grow deeper and go wider as a result.

Go for it!

2. Take time in your actual meeting for intercessory prayer. Cut a song or game or two and add in a time where teens can pray in triplets with and for each other. Spend time praying specifically for classmates who don’t know Jesus.

3. Do a series on intercessory prayer and use it as a launching point for prayer as a priority in your youth ministry.

4. Lead a weekend retreat centered on prayer. Teach lessons on it, talk about it and, most of all, do it! Teach them how to do prayer walks (hikes), write their prayers to God, prayers aloud all together, prayers in silence, etc.

5. Meet with your core student and adult leaders weekly 30 minutes before students start to arrive in youth group to saturate that night in prayer.

6. Read a good book on prayer. (Prayer by Phillip Yancey, The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray, The Weapon of Prayer by E.M. Bounds, etc.)

7. Have a “Prayer Party” where teens can invite their friends to be prayed with, for and over (and of course share the gospel with them too!)

8. Recruit a group of adults in your church (Sunday school class, small group, etc) to intercede on behalf of your youth group.

9. Get in touch with a Moms in Prayer group in your area and brainstorm ways of praying for the teenagers of your community.

10. Scrap the lesson this week and just pray!

Other helpful websites on prayer for youth leaders and teenagers: pray21.org, everyschool.com

“Good morning. Or evening. Or day. Or whatever it is where you are by the time you read this. My name is Katie, 17 years old….I’m actually not quite sure why I’m writing this. I’m sure that you get hundreds, thousands of emails just like this one every day. I’m not even sure that you’ll read this. But I felt like you should know how these Dare2Share conferences are changing lives, even after y’all have packed up and moved on.

But I should probably start a little bit at the beginning, so you know where I’m coming from. And it would show how cool God is. For real.

I didn’t really grow up in a Christian household. I had some things happen to me as a kid that no girl should ever have to go through, especially at the hands of an adult man. Things that affected me and shaped a lot of my personality, even after I thought that I had grown up and moved on. I didn’t come from a church-going family- we had a bad experience there and decided that we didn’t need no Jesusy religion stuff. Fast forward a few years– I’m a little bit older, about sixth grade. My family was pretty disconnected, and no one had a good relationship with anyone else. In a situation where I was told constantly how useless and worthless I was, I felt myself spinning deeper and deeper in some kind of darkness.

I got this idea in my head that I had to pay for being such a screw up. I had to pay for being ugly, for being fat, for being timid, for being different. So I began self-injuring in sixth grade- I thought that maybe in some great cosmic balance, my bloodshed would somehow make up for my badness. For my mess ups. For my unloveableness. It was like my drug- when the accusations in my head, the voices that screamed about how worthless I was and how I deserved to die got too loud, a little slice would quiet them down. For a while.

And then they’d start again, so I’d go deeper.

And deeper.

And deeper.

I began running with a crowd of older kids, and I made some really stupid decisions, tried some things that I shouldn’t have, and did some things that were really wrong.

I felt like I was spiraling out of control.

By eighth grade, I had a suicide plan. I hated being such a burden to everyone and I figured that if I died, it would be better for everyone. Also about this time, my mom became a Christian.

I don’t know what it is about parents, but they always seem to know when something’s wrong. My mom didn’t understand how bad I was, but she knew something was up. On what I had planned to be my last day of school, she announced that I was going to be homeschooled from then on, because she wanted me to learn more about her new-fangled “faith” thing.

I didn’t approve. But what could I do?

I continued the self injury on the down low, squeezing it in around my schedule. I thought that it was essential for my well-being.

After being homeschooled for a few months, my mom decided that I needed to get involved in the church she had been attending. She was still in the dark about my situation, but my behaviour, I admit, was getting more and more erratic.

So, against my will, I went. She made me go to all the things- every Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday night. Every movie outing, every go-karting race, every Bible study. And I hated it.

Then came February. (It’s 2009 at this point. Just to keep you up.) It’s time for this weekend conference, Dare2Share. And the youth group was going. So guess where I went? Mom had me signed up before the pastor had finished announcing in during the morning service.

I couldn’t really tell you the exact date (I just remember the month) I couldn’t tell you every skit or drama. I couldn’t tell you the worship band. I couldn’t tell you a lot of what happened. But I could tell you that on Friday night, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO, this frantic, twitchy little man down on the stage was talking about this God that loved me.

This God that lived and died for me….who bled for me so I didn’t have to anymore.

Everything clicked then. I can’t explain it more than that. I already understood how terrible I was- believe you me, I knew that I was in some deep sludge. But this God? Who made a way out? That was new, and that was life.

Everything changed. That was my ‘conversion’ moment, if you wanna call it.

So then I had all this energy, like a little puppy that gets so excited that it piddles itself. You know what I’m talking about? So the next day, I get your book, You’re Next. I figured this God was worth everything I had, so I might as well give it to Him….

So, now that you know where I was, now comes the good part– now, this is how good God is.

I spent the rest of ’09 really learning the basics of Christianity- what we believed, why, and Who God is. Stuff like that. Lost a few friends for getting too ‘religious’, but God gave me an awesome youth group to turn to. In Dare2Share ’10, I was challenged to DO something. So that summer, I convinced my youth pastor to take us on a mission trip. We went roofing in Evansville, IN.

It was hot.
Sweaty.
Dirty.
And pretty freakin’ awesome.

We get back, and I’m ready to go all gung-ho on missions. Think a teenaged Mother Theresa. Obviously, parents say no.

Buuut… I felt God was telling me to keep moving. So I begin praying for a way to serve Him, so that He would use me, however He wants.

I begin looking. I ask my pastor, and my youth pastor, and basically anyone who would listen. Finally I stumble onto this little mission group, iSalt. (isalt.org) They seem like a really cool group, and I pray about it. And pray. And pray.

See, this looked like a really great opportunity, except for one thing: this was a ‘leadership training and discipleship programme’. They only went on one mission trip: a three-week long excursion to this little country in eastern Europe called Bulgaria.

Yes. Bulgaria. You ever heard of it? Congrats if you had- you’d have been the first person, including myself, that really knew anything about it.

Now, please understand. I had never spent longer than a week away from my family, and even then, it was never very far. So over three weeks in a country across the ocean was pretty terrifying. To say the least.

But if God wanted me to go, then I’d go. And man, He worked everything out exactly perfectly so that I could go. Last summer, in July 2011, I spent nearly the entire month with God and His people. It was the most intense, insane, awesome experience that I have EVER had.

Did I deserve to go? No. You read a little bit of who I was. Of all people, I would be among the least qualified. On my own, I did nothing to be able to go.

But I think sometimes God likes to use the most screwed-up individuals so that everyone’d know that He really is in control. Like this huge concept of ‘Challenge Accepted.’

I come home, as on fire as any 16 year old could be. (I’m 16 by this point.) Taking what I had learned from Dare2Share conferences and from iSalt, I began living THE Cause in whatever way I could. I dedicated my entire life to God, to use however He wants.

And sir, He has moved in such a way that anyone who sees what He’s doing cannot deny Who He is.
He’s started a high school and women’s Bible study. In the middle of McDonald’s. We’ve had some great conversations as a result of our public setting.

He’s started a homeless ministry in my church.

He’s started a fundraiser for World Vision- raising over $280.

He’s started a small-mission team in my community, where we do physical stuff (cleaning parks and whatnot), prayer walks, and street witnessing.

He’s started a fire in my community, a group of people living THE Cause because it’s what Christians are called to do.

He’s done all of this. God. Jesus. Yahweh Himself is moving down here.

And the funniest thing is, He’s using me for all this. That’s the most amazing part- because NONE of it is based on me. I’m so unworthy of this, and yet…

He’s using this twitchy, insane, crazy, quirky, messed-up, 17 year old girl from backwoods Illinois. Why? Just because He can. He’s using me because He’s God and He can do whatever He jolly well pleases. So that everyone will know that He’s God, and He’s got it.

He’s calling me to full-time overseas missions, living in areas where I know that Christianity is not accepted. I know if I am called to persecution, then He’ll keep me strong. What an amazing opportunity, though- to be living so close to God that Satan gets scared and begins fighting back! Why? Because God’s that cool.

Like I said, I’m sure that this email will probably never be read by anyone, which is part of the reason why it is so long. Even if someone started reading it, they probably stopped midway through, deciding that I was too long-winded to listen to anymore. If you’re still reading this, point for you.

And like I’ve said, I’m not sure why I’m writing this.

Mostly to tell you that you’re making a difference in the world, whether you realize it or not. Your ignitions are growing into raging fires. And hell itself knows this. And Satan is scared.

With God’s power, we’re winning!
Winning more than Charlie Sheen.
Winning more than games.
Winning more than competitions.
We’re winning souls.
We’re winning the race that was set before us.
And God’s moving.

Listen to me, one last thing, and then I’m done. The reason I’m saying all of this is to make very clear this point: With God, We don’t wanna change the world.

We’re gonna change the world.

If you have made it this far, I’d love an email, but I know you’re a busy man. I am praying earnestly for you and your ministries. I can’t wait until Dare2Share next year- I’d love to chat face to face. And if that doesn’t happen, I’m convinced we’ll meet in heaven! 2 Timothy 1:3-10.”

Thanks Katie. I’m never too busy for an e-mail like your’s!

It was worth the read wasn’t it?

Guess I’m uncool.