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Do You Really Believe God Can Use Your Teens?

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If you’ve been tuned in to Dare 2 Share for any amount of time at all, you’ve likely heard me use the term “THE Cause” as our teen-friendly way of referring to The Great Commission. THE Cause Christ has called all of us to is making disciples who make disciples.

That means YOU! That means ME! And it also means our TEENS.

Can Teenagers Actually Lead the Way?

Do you sometimes wonder if your teenagers are actually likely candidates for the job of advancing the gospel and making disciples who make disciples?

Well, I’m here to answer that question with a resounding YES!! And here are 10 reasons why I passionately believe teenagers can lead the way in reaching their generation with the gospel:

  1. Hormones + Energy Drinks + Jesus = the rapid spread of the gospel!
  2. Teenagers can take the gospel further than adults (they average 425+ online and face-to-face friends each!)
  3. Youth groups tend to be underestimated and underfunded, perfect candidates to be used by God.
  4. Teens can spread the gospel faster than adults (they have already built relational bridges with the lost!)
  5. Text messaging makes teen fingers nimble for finding verses in their Bibles quickly as they evangelize.
  6. Jesus did (there is strong Scriptural evidence that most of the disciples were teenagers!)
  7. There are 67,342 mini-mission fields in America that we call middle schools and high schools.
  8. Teenagers are unrealistic idealists who want to make a difference – and can if we equip them!
  9. Teens are not the church of tomorrow but are the potential church transformers of today.
  10. God has used teens to win victories (David), save nations (Esther) and can use them to spark revivals!

Multi-Tasking, Less-Than-Focused Bundles of Energy

That said, it’s also true that teenagers are frequently multi-tasking, less-than-focused bundles of energy who could use some coaching. And that’s where you come in.

To make disciples who make disciples, your teenagers will need you to coach them on how to become more purposeful about sharing the gospel with their friends. This process starts with prayer, moves into initiating spiritual conversations with friends and progresses toward helping others explore Jesus’ message at a deeper level.

One approach to encouraging your teens toward more purposeful, relational efforts to share their faith is THE Cause Circle. The Circle is a tool designed to help your teens identify the friends they want to pray for with passion, pursue with love and persuade with truth. Here’s what it looks like.

Teens identify two or three friends they want to share the gospel with, and write their names in the “pray” section of the circle. As they find opportunities to pursue spiritual conversations with these friends, they advance their name to the “pursue” area of the circle. When they have opportunities to go deeper in their spiritual conversations with them, it’s time to move those friends forward along the circle to the “persuade” section. All with the hope and prayer that over time, they’ll be able to persuade their friends to…

  • Accept Christ
  • Belong to a Church
  • Commit to THE Cause of making disciples, too.

THE Cause Circle provides a purposeful framework for the incremental steps that are frequently involved in sharing the gospel with a friend. It can help your students prioritize relationally sharing their faith—simply by keeping it on the mental and spiritual radar.

Remember, You’re the Coach

Because your job is to coach your teens as they share the good news, I’m going to be unpacking THE Cause Circle in greater depth in the next few energize articles. Together we’ll explore the Scriptural basis for each of these three “P’s.” But in the meantime, here a couple few action steps for you:

  • Get familiar with this tool by watching THE Cause Circle video.
  • Print the Cause Circle for your own use.
  • Try it out for yourself. You can’t effectively lead someone else where you’ve never been yourself.  Take the first step of identifying two or three people you want to share the gospel with and simply start by writing their name in the “pray section.”
  • Start praying for them regularly.

And finally, spend some serious time this week thinking through the above list of 10 reasons why teens can lead the way in reaching their peers.  Think about each one. Decide whether you agree or disagree and why. Determine in your soul whether you really believe God can use your teenagers to reach their friends. Then consider what you might start to change in your youth ministry approach based on what you conclude.


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